Abu Dhabi: Members of three taskforces commissioned by the Abu Dhabi education council (ADEC) to set a bold, new policy framework for the future education system in the emirate briefed General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on the outcomes of their meetings.
The taskforces focused on the three main areas of education, namely P-12 education, vocational education, and higher education.
Each taskforce comprised of large number of national and top international education experts from both academia and industry. Work on the policy agenda follows the recent transfer of responsibilities for the education sector from the federal government to the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Meetings were held over a five month period culminating in a three-day retreat session which brought members of the three taskforces together on October 11-13.
The purpose of the retreat was to agree and endorse all education policies considered and agreed upon in the work of the taskforces to date. At the end of the three-day session, a meeting was arranged with his Shaikh Mohammad to share the policies being proposed by the taskforces.
Shaikh Mohammad was briefed on the composition of the taskforces the broad range of expertise they brought to the task that they included key experts, both local and regional, from within the Emirates in addition to a range of carefully selected international experts, who have played and are continuing to play pivotal roles in highly successful education systems across the world. He was told that they came from all levels of education and brought an enormous range of diverse and complementary skills to the task. He was also informed that during their deliberations the taskforces looked at examples of best practice in some of the world s most successful education systems.
Shaikh Mohammad was briefed on the context and background of the work of the taskforces the purpose of which is to set down a new world-class education agenda for the emirate of Abu Dhabi. At the beginning of the briefing session, with a view to setting the context, members referred to the publicly expressed and most enlightened views of Shaikh Mohammad on education and there was warm recognition of the fact that the Crown Prince regarded education as the key enabler in the context of the wide range of socio-economic challenges facing Abu Dhabi in the decades ahead.