By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: The fourth World Innovation Summit for Education is likely to make several announcements about new projects, besides launch of a significant new education initiative, during the three-day event to be held next week.
“There will be more new announcements during the first and second days of the summit,” said Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani, Chairman of WISE, at a press conference held at the Hamad bin Khalifa University yesterday.
However, he did not reveal details about the new initiatives.
H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, while speaking at the United Nations at the launch of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Education First Initiative on September 26, had said she will launch a significant new education initiative that will be a practical and powerful step towards getting 61 million children into school at the 2012 WISE Summit.
This year more than 1,000 prominent education, corporate, political and social leaders from over 100 countries will gather for the Summit at the Qatar National Convention Centre.
They will explore how collaboration in many forms and at many levels can become the driving force of efforts to inspire innovation in education and to design long-term strategies for its renewal.
Besides its regular features, the WISE together with the Northwestern University-Qatar and the Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar will commence a photography exhibition tomorrow on education at the Sheraton Park, where the public will be able to communicate with the photographers. This year too Qatar Petroleum (QP) and ExxonMobil will continue as the cooperate partners of the WISE summit.
“WISE is based on a conviction that education is both a collective need and an individual right. If we are to overcome the global issues of our times we must mobilise all the talents at our disposal,” said Dr Al Thani.
“At the same time, those individuals who have not benefited from education risk becoming increasingly marginalised in our societies. I am very pleased that two of the main players in our country’s current hydrocarbons-based economy– Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, share our understanding of the urgency of this task and have reaffirmed their association with WISE as corporate partners. I am grateful to them for their continuing support,” he added.
Speaking about the cooperate responsibility in education, Bart Cahir, President and General Manager of ExxonMobil Qatar, explained that private organisations and foundations can only support the governments in implementing policies.
“We believe that companies, organisations and non-governmental organisations can help and compliment the work of governments and schools in preparing the next generation of people to work in a highly competitive work place,” Cahir said.
“When it comes to education governments should be the corner stones, they should provide the basic services and the outreach services,” he added.
The Peninsula
