There is no doubt that education is such an important tool for life that I felt compelled to start my sustainable goals list with quality education. Learn, and once you have learnt, teach others in turn, because education is the source of real happiness. Let us open the door of happiness with some of the knowledge that I feel necessary to share with the world.
On March 15, 2016, I had the privilege and honor of meeting His Excellency the late S. R. Nathan, former president of Singapore, in his office at the Singapore Management University, where he had served as a distinguished senior fellow at the School of Social Sciences. There, we had a long discussion on how to make the world a better place to live in by applying the principles of sustainability by focusing mainly on quality education. The two of us agreed with Nelson Mandela’s quote: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” That education, however, must be quality education.
To illustrate the point, let me remind you of the real-life story of a very young girl who has become an inspiration to the entire world owing to her passion, patience, and persistence in pursuing education.
I Am Malala is a book written by Malala Yousafzai, who is considered one of the most inspiring ladies of the present time and will always remain so because of her brave efforts to champion the right to education for girls. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, is the story of elevenyear-old Malala, who risked her life and took a stand against the Taliban to fight for the freedom of education for girls, which was being denied in Pakistan. Malala’s book tells a remarkable story of a family who experienced the heat of global terrorism in the fight for girls’ education; a story of a father, a teacher, who encouraged his daughter to learn and be an independent woman; and a story of brave parents with an extreme love for their daughter in a society that praises sons!
When Malala was born in 1997, her father named her after an audacious woman who led troops into battle against the British in 1880. Malala’s parents come from a very remote area in Pakistan called Shangla, who later moved to Mangora, a small town in the Swat Valley district (just a hundred miles away from Afghanistan). Though her mother is illiterate, her father is a teacher and a great speaker. He opened a school for both girls and boys with his friends and business partners at a time when most women in the region were illiterate. Things were going well before the arrival of the Taliban, who completely changed the picture in the region. They started misguiding people by telling them to burn their books, CDs, and other study materials to keep the girls away from the schools. During this time, Pakistan had just been affected by a terrible earthquake, floods, and many other natural disasters. Many people believed that they were being punished by God, and so they started listening to the Taliban. However, Malala and her father continued to promote education and women’s rights in their speeches. In early 2009, at the age of 11, she wrote a blog for the BBC website describing life under the rule of the Taliban.
Despite receiving numerous threats and seeing people killed every day by the Taliban, her father continued to encourage his daughter; in turn, Malala continued using her voice. Because of her sincere efforts, she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011 and was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. During the time that her efforts were being recognized everywhere, the Taliban, of course, did not favor her awards. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, she was shot by the Taliban while on her way home from school, and very few people expected her to survive. She was taken to the local hospital, but her condition deteriorated, so she was sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK to have surgery and recover from her wounds. By God’s grace, Malala recovered from her injuries, and together with her father, founded the Malala Fund, which promotes the right to education for females around the world. Since then, she has given many speeches at the UN and other international organizations to promote women’s right to education. In addition, she has won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and received an award from the European Parliament, and in 2014, at the age of 17, she became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She spent her prize money on education by building a secondary school for girls in Pakistan.
There is no doubt that she has brought about a positive change to the world with her peaceful yet enthusiastic approach in the field of education for girls. Her organization’s next goal is to provide 12 years of free, safe, quality education to every child. What a wonderful goal!
As we all know, education is the most important thing in most nations’ agendas, especially for students at an early stage; hence, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance in mathematics, science, and reading, conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations. Conducted in 2000, this was the first study of its kind, and since then, it has been repeated every three years with a view to improving education policies and outcomes. The study measures problem-solving and cognition in everyday life. According to the OECD’s 2012 report, Shanghai, China, is ranked number 1; Singapore is number 2; and Hong Kong, China, number 3, in a survey of educational standards in 65 countries.
According to the Asia Society, a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia; Shanghai, the largest city in China, was the first to achieve 100 percent primary and junior high school enrolment and was also one of the first to achieve an almostuniversal secondary school attendance. Furthermore, if students want to attend a certain type of higher education, they are easily able to do that as well.
