Regional ‘Back-to-school’ meet favours blended learning from next year

MUSCAT: The Sultanate, represented by the Ministry of Education, took part on Wednesday in a meeting about resumption of learning at schools in Arab states.

Dr Madeeha bint Ahmed al Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education, headed the Sultanate’s side at the meeting, held via videoconferencing.

The meeting saw the participation of other education ministers from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, heads of UN agencies and regional organisations like the Arab Organisation for Education, Culture and Sciences, the Islamic World Organisation for Culture and Sciences and the Arab Education Bureau.

The meeting seeks to explore member states’ decisions, preparedness and views on challenges related to starting the new school year.

The aim is to enable all children to resume their learning march with proper standards of quality as stated in Education Agenda 2030. It also aims to determine basic areas of cooperation at the regional and national levels with a view to supporting children and compensating them for lost time.

This is in addition to contributing to decision making at a national level about the most suitable methods and practices to start the new school year 2020-2021, while at the same time protecting the safety of school- children, teachers and the community.

Dr Madeeha in her speech lauded the efforts of the Unesco and affiliate organisations in organising the ministerial meeting which coincides with exceptional conditions when the world is facing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. She underscored the need to exchange expertise and experiences between member states in areas of educational work and to integrate efforts towards the formulation visions that serve the future of education.

Dr Madeeha pointed out that, right from the outbreak of the pandemic, Oman has taken necessary measures and precautions to complete the school year 2019-2020 by finding alternatives for the assessment of student results and means of their promotion to higher classes, while at the same time endorsing an internationally approved method of Statistical Treatment of Class 12 students performance.

As for options to start the new school year 2020-2021, the minister said that the Sultanate studied a variety of alternatives to ensure the continuation of education for all students to keep in line with the 2030 Educational Agenda.