Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi during an interview with Qatar News Agency.
New York: Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi stressed that Qatar is one of the leading countries in the process of digital transformation in education, hailing the ministry’s necessary measures to confront the COVID-19 pandemic in record time once it first broke out globally.
The Minister ascribed the country’s educational achievements to the importance the wise leadership attached to education, which contributed to providing an infrastructure of well-trained educational cadres, electronic platforms, communication networks, digital sources, and created students capable of dealing with modern technology.
In an exclusive interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA) in New York, she affirmed that Qatar, under the leadership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is playing a leading global role through its external development aid projects in the sectors of education, health and economic empowerment.
The Minister said that t Qatar’s unrelenting calls for the need to avert education the scourge of the ongoing conflicts around the world were widely approved by the international community, most notably the adoption of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly of the draft submitted by Qatar to adopt the International Day to protect Education from Attack in 2019, and the unanimously passed General Assembly resolution on the right to education in emergencies, a resolution submitted in 2010 by Qatar with the support of H H the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.
She noted that the recently launched e-learning strategy aims, in a related context, to equip students with top-notch digital skills, in order to prepare them for a future that depends heavily on these skills.
The Minister stressed the State’s relentless approaches to achieve optimum quality assurance indicators in all inputs and outputs of the educational process in a way that meets the needs of society through fruitful efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals, especially the fourth goal and its objectives, re-imagining the future of education, and ensuring the right to education as a public benefit for all, in a manner that meets all needs and capabilities.
Qatar joined Unesco Associated Schools Network ASPnet in 1983 with one school, namely Doha Secondary School for Boys, said the Minister elaborating that the so far number of Qatari schools that have joined the network exceeds 100 schools, comprising the three educational cycles (primary, preparatory and secondary).
She said that Qatar is playing a leading role internationally through foreign development assistance projects in the sectors of education, health and economic empowerment through partnerships with international organizations, which confirms its commitment to the international community to contribute to providing the right to education for all, and accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and beyond, especially the fourth goal on quality education.
The Minister said that over the past ten years, almost a billion dollars have been invested in development projects in the education sector, benefiting millions of children and young people in more than 60 countries. The Minister stressed Qatar is one of the leading countries in protecting education in emergency and crisis situations and that its foreign policy is keen to support and provide development and humanitarian assistance to the affected countries in various common issues, especially providing quality education to millions of children who have lost their right to education due to conflicts, wars and disasters around the world, which makes it a role model in this field.
The Minister stressed that Education Above All Foundation is one of the leading international institutions in the field of education support, adding that the foundation seeks to reach the fourth development goal through its global programs that provide quality education opportunities for millions of out-of-school children, and also calls for building a global coalition to protect the right to education.
She hailed the efforts made to enable the institution to attain its goals and commitments, highlighting the foundation’s achievement to provide primary education to nearly 14 million children around the world, as well as about 9,000 university scholarships for refugee and displaced students in a number of affected countries.