China has implemented numerous changes to its education system as of late; however, it has struggled to move away from the exambased system that drives the curriculum, which requires memorizing an array of facts just to pass the test. In 1985, Shanghai began a process of reform and introduced exams that test the application of real-life skills. This has also captured the interest of students. As a result, multiple-choice questions no longer appear on the exams. An estimated 80 percent of students attend night and weekend “cram schools” to ensure that they pass. This comes alongside nightly homework and extracurricular activities, thus making the life of a Chinese student overwhelming. The central Chinese government is aware of this nationwide problem, and its new 2020 reform efforts call for a reduction in student workload. Additionally, Shanghai is working towards improving students’ education experience so that they will learn to learn, as opposed to merely learning a series of facts. An updated curriculum is at the center of this process.
Beginning in 1985, in an attempt to move away from the highpressure exam system and increase the quality of education, Shanghai began to allow students to take elective courses, which led to new textbooks and materials. Implemented in 2008, a renewed effort to encourage student learning rather than knowledge accumulation led to eight curricular “learning domains:” language and literature, mathematics, natural science, social sciences, technology, arts, physical education, and practicum.
Schools were then encouraged to create their own curriculum, and outside groups such as museums became partners in education. Part of the new curriculum includes an emphasis on inquiry-based education. Students independently explore their research topics of interest to promote social well-being, creative and critical thinking, and again, learning to learn.
To support the new changes in education, certification processes for teachers were implemented. Teachers’ professional development requirements also increased—teachers in Shanghai must now complete 240 hours of professional development over the course of five years. An online database provides help with design and implementation of the curriculum, research papers, and best practice examples. Teachers are now encouraged to allow time for student activities in classrooms, rather than relying solely on presentations.
One interesting strategy employed in Shanghai to improve weak schools is the commissioned education program. Under this scheme, top-performing schools are assigned a weak school to administer. The “good” school sends a team of teachers and a principal to lead the weak school and improve it. This, as well as an exchange program for poor rural schools, has been implemented in the city. Such a system assists the poor schools and benefits Shanghai schools by allowing them to promote teachers and administrators.
In Shanghai, there is a clear awareness that education needs a transformation to keep pace with the rate of change in societyand not just the current change. Hence, a conscious effort has been made to take into account the future of society, the economy, and education.
Singapore is one of the countries I most enjoy traveling to. I love the way the education system is shaping the nation to be among the best in knowledge and talent. According to the PISA 2016 report, Singapore has the highest-achieving students in the international education rankings, with its teenagers topping tests in maths, reading, and science. For more than a decade, Singapore has been at or near the top of international league tables that measure children’s ability in reading, maths, and science.
In light of the above, the strategies followed in Singapore that made them achieve the number one ranking constitutes a matter worthy of discussion. In Singapore, the education sector is managed by the Ministry of Education, which formulates and implements education policies on education structure, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. It oversees the management and development of government-funded schools, the Institute of Technical Education, polytechnics, and universities. The Ministry of Education aims to help students discover their talents, make the best of these talents and realize their full potential, and develop a passion for learning that lasts a lifetime.
According to The Conversation, an independent source of news from the academic & research community; Singapore’s institutional arrangements are characterized by a prescribed national curriculum. It consists of national, high-stakes examinations at the end of primary and secondary schooling that stream students’ based on their examination performance and essentially prompt teachers to ensure coverage of the curriculum and the test. The alignment of the curriculum, assessment, and instruction is exceptionally strong.
On top of this, the institutional environment incorporates top-down forms of teacher accountability based on student performance (although this is changing) that reinforces curriculum coverage and teaching to test. Major government commitments to educational research ($137 million between 2003 and 2017) and knowledge management are designed to support evidence-based policy making.
Finally, Singapore is strongly committed to capacity building at all levels of the system, especially in the selection, training, and professional development of principals and teachers.
In addition, parents, students, teachers, and policy-makers share a highly positive but rigorously instrumentalist view of the value of education at the individual level. Further, students are generally compliant and the classrooms orderly. Importantly, teachers also broadly share an authoritative vernacular or “folk pedagogy” that shapes understandings across the system regarding the nature of teaching and learning. These include the fact that “teaching is talking and learning is listening,” authority is “hierarchical and bureaucratic,” assessment is “summative,” knowledge is “factual and procedural,” and classroom talk is teacher-dominated and “performative.”
