State Council committee discusses knowledge-based economy

MUSCAT: The Education and Research Committee of the State Council hosted on Thursday at its seventh meeting, Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed al Sarmi, Under-secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education. The meeting chaired by Abdullah bin Mubarak al Shanfari, Head of the Committee, was held in the presence of the Committee members.

The hosting comes as a part of the Committees endeavour to gain inputs to add value to the ongoing study on ‘the role of education in supporting the knowledge-based economy.’

The Committee discussed with the Under-secretary various aspects related to the development of the higher education system supporting the knowledge-based economy, human resources and technology used to produce knowledge, and the extent to which society is aware of Community partnership in the development and investment of education to support the knowledgebased economy.

The Education legislations and the complementarity features between the education strategy, the scientific research strategy and the national Strategy for innovation were also discussed for developing various aspects of the educational system.

The meeting also touched on the ways to strengthen the capacity of the educational cadre, to employ the skills acquired by the students to raise awareness of the importance of technology in the production of knowledge, the enhancement of technological capabilities and their employment in the production of knowledge.

The Committee also discussed the level of the partnership of higher education institutions with the private sector in knowledge creation, the generation of the necessary environment to achieve the principle of investment in education and the utilisation of the capacities of graduates and their skills to increase the level of scientific production.