UAE to focus on ‘high-quality education’ in next 50 years
DUBAI: Education is an essential pillar to venture into the future, achieve sustainable development, and transition to a knowledge economy, said Dr Mohamed Ebrahim Al Mualla, Undersecretary for Academic Affairs, UAE Ministry of Education.
Addressing this year’s edition of GESS Dubai 2021 on opening day, Al Mualla said, “Our presence here today constitutes an exceptional opportunity to discuss contemporary and emerging educational issues, and build on educational achievements, following a difficult period the world witnessed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cast a shadow over several sectors, including education.”
According to Al Mualla, the next fity years in the UAE’S education sector will focus on fostering a high-quality education system that ensures competitiveness at the early childhood stage; an innovative global educational system that enhances future skills; alignment of higher education outputs with the needs of the future labour market; and an advanced and flexible national qualifications system that copes with the requirements of future economic development.
“This is in addition to a sustainable service system for people of determination, starting from early detection to leading the future, and a proactive holistic system for nurturing talent that stimulates production and competitiveness, and finally, well-being and sustainable quality of life in learning environments,” he added.
Meanwhile, Birgit Lao, Ambassador-at-large for education, Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, talked about wellbeing in the time of hybrid learning in addition to how the Estonian education system survived the remote learning crises suddenly brought about by COVID-19.
During her presentation, she shared the findings of a study conducted in Estonia during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on wellbeing during distance learning. Sharing some of the survey’s highlights, she said, “More than 50 per cent of the students liked distance learning, and around 24 per cent of parents noticed study difficulties. More importantly, about 87 per cent of the students solved their individual tasks.”