HM King Hamad’s Schools of the Future Project achieve full objectives

Manama: Twelve schools will be added to HM King Hamad’s Schools of the Future project in the next academic year at the direction of the Minister of Education, stated project director Ahmed Hassan yesterday.

The first pilot phase had been launched successfully in five public schools, in line with the Royal Directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

“This makes a total of 17 schools as participants in the project, constituting approximately 30 per cent of junior high schools,” Hassan said.

He also confirmed that the project has achieved its full objectives, by delivering quantitative and qualitative accomplishments, which has been clearly indicated by the switch to e-learning

Hassan also confirmed that the implementation of the project in the past has contributed in enabling teachers, students and school authorities in acquiring necessary skills to master the 
technology.

Digital empowerment in education is the way to build national competency and to create generations capable of dealing with digital
content, he added. 

The project is in line with the announcement made by world’s education leaders in South Korea in May 2015, stressing on the need to provide quality education for all, improving its inputs, processes and results and enabling teachers to do their work, shouldering their responsibilities and selecting appropriate teaching methods and diverse strategies.

Learning is no longer limited to the school’s time and place and the teacher is now a mentor that helps develop students’ motivation to learn and their skills in communicating, he said.

Hassan added that there had been a shift in the student-teacher interaction, where there is less teaching and more learning. In this way, the usage of technological tools in the classroom has improved the quality of education.

There is a growing desire for learning among students, as digital empowerment provides opportunities to respond to the diverse needs of the students with different methods of learning that take into account their interests and abilities, the project director said.

“The 21st century’s skills - the so-called four skills standards (4Cs) - are creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking, which leads to the development of learning skills for life and learning how to learn through technology,” he added.