Medersat which promotes quality preschool and elementary education in poor rural areas in Morocco, Senegal, Congo, Brazzaville and Mali, is one of the WISE winners this year.
DOHA: The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has announced six winners of the 2013 WISE Awards. The winning projects were chosen for their tangible, positive impact upon society and their innovative approach to solving important educational challenges.
Originating from Morocco, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia, the winning initiatives were selected by a Jury of leading education experts following a pre-selection of 14 WISE Awards finalists.
The awards have been given to Medersat in Casablanca, Morocco for promoting quality preschool and elementary education in rural areas, PEAS in London, United Kingdom, for promoting equality in African schools, ALISON, Advance Learning Information Systems Online in Ireland for providing high quality free education and work place skills online to anyone via interactive, self placed multimedia, Pathways to Education; Toronto, Canada for helping underprivileged students graduate from high school and access post secondary education, Te Kotahitanga in Hamilton, New Zealand, for improving educational opportunities for the Maoris and iThraYouth Initiative in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, for innovative and hands on education on science, technology, engineering and mathematics to young people.
Medersat received the special mention for ‘access to education.’ This emphasis reflects the support of Qatar Foundation Chairperson H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser for United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2 on achieving universal primary education.
A Jury composed of leaders from the education world, chaired by H E Dr Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani, Chairman of WISE, selected the winning projects from a short list of 14 finalists. In total, WISE received more than 500 applications for these prestigious Awards.
Dr Al Thani said: “The WISE Awards Jury has identified six diverse projects from around the world that represent inspiring models for all who seek to overcome obstacles to education. For five years the WISE Awards have been building a community of education pioneers from across the educational spectrum, including non-governmental organisations, academia and both the public and private sectors, who are having a growing and sustainable impact. The 2013 WISE Awards winners will join their peers to inspire positive change in education.”
The six 2013 WISE Awards winning projects and the other finalists will participate in the fifth annual WISE Summit, which will take place from October 29 to 31 at the Qatar National Convention Center under the theme “Reinventing Education for Life”.
Since 2009 the WISE Awards have helped to disseminate some of the most effective practices in addressing urgent global challenges in education.
The Peninsula
