Bahrain highlights achievements in promoting Education as ‘fundamental human rights’

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Bahrain took part in the United Nations’ celebrations of the International Day of Education yesterday by highlighting its achievements in providing quality education for all.

The world marks the occasion on 24th January of each year.

Under the leadership of His Majesty, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, the Kingdom have championed the sustainability of educational services for all its citizens as well as foreign nationals.

It values education as fundamental human rights and a pillar in nation-building, modernisation and comprehensive and sustainable development.

This Kingdom has affirmed its permanent commitment to providing basic education in a free and compulsory manner according to Article 7 of the constitution stipulating that the state sponsors science, literature and the arts, encouraging scientific research, ensuring educational and cultural services, and promoting religious and national education in the various stages of education.

It aims to increase the number of educational facilities, raise the efficiency of educational and academic personnel, develop curricula, improve the quality of education and training, encourage investment in education and ensure the quality of educational services in line with the best international practices.

The Kingdom has devoted great attention to promoting the national mission of education, by following up the implementation of the school projects promoting citizenship and human rights, since its launch in 2015, and spreading the values of citizenship, tolerance and human rights principles in schools and universities.

Thanks to the royal directives and the decisions of the Coordinating Committee headed by HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Bahrain has succeeded in overcoming the exceptional circumstances and challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

It has placed the health and safety of its students at the top of its priorities by implementing the decision to suspend studies in all educational institutions.

Higher education institutions, public and private schools and kindergartens, starting from March 17 last year, continue the educational process through digital platforms.

The Ministry of Education provides educational materials, lessons, activities, applications and seminars through reliable and secure digital platforms, and sets up 14 YouTube channels.

It broadcasts lessons on the sports channel of Bahrain TV in cooperation with the Ministry of Information.

Progress in education is also due to contributions of government and private educational and academic institutions in the field of e-learning, in the context of a national strategy for enriching digital knowledge content and a knowledge-based economy, especially after the establishment of the National Space Science Authority in February 2014, and the trend towards strengthening curricula and institutions educational science related to artificial intelligence.

Bahrain also continues its successes in integrating people with special needs in public schools, providing all educational services assigned to them to complete their academic career at a rate of 38% in the 2019/2020 academic year.

It provides 10,000 computers for needy Bahraini students as part of the Fina Khair campaign, under the generous direction of His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the representative of His Majesty the King for Humanitarian Works and Youth Affairs, confirming its commitment to providing quality education opportunities for all.

These educational achievements have been widely appreciated and praised by international organisations, which culminated in the Kingdom’s classification among the countries with high performance in achieving the goals of “Education for All” according to the annual reports of Unesco.

Bahrain was also ranked first in the Arab world in education indicators according to the Boston Consulting Group report for the years 2018 and 2019 and in secondary and higher education enrollment indicators according to the World Economic Forum’s Report on Competitiveness and the Gender Gap for 2018.