Qatar hosted, on Tuesday, the 8th meeting of GCC Minister of Education and the 24th meeting of GCC Ministers of Higher Education and Scientific Research. Minister of Education and Higher Education HE Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi chaired the two meetings in the presence of Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi.

At the opening the two meetings, the Minister of Education and Higher Education thanked the Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and leaders of the GCC countries for their support and care for education in the GCC countries. She also thanked Oman for its fruitful presidency of the committee of the GCC Ministers of Education and the GCC General Secretariat for their tireless efforts in supporting and facilitating the committee’s work.

The minister noted that the 8th meeting of GCC Minister of Education would discuss a host of significant topics and issues, especially those related to the directives of leaders of the GCC countries, including the Riyadh Declaration of the 42nd session of the Supreme Council of the GCC countries regarding enhancing international cooperation and the Al-Ula Declaration for the 41st session on education during crises.

She stressed that all these announcements reflect the shared future vision of the leaders and their great interest in developing education in the GCC countries. She added that the meeting’s agenda includes vital topics, including cooperation in achieving the fourth goal of the sustainable development goals of quality education, enhancing cooperation with countries and international and regional organisations, and discussing the protection of moral, religious and family values in Gulf societies, in addition to topics and proposals related information security to students, artificial intelligence and on-the-job training.

She emphasised that these topics reflect ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of education and support innovation, digital integration and cybersecurity in education.

“GCC countries must constantly think about the suitability of their educational systems to the needs of today and tomorrow, focus on strengthening their educational systems to meet future challenges, develop the educational and moral values of young people, determine the skills required for the future work market, and develop effective and innovative educational policies to support achieving the goals of the 2030 sustainable development plan,” she stressed.

On his part, the GCC secretary-general thanked the Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for Qatar’s hosting of this meeting, for the constant and ongoing support for the joint Gulf action, and for the efforts to enhance the educational process and raise the efficiency of the education system in the GCC countries.

In her opening speech of the 24th meeting of the Ministers of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the GCC countries, Minister of Education and Higher Education HE Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi said the meeting will discuss major priority topics on the agenda, including projects of the strategic plan of the committee of Ministers of Higher Education and Scientific Research, recommendations of the standing committee of scientific research and innovation officials, issues of digital transformation and cybersecurity, and recommendations of the Gulf network; to ensure the quality of education, international cooperation proposals, and on-the-job training.

She stressed that these topics reflect the GCC countries’ keenness to develop the higher education and scientific research system, invest in innovation to advance the wheel of progress and development, achieve excellence for their universities at the global level, and enhance international cooperation to enrich scientific and humanitarian research and student scholarships.

QNA