H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, attended today a discussion panel, held as part of the 2022 Qudwa-PISA Global Competence, taking place at Expo 2020 Dubai in the presence of ministers, educationalists and decision makers from around the world.

The panel saw a group of international policy experts, and decision makers tackling best practices and ideas for advancing education and preparing the students to overcome the present and future challenges.

Sheikh Abdullah thanked the organisers of Qudwa-Pisa Forum which serves as global platform for enriching education agenda and to unlock the abilities and develop the teaching skills.

He said the event drew an impressive array of experts and professionals to share insights and exchange new ideas for an innovative education system, capable of preparing future generation.

Mohamed Al Nuaimi, Director of Education Affairs Office at the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi, said, "We live in an increasingly connected world and we face challenges that impact each one of us, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the consequences of the climate change."

In order to overcome such challenges, he continues, a global competence education that blends international tools with local contexts.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Abdullatif Al Shamsi, President and CEO, Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), said in order to attract new generations to campus, we must bring the excitement of learning into that kind of environment.

"That's why we are introducing the concept of the 'Hyper-Hybrid Campus of Tomorrow' which evolves around preparing students to live in a hyper connected world."

He noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic "has accelerated many of the thoughts that we have been advocating for the past 20 or 30 years. We are all aware that today education is not only based on knowledge and theory, but is also based on applied skills that need to be integrated in all different levels of education system."

Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland and Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, said, "What we really need to see is a seminal debate on how things are being done to assist on things that we are going to do diffently in the future. We are going to be challenged to examine again by the inputs and the outcomes that we prioritise in our respective education systems. It's challenge offered to all of us who are involved in the formation and education of young people and preparing each of them to become responsible, autonomous, national and international citizens."

Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, said the UAE has been a true leader in the field of global competence. While many countries talk about how we embed those ideas in our curriculum, the UAE is already doing it and is starting to show results of this. At this moment our eyes are so much focussed on the pandemic and there is a risk that this pandemic will blind us to look beyond this time. One thing we learned from this pandemic is that the future is always going to surprise us.

Climate change, he went on, is going to disrupt our life more than this pandemic and the arrival of Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally challenging.

Another panel was also held under the theme "How can we introduce global competence into education", which saw a number of prominent speakers, including Dr. Rabaa Al Sumaiti, Director-General of Emirates Schools Establishment, Professor Anne Looney, Executive Dean, Institute of Education Dublin City University and President of the International Professional Development Association, Vero´nica Boix-Mansilla, Principal Investigator at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Fernando Reimers, Professor of the Practice in International Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative and of The International Education Policy Program at Harvard University.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation