Young people who would benefit from learning technical skills choose degree courses instead because employers pay higher salaries to university graduates.

As a result, not only are many university degrees devalued, but there is a shortage of qualified staff in key sectors of the economy, a panel discussion in Dubai was told.

Dr Naji Al Mahdi, head of the National Institute for Vocational Education, called for a national strategy to address the issue. Vocational training is a fundamental part of the education system in many countries, he said. “You will find funding is there and the mechanisms are in place.” In the UAE, however, “rather than it being part of the overall strategy, it is the exception, not the norm”.

“Everybody wants a degree because they want the rewards,” he said. “That can’t be solved by the education system alone. People in charge of labour laws, the chambers of commerce and those in the workplace must be involved.”

Dr Al Mahdi said the view of vocational training as something left over from the traditional education system had given it an unfortunate image.

Dr Warren Fox, head of higher education at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, which licenses and regulates Dubai’s universities and colleges, said vocationally trained workers were vital.

“In the UAE we need to address this gap between high school and university degrees,” he said. “A technically skilled workforce is needed for the diversified economy of the future and this is true for trade, tourism, logisitics and retail, keys to the UAE economy.”

Dr Abdulatif al Shamsi, director general of the Institute of Applied Technology, a high school that focuses on preparing pupils for careers in sectors such as microchip manufacturing, said: “For the first 30 years of the UAE, the attention wasn’t given to vocational education.” Now, he said, many ideas were being discussed, including the National Qualifications Framework, which will give formal recognition to all types of vocational and on-the-job training.

The framework may not be ready for several years, but Dr Al Mahdi expects it eventually to be the “cornerstone of vocational education”.

Not only will it formalise often informal training, knowledge and skills, but it will act as a measure of quality assurance for employers, in the UAE and internationally.

It will also give those with vocational skills and knowledge a tangible qualification that they can use for entry into further studies.

In September, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) – founded nearly 25 years ago to give Emiratis vocational training – stopped offering diplomas. All its students now take bachelor’s courses instead.

That requires at least 80 per cent of HCT’s intake to take remedial courses – in subjects such as English, IT and maths – before they can start their degree proper.

“As you push up the numbers, the quality goes down,” said Dr Al Mahdi. “Either you have huge attrition or you bring the level down to meet the people.”

And because students can study free at the federal institutions – including HCT – there is no incentive for them to consider more appropriate courses elsewhere.

Dr Howard Reed was also on the panel today. He has been director of Dubai Women’s College, part of HCT, for 21 years and three weeks ago was also made director of Dubai Men’s College.

That means he now oversees a quarter of HCT’s students – 4,000 between the two campuses – and his task is to bring the men’s college up to the standard of women’s counterpart.

He emphasised the importance of having a variety of universities and colleges. “Thank goodness there are a variety of institutions that will fill these needs,” he said.

© The National

Telecoms Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui said Lebanon would soon launch an international tender for procuring the devices, which will be made available to high school students between the ages of 6 and 18 at rebate prices.

He expected the tender to be awarded to a tablet PC maker by mid-June.“The Central Bank said it will offer interest free loans to help reduce the costs for the devices, allowing students to pay in installments over two years. There will be no guarantees required for the loan,” Sehnaoui added.
According to the minister, the devices would be put for sale to school students by September.

The devices would feature both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, allowing Internet access even for schools in in remote areas, where a wireless connection would not be readily available.
He said the country’s telecom operators Alfa and MTC touch would heavily subsidize 3G subscription rates for the users of the 15,000 tablets.

The minister added that the project is expected to be highly beneficial for the Lebanese economy.

“Increasing mobile broadband penetration rates by 10 percent would boost economic growth by 1 percent,” he highlighted.

Sehnaoui said his ministry would work on various similar initiatives that he said would allow Lebanon to develop a new economic model.

“We aspire for to change Lebanon’s economic model and boost the digital economy. This would be a main pillar in boosting job creation, the prospects of technology service exports, and e-commerce,” he added.

Education Minister Hassan Diab said developing the usage of information and technology tools is essential to his ministry’s plan to advance education.

Diab said studies conducted internationally link introducing modern technologies to realizing significant improvements in students’ academic performance, adding that his ministry is finalizing tailor-made educational content for the tablets

The tender, the minister said, would stipulate offering the Education Ministry an additional 1,500 tablets free of charge.

The pilot project would involve providing free tablets devices to 10th and 11th grade classes in 15 public high schools across the country. The tablets would include the educational curriculum of the two classes.

Diab said the ministry would work toward providing every public high school student with a tablet PC by 2014.

© The Daily Star

Besides foreign scholarships, the king gave equal attention to educating Saudis domestically. Last week, he approved a huge budget of SR81 billion for the development of higher education in the country an amount that is allocated to boost research and the education of at least 898,251 male and female students.

On the occasion of the seventh anniversary of King Abdullah’s accession to throne, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Dawoud, Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University’s undersecretary for studies and development, said the king’s support is evidence of his concern for this vital sector.

“The noticeable improvement in higher education reflects the government’s concern for Saudi Arabia’s youths who are required to be on a par with our aspirations.”

He said he hoped that would create diversity in graduates’ specialties and fulfill the requirements of the labor market by those qualified, and subsequently continue national development and achieve the country’s programs. Minister of Higher Education Dr. Khaled Al-Anqari said in a book on higher education in Saudi Arabia that the state has allocated more than SR7 billion for a five-year plan to send Saudi students on scholarships to prominent universities in several countries.

The ministry and universities worked on improving the quality of education inside universities through a number of projects, he said.

The main projects to improve quality of education include an initiative for faculty members, one that supports the establishment and development of centers for scientific research in universities, and one that supports scientific organizations, he added.

Muhammad Al-Masoudi, cultural supervisor at the Saudi Embassy in Malaysia, believes King Abdullah’s scholarship program achieves two main goals, including development of Saudi human resources and fostering a Saudi cultural image reflected by Saudis in hosting countries.

“More than 250 Saudi students clubs in universities all over the world celebrate the National Day and display Saudi costumes and traditions from different regions,” he said.

Rawan Radwan, who graduated from a master’s degree program in Hungary more than a month ago, said she considered herself very lucky to be admitted in the scholarship program.

“However, things outside the Kingdom are not as easy as they are in the country. The large experience Saudi students abroad acquire will in many ways contribute to the country’s development when they return.”

“We learned to realize our dreams and depend on ourselves, and we will use that in serving our home country.”

Abdulaziz Al-Ghamdi, an electronic engineering student at Malaysia’s Multimedia University, said the scholarship program would contribute to development in the Kingdom in several ways, including the growth of the Saudi economy.

Al-Ghamdi, who speaks Malay, said that in addition to the fact learning the local language gives students the ability to understand, appreciate a foreign culture and live in a multicultural and religious environment, they also lead to increased job opportunities.

© Arab News 2012

Gulf News reported on Tuesday that six-year-old Ahmad came home crying last Thursday and his parents found bruises and scars on his back.

Dubai Police as well as the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) are investigating the case, and a medical report from Rashid Hospital’s emergency department confirmed that the bruises were caused by flogging.

A senior KHDA official told Gulf News that it is conducting a thorough investigation and has been sending its team to the school for the last two days.

Investigations

“The compliance team at KHDA has investigated the case of the boy at the National Charity School and heard all the parties involved. However as the father of the boy has already filed a case with Dubai Police, the teacher was suspended till all the investigations are over,” Mohammad Darwish, Chief of Regulations and Compliance Commission of KHDA, said.

Meanwhile, the boy has returned to school.

“My son was scared of the teacher, because he was being abused for a long time and that is the reason he wasn’t too keen on going to school before. Now, I see him changed, he is happier and goes to school without any qualms. The reason is that the teacher is not there anymore,” said Zakir Syed Ameen, the boy’s father.

© Gulf News

“According to her doctors, Loujain is now an outpatient, so all future treatments have to be covered by my parents,” Mahran Hussain, 22, her older brother, told Gulf News.

“But we are grateful for SKMC’s treatment of her, including covering her medical bills before being discharged,” he added. The 11 year old Iranian was discharged from the hospital last Thursday.

Loujain was admitted to the hospital nearly a month ago suffering from severe injuries.

She, along with several friends, were allegedly attacked by a group of Grade 4 pupils during recess at the Al Ma’ali International Private School after a minor altercation turned violent.

Still in class

According to sources in the school, the four boys are still attending classes and have been seen in the playground.

Soon after being admitted, Doctors performed emergency neurosurgery and placed her under a medically-induced coma until they deemed that Loujain was fit enough to have her anaesthesia dosage reduced.

“We are very relieved to have her back home, but are worried because she has some persisting injuries, such as the inability to see properly from her left eye,” said Maha Abdul Kader, Loujain’s mother.

“Hopefully, we will be able to get more information from her doctors about this condition and how we can treat it when she goes for a check up in the coming days…we are also in the process of seeking out other medical opinions regarding her condition,” she added.

Her father Hussain Abdullah revealed that their concerns are stemming from the fact that Loujain’s insurance has expired.

© Gulf News

Emirati Fatma Al Jassmi, 17, suffers from cerebral palsy and moves around in a wheelchair. In view of her physical condition, she claimed she was promised a shadow writer, but on the day of her exam, the school reneged on its promise.

“At one point, my hand hurt so badly I began to cry. I begged for a shadow writer but my pleas remained unheard,” said Fatma.

Left with no choice, the seventh grader braved the test herself.

The consequences were disastrous. Fatma came home writhing in pain. She was taken to a health centre where she was diagnosed with a sprain in her shoulder joint. A specialist neurosurgeon at another clinic later said it was a case of “shoulder rotator cuff tendonitis”. Five months on, she has yet to recover. She now studies from home and undergoes physio-therapy daily.

Doctor’s comment

The health centre that treated her soon after the January incident wrote in the medical report: “The pain started after participating in a written examination which lasted for four hours. When I saw her in my clinic, she complained of severe pain and difficulty in moving the hand above arm level.”

Fatma was a student of the Al Salam School for Secondary and Elementary Education located in Al Barsha. She said she agreed to appear for the UAE Ministry of Education’s National Assessment Programme (NAP) assessment on the condition that the school would provide her a shadow writer.

“Although the test was not mandatory, I took it up on the understanding that a shadow writer would pitch in if I felt tired,” said Fatma, who received the Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance last month.

“We trusted them. But on the first day itself, I did not get any help despite repeated requests. They kept telling me I could do it on my own. I felt so helpless,” she said.

Her mother Khawla Al Sumaiti said she was shocked when she saw Fatma’s condition as she came out of school. “Her left hand was shaking badly. She was in acute pain and crying.”

“I took up the matter with the school and was assured it would not happen again. I believed them and sent Fatma for the English test on the following day. But when I went to school to check if she was okay, I found her in deep pain. Unable to write, she left the exam mid-way.”

“We did not send her to school for 10 days and the school did not enquire about her once. When a family member went to get her maths book, they sent all her belongings back,” alleged Khawla, who approached the Dubai Education Zone and the Ministry of Education with her complaint.

However, an enquiry (see box) ruled out any wrongdoing on the part of the school.

‘No link between injury and exam’

The Dubai Education Zone said an inquiry conducted into the alleged incident revealed no link between the injury and the examination.

Dr Ahmad Eid Al Mansouri, Dubai Education Zone Director General, told XPRESS: “The school has denied any responsibility for Fatma Al Jassmi’s injury.” He said he had ordered an inquiry into the incident after Fatma’s mother, Khawla Al Sumaiti, lodged a complaint with the zone. The school’s director and staff were also summoned following the submission of the inquiry report.

He said as per the inquiry, the school had complied with Fatma’s request to allow her more time to complete her exam. But the school has denied that she asked for a shadow writer to complete the exam or that it had not inquired about her during her absence.

Even so, Dr Al Mansoori said he had apologised on behalf of the zone and the school to the girl’s mother for any misunderstanding that may have arisen over the issue when she recently aired her views on a radio programme. He said Fatma’s mother did not want to continue with the school and had opted for home study for her.

© Gulf News

The Observatory is a global strategic services organisation that conducts high-level research and disseminates emerging trends, best practices, policy frameworks, assessment and quality assurance information relevant to the delivery of cross-border higher education programme across the globe.

Held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 24-26 April, the two-day event built its discussion around its report titled ‘International Branch Campuses: Data and Developments’ released in January 2012. The event featured plenary presentations, seminars and panel discussions on the practicalities of establishing and operating IBCs.

According to the January 2012 report, the UAE hosts the highest number of International Branch Campuses (IBCs). The country’s 37 IBCs make up a world share of 19 per cent.

Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director of TECOM Investments ‘ Education Cluster, said: “The UAE has witnessed a steady shift towards the globalisation of higher education. From a domestic focus in the ’70s and ’80s, the sector has adopted a more international outlook since 2000 especially after the creation of major free zones such as Dubai Knowledge Village and the Dubai International Academic City. The trend offers significant opportunities for stakeholders in the higher education landscape.

“The three pillars that constitute best practices for a branch campus set-up include due diligence that comprises market research, regional market intelligence, and the right team players. Secondly, it is essential to start slow and ensure a sufficient incubation period while adopting best programmes and a strong student recruitment strategy. Finally, it is imperative to observe a sustainable approach through measured growth, strong home campus support and a clear vision of programme development.”

Dr William Lawton, Director, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, said: “A key factor for planning the event was to explore the increasingly important role of education hubs in the national higher education strategies of many countries. We were, therefore, pleased to secure Dubai International Academic City’s participation at the event. As we all know, Dubai was one of the original hubs, dating back to 2003. The Global Forum benefited from the academic destination’s long-term perspective, future plans and innovations.”

According to The Observatory report, the number of international branch campuses (IBCs) for higher education continues to expand at a steady rate, rather than with a headlong rush. However, the IBC landscape is changing in line with prevailing geopolitical currents. According to data collected by The Observatory in the latter half of 2011, there are 200 higher education branch campuses around the world. This is an increase of 38, or 23 per cent from the September 2009 report, which identified 162 IBCs.

