50 per cent of school students in Sultanate are girls

MUSCAT: The number of students studying in Sultanate’s schools in 2019/2020 has touched 759,307, and around 50 per cent of them are girls.

This was stated by Dr Madeeha bint Ahmed al Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education, while addressing delegates from the MENA region who are discussing empowerment of women through coding capabilities. This is the first MENA Women’s Congress on this topic, which began at Kempinski Hotel, Muscat, on Tuesday.

The conference was organised with the objective of presenting an ideal platform for delegates to discuss the topic. Organised by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn), represented by the National Business Centre, in cooperation with the Us-based CTEK Foundation, the MENA Women’s Congress in Oman is a CTEK initiative aimed at supporting women in the region by shaping programmes that give women opportunities to learn coding to start their own businesses.

Dr Madeeha said that the notion of gender equality and inclusion ensures the empowerment and the right of education for all citizens including women, children and people with disabilities and special needs.

“The National Strategy for Education emphasises technology and innovation in line with Oman Vision 2040. In fact, the Ministry of Education realises the importance of responsiveness to the changes taking place in today’s world and continues to promote empowerment of both male and female students to help attain the goals the government aspires to achieve,” she added.

The Director-general of Marketing and Media at Madayn, Malak al Shaibaniyah said that the MENA Women’s Congress comes along the lines of the efforts undertaken by the National Business Centre to present an ideal platform for the development of entrepreneurship in the Sultanate.

“The topic of the congress supports women through shaping coding related programmes that shall allow them to learn coding skills and thus create their businesses,” she said.

During the congress, sessions were held which highlighted the outcomes of the coding programme.