ABU DHABI , UAE, April 17, 2012 / PRNewswire / – The Board of Education Abu Dhabi (ADEC, Abu Dhabi Education Council ) announced that the country will host the first Summit for Educational Transformation (ERT, Transforming Education Summit ) from 7 to 9 May of 2012. Under the patronage of His Highness , General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan , the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi , Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of ADEC, the conference will attract government leaders, business, academics and civil society of high prominence in the world, offering them a platform to share lessons learned on how to offer young people more effectively, an education that remains relevant to the global society in a context of rapid change.
The summit, which will take place at the Emirates Palace, will feature a prestigious list of prominent speakers, which includes the Prime Minister of UK Gordon Brown , the former President of Finland Tarja Halonen , the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and Ministry of Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, the former Prime Minister of Ireland and Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin , Executive Director of Mubadala, Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak , and Andy Hargreaves , a leader in studies of educational change. The event will be moderated by Tim Sebastian , renowned engineer of Doha Debates and former BBC reporter, and will feature more than 30 other speakers from around the world, including ministers and former ministers, CEOs of companies, renowned academics and civil society leaders.
Delegates will cover topics such as defining the educational needs of society, the role of leaders in managing the path of transformation, efficiency and funding of education and engagement of key stakeholders (government agencies, educators, students, parents and private and philanthropic sectors).
The TES will be more focused in a special way, the question of ‘how ‘ instead of ‘what ‘ do in education reform since the research show that most of the failures of the transformation efforts is due to the challenges of the change process itself.
sessions encourage discussion and exchange of knowledge and strongly depend on the element of interaction, combining lectures and presentations highlighted panel discussions with groups of independent thinking (brainstorming sessions for ideas in which participants are divided on specific interest groups), and presentations of case studies by country, followed by sessions of questions and answers. The examples include highly developed educational systems or those who are in a stage of intense transformation.
S. Excellency., Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Director General of ADEC, stressed the importance of the event in Abu Dhabi : “The goal of TES is to address how educational change can be implemented by various sectors of society worldwide. The conference delegates are all ‘change leaders’, ie persons in a position to lead change in their respective areas, be it government or private sector. During the two and a half days the summit, these leaders will share knowledge and strategies, collaborating and offering their experiences of best practices in their own educational systems for the benefit of all. “
He continued: “In the assembly of a knowledge economy in a manner aligned with the Global Economic Abu Dhabi 2030 Abu Dhabi has a genuine interest in educational transformation. The UAE and its partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), seek to obtain a ‘demographic dividend’ to seek to ensure that educational changes are implemented correctly: as 65% of the population are under 25 years of age, ADEC has the task of maximizing the potential of young Abu Dhabi and empower them to be included the exceptional growth of their society. “
The TES
summit is being hosted by ADEC in partnership with the Education Directorate of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in addition to leading global management consulting firm Booz & Company, and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), the investment arm Mubadala’s technology.
“The OECD is committed to supporting an integrated approach to education that helps economies to improve the quality, equity, efficiency and effectiveness of their educational systems,” said Ian Whitman , Area Director for Non Members of the Board of Education of the OECD. “The Education Transformation Summit is very timely. The OECD welcomes and supports its objective to focus global attention on the visionary changes needed to promote better skills and better policies for the 21st Century and the responsibility shared by all groups concerned with success of these changes, “he continued.
“The most pressing issue facing educational leaders is the reform of educational systems that are relevant to the needs of rapidly changing economic and labor market,” said Richard Shediac , Senior Vice President of Booz & Company. “The educational leaders need to develop skills that enable them to implement the transformation, think in advance about the educational needs and promote change within their organizations and take the leading position among all stakeholders of society. Educational Transformation Summit dedicated to address these issues of transformation and Booz & Company is pleased to join forces with the Board of Education Abu Dhabi as knowledge partner of the Summit, “added .
Booz & Company has prepared an initial report on the subject of the Need for Leadership in Educational Transformation: Three Essential Skills for Lasting Change. After the summit, Booz & Company will mount a post-conference report in partnership with ADEC, containing the lessons and recommendations resulting from discussions at the summit, which may be used by participants to help promote change in their own countries.
“The Education Transformation Summit is a unique opportunity to learn from the world’s most respected leaders in education and particularly in education reform,” said Ibrahim Ajami , Executive Director of the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), ADEC’s technology partner in the dome. “In ATIC, a main focal area has to do with educating the next generation of UAE as technology experts and, therefore, we are so glad to be partners in this event ADEC.”
ATIC will provide participants with a technology platform for exchanging knowledge and establishing a network of contacts for the 21st Century, designed especially for this event. Items on the agenda, biographies and content for discussion sessions will be readily available through tablets, while the dynamic messaging systems and networking will allow participants to submit questions to the panelists and exchange messages with other leaders attending the event.
A case study to be presented in the TES will address the transformation of Abu Dhabi . In order to better support the evolving needs of economic, social and human UAE, the ADEC has undertaken a wide-ranging reform of the educational system Abu Dhabi , launching ambitious P-12 initiatives to improve school infrastructure, increase the standards of teaching and research, improve both the monitoring and evaluation by teachers of students and thus better prepare students for postsecondary education and entry into force work. The Model New School (NSM) proposed by ADEC reformed education in all 268 public schools in the Emirates, addressing the education and licensing of teachers to the curriculum, infrastructure and use of technology in education. Moreover, there is an ongoing extensive collaboration between the Higher Education sector and semi-governmental entities (such as Mubadala and ATIC) to join efforts in developing the human capital needed to meet society’s needs now and in the future.
ERT seeks to contribute to tangible results and promote a lasting impact on the national and international educational systems. In addition to collecting and disseminating the experiences shared at the summit in a report will be organized working groups to continue the analysis of lessons learned during the reform efforts worldwide.
A local forum will be organized in Abu Dhabi over at the end of this year to share the insights achieved during ERT with members of the educational system of the UAE, including school principals, teachers, parents and students.
For more information, please consult the conference website: http://www.tes-abudhabi.org .
Contact: Gregg Fray greggfray@sevenmedia.ae , +971-50 -8129566
SOURCE
Abu Dhabi Education Council
SOURCE
Abu Dhabi Education Council
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