By KUNA
Kuwait : No development can be achieved without education, and education is of no benefit if it does not serve the development aspired by the society, said Education Minister and Higher Education Minister Nouriya Al-Subeeh on Sunday.
Speaking at the inauguration of the National Education Development Conference, themed “Education: Path to Development,” she underscored the need for “investing in human resources, which are our greatest assets.” She noted the keenness of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on educational development, saying that he stressed, during a meeting with the conference’s higher organizing committee, the importance of developing curricula and incorporating modern mechanisms in the educational system in order to keep up with global developments.
The minister noted that the conference would be focusing on four main topics, namely challenges facing educational development, technology, strategic projects, and the role of the private sector in educational development.
“We took into account the need for benefiting from local and international experience, which is why we recruited experts from abroad while preparing for this conference,” Al-Subeeh added.
She also noted challenges facing the development of the educational system, including the need for breaching the gap between Kuwaiti education and that in advanced countries.
On his part, President of the Higher Organizing Committee Dr. Anas Al-Rushaid noted that this conference coincided with the national celebrations and was “an opportunity to engage in national dialogue over means to develop education and a chance to review our educational system.” This conference, he said, “comes as an intellectual and popular response to the reform initiative launched by His Highness the Amir and in line with the political reform measures beginning with approving the political rights of women, expanding constituencies, broadening the publication of newspapers, the declaration of civil societies, breaking the monopoly of television and radio broadcasts, and launching the economic vision of transforming Kuwait into a regional financial center.” All of these reforms, he said, “depend on creative minds, which are the product of a good and flexible educational system.”
Al-Rushaid noted that a report by the World Bank showed that the Kuwaiti educational system depended on memorization and not analysis and the scientific methods, making that system “unable to meet our economic competitiveness aspirations.” The organizing committee has recruited the help of leading institutions, including the British Council, the World Bank, and Harvard University, in order to place discussion topics, and teams were formed that would present their findings during the conference sessions, while the conference declaration would be completed in March.
He reminded those present that the primary mission of education would always be the building of character, in the interest of Kuwait above all else.