Education needs sustainable funding Wednesday, 08 December 2010 01:46

DOHA: Plans on innovative solutions in education through collective ideas of the delegates will be announced at the end of the second WISE summit.

“Share your ideas with our moderators and they they will report it to the WISE organisers. When we meet again on Thursday, I hope we will have some new plan which can be turned into ideas,” said Dr Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani, Chairman WISE, addressing a press conference held on the sidelines of the summit.

He also stressed the need of responsibility and contribution of policy makers in enhancing and progressing education in needy countries by funding and supporting, to make basic education a right to all.

During the past year, WISE has also held many other meetings with decision makers and educators form developing countries to for an action oriented approach to enhance sustainable education.

WISE held an unoffical meeting with the education ministers of the Gulf region and announced a Doha Declaration on Education. In an initiative to help others to learn, WISE also held discussions with 20 presidents of universities from developing countries and expertise, said Dr Abdulla.

Foreign universities were introduced in Qatar to motivate Qatari students to study within the country and to exchange expertise.

“Qatar University is reformed with high quality programmes to attract students. We have campuses of foreign universities in Qatar as it is the right model for us.....Through this expertise and knowledge too is exchanged,” said Dr Abdulla.

He also said when students study within the country, brain drain is prevented, otherwise many students who study abroad don’t come back.

Answering a question on free education, Dr Abdulla said: “We need to have innovative ways to find sustainable funding on education.”

The education standards in the Gulf region and in Arab countries were also discussed at the press conference.

Arab countries have elementary education, but the quality of education should be improved, said Lakhdar Brahini, former Algerian Foreign Minister and veteran UN envoy.

“The Arab nations will reach the millennium goals of education in 2015 in quantity but not in quality,” he

said.

Further, he said that teachers in the region are not adequately qualified to impart quality education.

With his experience as a diplomat in many conflict zones, Brahini said child labour cannot be stopped through legislation but by making the families economically stable. “The family should not need to pull out the child from school,” he said.

He further explained the difficulties faced by children in Afghanistan and Gaza to access education, because of lack of funds for education.

The Peninsula