Commenting on his participation in the forum, Professor Raj Gill, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Middlesex University, London, said: “IBCs are playing a major part in imparting quality education in various well-established locations around the world. The next few years will start defining in some detail the reason for their success and failure. Although reputation and financial risk continue to be the key considerations, this has not diminished the interest in or the growth of IBCs. Hosting one of the highest concentrations of IBCs, Dubai will continue to play a key role in the development of best practices for ensuring the success of IBCs.”

There has been a growing trend of continuing growth of ‘south-to-south’ IBCs in which both the home and the host institutions are in developing countries or the Middle East. Nearly 17 per cent of the 200 IBCs worldwide fall into the south-to-south campuses.

The report noted that the expansion of IBCs worldwide continues as an important element of higher education internationalisation. IBCs extend the reach of institutions in such a way as to enhance their international profile and status. More importantly, they provide greater access to an expanding student market, especially in Asia where demand for higher education is expected to continue to outstrip supply for another 20 years.

Many governments, especially in Asia and parts of Africa, see IBCs as preferable to the outward migration of young people and as essential components of their national economic and developmental goals, as expressed through the drive and support for education hubs.

About Dubai International Academic City:
Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) is the world’s only Free Zone dedicated to Higher Education. Established in 2007 as part of TECOM Investments , DIAC aims to develop the region’s talent pool and establish the UAE as a knowledge-based economy.

DIAC is the premier destination for Higher Education in the region, located on a fully-appointed 18 million sq ft. campus with state-of-the-art modern facilities. DIAC currently has 27 Academic institutions from 11 countries.

The DIAC campus is host to nearly 20,000 students from 137 nationalities. DIAC students also have access to over 300 Higher Education programmes.

DIAC Phase III achieved a “Green” status and was awarded Silver LEED certification. DIAC provides an established educational environment for academic institutions and caters to students from around the world.

DIAC is also ranked top 10 in the Middle East under “Best Transportation” category and top 25 in the Middle East under “Best Overall” category according to 2011 Financial Times Rankings.

For further information on TECOM Education Cluster, please call:
Zeba Ahmad
APCO Worldwide (JiWin Public Relations)
Tel: +9714 361 3590 (direct)
+9714 361 3333 (switchboard)
Fax: +9714 388 8001
E-mail: zahmad@apcoworldwide.com

They claim that AM, an Iranian boy at Salman Al Farsi School in Dubai, was given the explosives by the school’s 26-year-old Iranian bus driver, MS, who wrapped them in a pair of tracksuit bottoms that had been left on his bus.

Both are on trial for posing a risk to the lives of students and others, as well as damaging the school’s property – the boy’s case is being heard by the Dubai Juvenile Court, while the driver has been referred to the Misdemeanours Court.

Police were first informed of an explosion at the school in Al Qusais on November 24. However, when they arrived they found that the blast occurred the day before and that school administrators had already cleaned up much of the debris. No one was harmed in the explosion, which took place at about midday next to a classroom on the first floor.

The school kept the remains of the explosive device in plastic bags for the police to investigate. One bag contained a battery, wires and a timing device used to control detonation of the bomb.

During police interrogations the driver said that another man identified as KS taught him how to make the explosives.

A verdict in the student’s trial is expected on May 22.

© The National

A committee from the Sharjah Educational Zone visited the pupil at the Royal Hospital where he is receiving treatment after being transferred from Al Qasimi and Al Kuwaiti hospitals, his parents said.

An official at Royal Hospital in Sharjah said yesterday the grade three student, Abdul Rahman Mohammad Nasser, had passed the danger stage and was in stable condition.

The Sharjah Education Zone formed a committee to investigate the accident.

The committee visited the school last week and found a fault in the wheel of the gate at the Sharjah public school which caused it to disconnect from the gate. The committee considered the accident negligence on the part of the school.

© Gulf News

Around 1,000 students appeared for the higher secondary exams from eight schools, divided in two streams of science and commerce.

A total of 19 students in the UAE secured A+ grades in all six subjects, with Model School Abu Dhabi topping with nine A+, followed by New Indian Model School (NIMS) Dubai with five, New Indian Model School (NIMS) Sharjah with three and Indian School Fujairah with two.

‘We are very happy’”We are very happy to top again, we topped grades in class 10 results as well. It’s all thanks to the hard work our teachers and students have put in,” said Abdul Kader, principal of Model School Abu Dhabi.

As many as six schools secured 100 per cent pass rate, while two, Gulf Model School Dubai and New Indian Higher Secondary School Ras Al Khaimah, scored 99 per cent pass rate.

The eight schools following the Kerala curriculum in UAE are, Model School Abu Dhbai, NIMS Dubai, NIMS Sharjah, NIMS Al Ain, Gulf Model School Dubai, Indian School Fujairah, English School UAQ and New Indian Higher Secondary School RAK.

© Gulf News