OAAAQA inaugurates National Qualifications Framework of the Sultanate of Oman
MUSCAT: The Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance for Education (OAAAQA) inaugurated on Wednesday, May 31, at the Kempinski Hotel Muscat, the National Qualifications Framework of the Sultanate of Oman, under the patronage of Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance.
The inauguration ceremony opened with a speech delivered by Dr Jokha bint Abdullah Al Shukailiya, CEO of the Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Education, in which she welcomed the attendees saying. “Your presence with us today will allow us to introduce Oman’s structure, objectives, scope and benefits of the NQF. Through this meeting, we seek to review the most important milestones in our long journey towards developing a comprehensive national qualifications framework in the Sultanate of Oman, which included benchmarking exercises with regional and international frameworks, conducting an environmental survey of qualifications in Oman, developing a strategy for consultation and communication, and identifying entities responsible for the governance, management and implementation of the national framework. This trip also included a series of extensive international, regional and local consultations with specialists in the education and training sectors.”
She also spoke about the importance of the National Qualifications Framework and its development in implementing national priorities and strategic directions, saying: “The development of the comprehensive national qualifications framework today is of special national importance, as it comes in line with the implementation of national priorities and strategic directions included in Oman Vision 2040, especially those related to building an educational system characterised by international quality, community partnership, and the establishment of an integrated and independent system for the governance and evaluation of the educational system, following national standards, in addition to what is stipulated in the National Education Strategy. 2040 on the need to open technical and vocational education pathways for students of post-basic education.”
Jokha Al Shukailiya concluded the speech by thanking the patron of the ceremony, Nasser Al-Jashmi for patronising this ceremony, and also thanked all the supporting parties and supporters of the Authority throughout the process of preparing and developing this project. She also thanked the education and training institutions that underwent the pilot roll-outs of the NQF, the NQF team who worked wholeheartedly since the start of the project in 2015, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority,
the consultancy that was hired to provide technical advice and advice in the development of the NQF. She also thanked the Oman Energy Association (Opal) for its strategic partnership with the ceremony.
The ceremony included a series of segments that included the screening of two short films, one of which defines the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), its structure, objectives and scope, while the second film presents the important stages that the Authority has gone through in its journey towards developing the National Qualifications Framework in the Sultanate of Oman.
The ceremony also included presentations by two keynote speakers, Dr Tariq Al-Sindi, Secretary General of the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, and former CEO of the Education and Training Quality Authority in the Kingdom of Bahrain, who spoke in his presentation about regional experiences in the implementation and development of national qualifications frameworks in where Malek Sarieddine, Regional Director of Business Development in the Middle East of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) on the role of NQFs in the recognition of professional qualifications, ACCA qualification model.*