Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi during an interview with QNA.
Doha: Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi, affirmed the commitment of Qatar to support the least developed countries by strengthening comprehensive and effective national education systems, whether in distance classes or in direct educational sites, and improving curricula that respond to the dynamic nature of education and training and labour market.
She stressed the importance of strengthening local contexts, including country-specific challenges, capacity development of teachers, especially in rural areas, improvements in basic infrastructure, and provision of adequate supplies to suit the learning requirements of all children.
The Minister, in an interview with QNA, said that the issue of education is one of the main pillars of the country’s development programmes as education is the guarantee for building sustainable societies that are able to withstand challenges as it contributes to increasing the productivity of individuals and the promotion of economic growth.
She also stressed that Qatar is committed, in this context, to supporting the least developed countries in increasing school enrolment rates, reducing dropout rates, providing school feeding programmes that support healthy diets, water and sanitation facilities, vaccinations, various school health services, and improving the quality of education , especially core learning competencies.
The Minister added that Qatar is also striving to ensure access to the Internet in less developed countries, significantly increase access to electricity, provide digital literacy skills and lifelong learning systems, as well as distribute educational equipment and materials, whether in physical or digital form, with focus on the poorest and most vulnerable families.
She expressed Qatar’s belief that education plays a fundamental role in building sustainable and resilient societies, and contributes to increasing the productivity of individuals and enhancing the potential for economic growth, in addition to developing the vocational skills necessary to achieve sustainable development in various fields of life.
The Minister said that the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which Doha is hosting from March 5 to 9, will be an opportunity to highlight the importance of universal access to quality and comprehensive education at all levels, eliminating the gender gap in school enrolment and completion, and promoting quality education for all in the least developed countries.
She noted that through the conference an increase in the number of places and scholarships available globally for students and trainees from least developed countries would be pursued, particularly in the fields of science, educational technology, business administration and economics, and full utilisation of available scholarships would be encouraged, and significantly increase access to the Internet, electricity and school meals that support healthy diets.
The Minister said that Qatar has undertaken many initiatives and programmes that support education for children in conflict zones, including the initiative of the Education Above All Foundation, by making available its educational programme in emergencies, which supported more than 1.5 million children in Ukraine who were forced to become refugees, adding that the educational programme produced by the Foundation was developed in the Ukrainian and Russian languages, as part of the bank of free electronic educational resources, and was awarded the “crisis and conflict” category by the Learning Alliance.
She said that Qatar is an effective and influential factor for bringing about positive transformations and creating a world where peace, prosperity and human dignity prevail, where financing education in emergencies for Qatar is a priority in development aid, which the state is keen to provide to countries, whether due to armed conflicts or natural disasters, more than 78 countries have benefited from the initiatives of the State of Qatar, whether through the Education Above All Foundation, or with the support of the Qatar Fund for Development.
The Minister said that Qatar also submitted a draft resolution to adopt an international day to protect education from attacks, as the resolution was unanimously adopted in May 2020, and September 9 of each year is celebrated as the International Day to Protect Education.
