Kuwaiti educational meet calls for utilizing technology in overall dev
‘Improving quality of education important’
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 11, (KUNA): Participants in the Education Technology Conference “vision for the future” called on Sunday for seeking Kuwait’s development through strategic means and firm plans devised by top experts and educators.
In the conference’s first session, chaired by former minister of education and higher education Dr Rashid Al-Hamad, participants called for educational strategies geared towards a generation of knowledge and technology seekers.
Dr Al-Hamad said that the current conference was of utmost importance due to it being a venture that would further establish a solid ground for educational technology.
He lauded the efforts put on by the conference’s organizing committee and hoped that the event would come out with a plan contributing to the development of education in Kuwait.
On her part, representative of General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) Amal Al-Mutairi stressed that developing education was part of Kuwait’s Vision 2035.
Spending
There is a plan to increase government spending on education to reach 15 percent this year, revealed Al-Mutairi, affirming that improving the quality of education was important.
She added that the clause concerning the reformation of education through technology in Kuwait’s development vision was an essential part of the plan.
Reflecting the UN’s perspective on the development of education globally, the UN Resident Coordinator Dr Tareq Al-Sheikh said that the fourth item in the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) focused on the development of the quality of education.
The UN, said Dr El-Sheikh, is working with governments, civil society institutes, and the private sector to realize the UNSDGs.
According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development. This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, to eliminate gender and wealth disparities, and achieve universal access to a quality higher education.
Meanwhile, Head of the Higher Committee of the Conference, Regional Center for Development of Educational Software, Dr Nader Marafi indicated that Kuwaiti society was eager to seek means to transform the country into an international trade hub based on knowledge economy, a concept, which promotes the use of technology in all aspects of life.
This vision for a knowledge economy will not come into fruition unless there was a strong education system, affirmed Dr Marafi who called for coming up with an educational plan catering for the needs of society and global ambition.
Experts and specialists must meet and create plans and strategies to enable future generation to use technology in an adequate and responsible manner to achieve true development, he stated.
Delivering a similar outlook, Qussai Al-Shatti – an education technology advisor – said that technology must be injected into the national educational system to enable it rapid development.
Despite the huge challenges ahead, the over 600 schools in Kuwait and thousands of educators and students must work together to bring upon a renaissance in education, affirmed Al-Shatti.