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UAE looks beyond 2015 for developing education sector

Minister affirmed that the UAE is committed to provide compulsory quality basic education for all boys and girls by 2030.

Abu Dhabi - The opportunities and potential in the UAE ensures the country’s ability to make a qualitative leap in education and advance to top positions globally, Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, has affirmed.

This, he said, is in line with the UAE’s commitments to sustainability in education and the sector’s changes beyond 2015.

In a statement on the sidelines of the World Education Forum, which concluded recently in Incheon, South Korea, the minister said the UAE’s vision for education provides for sustainable development in the next 15 years and seeks to build the skills needed for the 21st century.

“Our state is confidently working to achieve the goals of education, thanks to the keen interest and support of the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan; His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai; His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces; and Their Highnesses the Supreme Council Members and Rulers of the Emirates.”

The minister affirmed that the UAE is committed to provide compulsory quality basic education for all boys and girls by 2030, and to enable all the elderly people to acquire basic reading and writing skills, while continuing to provide the best education for the youth based on equal opportunity and gender equality.

The four-day World Education Forum brought together the global education community including government representatives from more than 100 countries, non-governmental organisations and youth groups.

A transformative vision for education over the next 15 years adopted at the forum encourages countries to provide inclusive, equitable and quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all. The Incheon Declaration will underpin the education targets in the Sustainable Development Goals that will be ratified at the United Nations in September.

The Incheon Declaration builds on the global Education for All (EFA) movement that was initiated in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990 and reiterated in Dakar, Senegal in 2000. EFA — and the Millennium Development Goal on Education — resulted in significant progress, but many of its targets, including universal access to primary education, remain unfulfilled. 

According to the United Nations, currently 58 million children, mostly girls, remain out of school across the world. In addition, 250 million children are not learning basic skills, even though half of them have spent at least four years in school.