Stress on instilling Omani identity in youngsters
A large number of researchers and scholars attended the Omani National Identity Forum, organised by the Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science.
Dr Abdullah al Kindi, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University, while speaking on educational institutions and their role in promoting national values, focused on the need to know that the educational process is not limited to the book or the curriculum.
“It is beyond that,” he said, adding, “the curriculum is only one element of instilling the identity of the student. It is also about the application of identity and commitment by the teacher or lecturer, and the need to reveal and stress on identity during his teaching.”
The Forum aims to strengthen the pillars of national identity in order to preserve it and protect the intellectual and historical heritage.
Dr Saleh al Mamari, Former Consultant at Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science at the Diwan of Royal Court, spoke on the importance of instilling the concept of national identity through family first. “The cultivation of national identity should not be limited to educational institutions, but the basis should be the family. It plays the greatest performance in the early life of the child, and it must put the first seed of identity among the young. When the child goes to his first educational stage, teachers find the foundation is laid and they work on completing the mission,” he said.
How does the family contribute to instilling the national identity of the child, especially with the emergence of external variables and the emergence of the Internet?
Mahmoud al Riyami, Assistant Teacher, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, had an answer to this. “Any family cannot cut off their child from the outside world, but the family must find another alternative.” He stressed on the need of instilling the Omani identity by parents through exchange of talks at home on the values, traditions and principles.
Dr Khamis al Fahdi, Director of Publications Department at the Royal Ceremonies, talked about the relationship between national identity and social media and its role in promoting the values of national identity, stressing in his speech on the distinctiveness of the Omani national identity, which has become a mediator and widespread among peoples. This is clear through the Sultanate’s interest in heritage and the moral aspect that forms part of the national identity.
Dr Al Riyami talked about the characteristics that should be available in the messengers of identity through social networking sites. The most important of which is social awareness of identity, followed by representation and then publication, he said.
Regarding the characteristics of the Omani identity, Al Riyami said, “The Omani identity was formed hundreds of years ago, and civilisational evidence are signs of the Omani national identity.”
It is not limited to physical forms but extends to moral forms in cultural and scientific aspects, he said adding, “the need for society is deeper and greater than the need for the individual to deepen the identity, and the society absorbs its strength in values.”