By Mohamed Osman
DOHA: The first GCC forum on standardisation in education kicked off here yesterday with the participation of a large number of experts and officials from the GCC states and representatives of specialist international organizations.
“It is a unique initiative and first of its kind in the region. It shows willingness and determination to promote standardisation and quality as strategic requirements for achieving all-round development in all service institutions including education,” said H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi, Minister of Education and Higher Education and Secretary General of Supreme Education Council (SEC)
Addressing the two-day event held in Katara, he stressed that standardisation in education has become an urgent need and essential for realising prosperity and social advancement.
There is the need for concerted effort on the part of educational institutions to enhance and disseminate the concept of standardisation, he added.
The forum represents a good opportunity for exchanging experiences, practices, and for networking to enhance communication between all concerned bodies including national entities for standardisations, universities, research centres, ministries concerned and all stakeholders, he said.
Al Hammadi pointed out that the forum aimed to explore scientific practices to disseminate the concept of standardisation in education, strengthening cooperation and to offer suggestions and recommendations, in addition to applicable initiatives to include the concept of standardisation in certain topics of curricular in different levels of education.
Dr Nabil bin Amin Mulla, Secretary General of GCC Standardisation Organisation (GOS), said as the broad concept of standardisation has become mainstay in many production aspects to ensure development and quality what makes raising awareness about standardisation is a pressing need for producers and consumers in all aspects.
“Standardisation is essential for achieving scientific advancement and the GCC states have laid the foundation for introducing the concept through educational institutions in order to produce, over the long-run, generations who are aware of standardisation and its importance for all sectors.
There is an urgent need to link standardisation with education to achieve global performance, competitively and ensure comprehensive quality, said Dr Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, Assistant Undersecretary for Laboratories and Standardisation at the Ministry of Environment.
Al Kuwari emphasised that education has a key role in spreading the culture of quality and standardization and this needs designing curriculum contents to address the issue.
Talking to The Peninsula Al Kuwari said the idea of standardisation originated in the developed countries. When these countries found that students who joined the labour market after graduation had no idea about the concept of quality and standardisation and they needed training to meet job requirements. This made some of them not to find suitable work opportunities.
All aspects need specifications and standardisation systems in today’s world and that is why it has been introduced in the education sector starting from grade one to university level in the advanced countries, said Al Kuwari.
It is important for the labour market, and the GCC states have begun adopting this idea and this first forum comes in this context to address this issue in the region.
Qatar pays significant attention to this initiative and this is clear from the presence of senior education officials including the minister of education. The outcome of this forum will be taken to the GCC states to introduce standardisation to the education system.
He added that the plan is to introduce the subject beginning from high school to the university level. In the developed countries they introduced the concept of standardization from early stages of education but for us it is difficult to do that because our education system is not ready yet to accommodate this concept now.
Al Kawari told this daily that to do so “we need to prepare education staffers, the entire society as the concept is new for education here”. “There is a book of 80 pages prepared by ISO in this regard and we are going to translate it into Arabic and distribute it to all concerned bodies including education sector” he added.
The Peninsula
