Qatar to launch redesigned e-learning strategy in January

Qatar will launch a redesigned e-learning strategy in January, disclosed HE Buthaina bint Ali al-Jabar al-Nuaimi, Minister of Education and Higher Education.

“In Qatar an e-learning system was introduced in the public schools in 2012. But it had not been fully integrated in the teaching and learning until the pandemic. When it was fully integrated we have realised the weaknesses and strengths the system has. This has led us to redesign our e-learning strategy which will be launched next January,” said, al-Nuaimi.The minster was speaking at the closing plenary session of WISE Summit 2021 along with fellow panelist, Anthony Seldon, former vice-chancellor, Buckingham University, UK and the session was moderated by Dareen Abughaida, principal presenter, Al Jazeera, English.Al-Nuaimi said that in the past decade, there has been a lot of changes in the way people work because of the technological advancements. “The pandemic has accelerated the transition to that. Technology has become and will continue to be an integral part of education. It is our responsibility to prepare the children for the future and for that to prepare our teachers. Our e-learning strategy has been designed in taking into consideration all the lessons learned from the pandemic and also through a consultation process with all the educational stakeholders,” said, the minister.She noted that the redesigned strategy has four major pillars. “The first one is governance, and how to enable an environment to promote innovation and empower schools while the second pillar is digital schools and professional development not only for students but also for teachers, administrators and other staff. The next part is the digital content and it has to be flexible and personalised. The last aspect is the infrastructure to ensure access to all,” she explained. According to her, the strategy focuses on the holistic development of the children and to prioritise their mental health. “Research, years ago has shown the correlation between mindset and academic achievement and it has been very clearly seen during the pandemic. We have seen rising levels of depression anxiety and mental health issues. It is very important to address these to enable the students to learn. We bring the emphasis on social and emotional learning in the schools. It is the teachers’ responsibilities to implement the programmes, having a frame work that places equal emphasis on the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing as well as the cognitive ability of the students,” she remarked.The minister also noted that the focus should be on the students, teachers and the curriculum. “For the teachers, we need to rethink and redesign the teacher training and even the initial teacher development. We always speak how to prepare teachers use technology. It is also important that we use technology in teacher training. It is important that the curriculum become interactive, flexible and personalised for the students with personalised pathways for the students. For this, there is a very important element which is school culture. Having the right culture help people flourish and recognise the diverse abilities of the child.This promotes an environment of trust, empowerment that would help students to learn,” she concluded.Seldon said that schools should be places where we should not be afraid of the word love. “School are often places of fear, fear of failure, fear of mistakes, fear of authorities and so on. We need to put trust in the system and we need to remind us that education means to lead out,” he said.“We need excellent leadership to promote active learning, companionship and how to become a better human being,” he concluded.