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Technology, teacher-training keys to better education

International delegates and diplomats from the Middle East and Africa outlined using technology for mass education in rural areas and better teacher-training as one the key messages at the first ever Global Education and Skills Summit in Dubai.

Time editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria delivered Saturday’s keynote speech on the best solutions for students preparing to work in an increasingly globalised world.

“The current education system is not working in countries with large, poor populations. We need to do something different in terms of what we are doing right now. We should be open to all possibilities including partnerships and potential presented by technology,” he said.

“Transforming education to become innovative and forward-thinking like other aspects of society will give us a tremendous advantage.”

Globally, more than two million additional teaching staff will be needed by 2015 to meet education needs, according to Unesco statistics. The figure puts policy-makers under immense pressure to address the needs of increasing capacity at schools, with increased reliane on technology to reach rural schools.

Fareed said the advent of new online resources was starting to change the teacher-centric classroom.

“We are starting to find new technologies that are achieving scale and customisation, where we are able to teach hundreds of thousands of students with a good attention span (from an online resource),” said Fareed. Online course providers had brought reliable courses free of cost to students across the world, from Maths to philosophy and life-sciences.

Educationalists also discussed the shift from traditional teaching methods to student-centred learning, needed to develop skills.

The sessions at the conference, running from March 15 to 17 and hosted by GEMS Education, were opened by Shaikh Majid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority.

muaz@khaleejtimes.com