Stressing
on a comprehensive and sustainable strategy for education and scientific research
in the State
His Excellency
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and
Scientific Research confirmed, on the occasion of World Science Day for Peace
and Development, which is celebrated on, November 10th of each year,
that the leadership and institutions of State are moving forward with the
development and formulation of a comprehensive and sustainable strategy for the
education and higher education and scientific research sectors, which fits the
requirements of the next developmental stages, achieves UAE Vision 2021, and
achieves the aspirations of the Emiratis for future generations. His Excellency
believes that this strategy is capable of supplying all sectors of the State to
ensure the common interest of the overall economy, investment, employment,
social protection, and environmental policies and objectives, and improve their
integration, and that such a strategy will also work to find significant
improvements in the quality of jobs and income, and it pushes forward equity
and social inclusion on a large scale in order to achieve Emiratization, which
is one of the most important goals of the Union.
His Excellency
congratulated all students, faculty members, researchers, and institutions
supporting scientific research in the State today, stressing that the scientific
research way is the only option for the UAE to stay at the forefront.
On the occasion of this
international day, Director-General of UNESCO made it clear that the unlimited
energy and innovative abilities of young men and women must be taken care of more
than ever, in order to cope with the complex new challenges in an era of
limited resources, in order to lay the foundation for building a more
sustainable future for all. So this year’s theme is "Quality Science
Education: ensuring a sustainable future for all".
She said in her
speech on this occasion that “there is a need for concerted action to halt the
decline of enrollment of young people in science, starting at an early stage,
and it is not enough to put science in the school curriculum, we must build a
supportive environment by crafting educational policies that give equal access
to girls and boys, and by investing in laboratories and resources where they
can take the lead. We must recognize the importance of traditional and
indigenous knowledge, while also harnessing new information and communication
technologies for innovation and creativity. All of this is essential to foster
more equitable and inclusive growth and to improve employability and
entrepreneurial opportunities, while strengthening social resilience and health”.
“To these ends,
UNESCO is working to integrate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
(STEM) into national development and education policies in some countries, and
recently, the Global STEM Alliance was launched with the New York Academy of
Sciences to connect the dots between the government, the United Nations, the
private Sector, and academia on an issue at heart of all efforts to build a
sustainable future. UNESCO World Library of Science was launched in cooperation
with Roche and Nature Education, which is a free online resource for science
learning that contains hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, using texts,
illustrations, and videos to make scientific concepts easy to understand”.
UNESCO's action
focuses on women, as it was able through L’Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Program
to inspire and support them into scientific careers, which was supported by the
UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in its Arabic version
for two consecutive years.
In a report issued
in October 2014 by the World Economic Forum on bridging the gap between men and
women based on a study of 133 countries, the UAE ranked first at the level of
the Middle East and North Africa countries, by achieving a distinct gender
equality in the quality of education and other standards that the global study relied
upon, which included economic and political participation, and equality in the
field of health care for women in these countries.
The report of the
General Assembly of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations,
under the title “Harnessing Science and Technology for Development”, issued in
March 2014 in order to assess the progress in the implementation of and
follow-up on the World Summit’s results of the Information Society at the
regional and international levels, said that ESCWA confirmed that the Arab
region has made great strides towards achieving the goals of the World Summit for
the Information Society.
10/11/2014