HE Hussain Bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi,
Minister of Education, has affirmed that the youth are an influential force in
the educational process and the ministry is seeking to benefit from their
experiences and ideas to provide together ideal and interactive learning
environments inspired by the world’s best practices associated with education.
The ministry is keen on supporting the youth and engaging them in the process
of optimising education by adopting their ideas and suggestions that ultimately
contribute to serving the UAE education system.
This was announced during Al
Hammadi’s participation in the second seminar of an initiative titled ‘Youth
Circles’ organized by the Ministry of Education at the UAE University in Al
Ain. The seminar was attended by HE Saeed Ahmed Ghobash, Chancellor of the UAE
University, HE Dr. Mohammed Al Mualla, Undersecretary for Academic Affairs of
Higher Education at Ministry of Education, HE Dr. Hamad Al Yahyai, Assistant
Undersecretary of Curriculum and Assessment Sector, and HE Lubna Al Shamsi,
Deputy CEO of School Operations. It was also attended by a number of ministry
leaders and a large number of students of national universities.
The seminar dealt with three themes,
these being the advantages of the Emirati School and its capability to qualify
students for the university life, the challenges faced by students during their
transition to the university and students' ideas and visions for developing
public and higher education.
Al Hammadi pointed out that the
‘Youth Circles’ initiative comes as part of the Ministry of Education's
keenness on extending constructive communication with students and listening
and adopting their views when drafting educational policies for developing the
education system, noting that such meetings would show the status of students
and the level of their attainment during the academic year based on their
importance in creating motivation for students to move forward in their
academic attainment most confidently, efficiently and creatively.
“There is a transitional stage
between the public and higher education that our students are experiencing.
Through these meetings, we seek to secure a positive university life that can
bolster the students' skills”, Al Hammadi said. “We are proud of our students
and their capabilities, and in every meeting with them, our hope is renewed and
we become more confident in them and their aptitudes for our sustainable
excellence, uniqueness and development regionally and globally”, he added.
For their part, the students participating
in the seminar unanimously agreed that the Emirati School succeeded in
providing students with advanced skills in English language and programming and
enriching their knowledge through launching a series of pioneering programs and
initiatives such as ‘Our Ambassadors’ initiative.
The participants pointed out that a
number of challenges must be stopped by and addressed during the public
education stage. These challenges include integrating people of determination
in the society and taking their needs into consideration, while stressing the
need to link academic courses with tangible living practices that enable
students to recognize the importance of these sciences, which should not be
provided to students merely through traditional methods.
During their discourse, the students
underscored the need to pay attention to the Arabic language and to take into
account the duration of the semester and the knowledge and skills provided in
it. They also underlined the need to train students in how to deal with their
peers of people of determination and the necessity to check teachers’
capabilities and tools during classes.