By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: The seventh World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) will be inaugurated today by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson, Qatar Foundation. US First Lady Michelle Obama will also attend the summit.
Sheikha Moza will also announce the 2015 WISE Prize for Education Laureate at the event.
In its fifth year, the prize will be presented to an individual or a team to recognise an outstanding contribution to education. The two-day summit is being held under the theme ‘Investing for Impact: Quality Education for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth.’
WISE brings together more than 1,500 innovators, including educational thinkers and practitioners, government representatives, NGOs, business leaders, and social entrepreneurs.
Pre-summit events began yesterday, with the Learning Lab — a new feature of the meet. It’s being held in partnership with the Supreme Education Council, and Qatar-based schoolchildren aged 12-14 years, along with their teachers are participating in Learning Lab, dedicated to innovative and interactive pedagogies.
Ali Al Mahmoud, Head of Operations, WISH, said that 18 Independent and private schools will benefit from the Learning Lab within three days.
He also explained the two other new features of the summit — WISE Research Reports and the Qatar Zone.
“We are more involved in doing research with international and local institutions. Eight papers have been prepared by different organisations,” Al Mahmoud said.
“Currently, research is published in English and Arabic, but in the future it will also be available in Chinese, because it is spoken by 1.2 billion people as a first language,” he added.
WISE yesterday released the results of its 2015 survey: Connecting Education to the Real World, targeting its global community.
Measuring the effectiveness of education systems around the world, the respondents identify major gaps in how education systems are preparing students for work, and call for closer collaboration with employers and more emphasis on the quality of teachers.
A survey, based on responses from 1,550 members of the WISE global community from 149 countries including Qatar, indicate that members are largely critical of the function that education systems are playing, including the key task of preparing students for the workforce.
Three-quarters of the diverse WISE community surveyed is dissatisfied with the overall education systems in their countries. Only 34 percent of respondents believe their country’s education system has improved in the past decade; 29 per cent say it has worsened.
Further, WISE 2015 will be the first global conference following the United Nations General Assembly and the ratification of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Education Above All (EAA) will host the second day plenary session on the impact of violence and conflict on education and effective responses.
“There are around 40 armed conflicts in the world, what kind of future are we going to build,” said Mark Richmond, Director of Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflicts, a programme under EAA, speaking at a press conference yesterday. He added, not just conflicts but all other forms of obstruction against education have to end.
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