Clearly, Singapore’s unique configuration of historical experience, instruction, institutional arrangements, and cultural beliefs have produced an exceptionally effective and successful system.
Even though education in Switzerland was ranked ninth in the PISA list, I would like to highlight some important information and facts about Swiss education. Education in Switzerland has a multilingual focus and is very diverse because the constitution of the Swiss delegates’ authority on the school system mainly to the cantons.
Through the research I came across an online news portal Expatica, which helped me out to find the strategies followed in Switzerland that have led the country to rank high in the field of education. Let us have a look I am glad to mention that most students in Switzerland attend local schools that provide free and high-standard education. State education is free, but students may be asked to pay for school supplies, books, and school trips. However, foreign families may consider enrolling their child in an international school so that he or she will find it easier to continue his or her education in a familiar language and curriculum. There are no school uniforms in Switzerland.
The Swiss constitution sets the foundations for education; namely, that primary school is obligatory for every child and free in public schools, and that the confederation can run or support universities.
Although the rules on education are set by the individual cantons, they are supposed to be different based on the individual canton’s education requirements. Generally, some children start their compulsory education at the age of 5 or 6, lasting until about 15, as nine years of school education is compulsory for all children in Switzerland. As I mentioned above, most students attend the local school, so students from different backgrounds, sometimes including linguistic backgrounds, come together. Only about 5 percent of Swiss children go to a private school.
The school year in Switzerland starts between mid-August and midSeptember and has two terms or semesters and around 12 weeks’ holiday (holiday dates vary depending on the canton). Cantons set their own timetables. However, most cantons and municipalities follow the core times—around 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m., and then from 1:30 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. Primary school days are shorter than secondary ones.
I appreciate the strategies followed in Switzerland and respect their constitution for understanding the value of education.
Dubai Cares is a charity whose mission is to increase children’s access to quality primary education in 45 developing countries, and this mission is accomplished through integrated programs which eliminate the underlying obstacles that prevent children from going to school and learning. They build and renovate schools and classrooms; improve water facilities, sanitation, and hygiene; and provide school meals, early childhood education, teacher training, curriculum development programs, and many other supportive programs.
I really appreciate and thank them for their efforts, as they are continuously doing an outstanding job in the field of education, especially in Africa.
Thank you, Dubai Cares, for helping the teenage girls in Malawi go back to school. School re-enrolment rates have doubled in six months since Dubai cares launched its pilot project to help teenage girls in Malawi. The charity’s fund, amounting to $490,000, was expanded across the region in October 2016, as part of a two-year education project by the UAE charity. The program not only helps teenagers but also older women who have not finished their studies because of ill health, poverty, and so on. Dubai Cares funds a local NGO, Engaging Communities and Schools in Support of Adolescent Girls in Malawi. “The launch of two Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs by Dubai Cares in Tanzania and Zanzibar could change the face of the country’s education system,” says Cecilia Baldeh, chief of education at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)—Tanzania. Apart from funding, Dubai Cares personally encourages families to allow the pursuit of education.
It gives me great pleasure to write about my experience in the field of quality education—it is the Alleem Knowledge Center, my brainchild. For more than a decade now, Alleem Knowledge Center, which is based in Sharjah and was founded by me, has been at the forefront of the real-world application of cutting-edge thinking in organizational development, leadership, innovation, and change.
The seeds of Alleem Knowledge Center were sown in 2001, when I felt the need to bridge the communication gap in business matters between the UAE business leadership and almost 200 business expatriates with different nationalities living in the UAE, by bringing them together in a common platform. The Professionals Club was a platform that met once a week on Tuesday evenings after work hours, where local managers and leaders exchanged thoughts and ideas and shared knowledge, which served as the basis on which the Alleem Knowledge Center was founded. The center now hosts more than 100 nationalities, deliberating and debating on various management-and-leadership-related issues.
Today, the institution is the UAE’s most respected nonprofit center for cutting-edge thinking, best learning practices, and research on advanced business management and attracts the brightest and most influential minds in academia and business.
The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development is a semiprivate chartered nonprofit organization in Qatar founded in 1995 by the then emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his wife, Moza bint Nasser. In addition to private funding, it is government supported, and in some ways it is government funded. The Qatar Foundation (QF), which is chaired by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, has spearheaded Qatar’s endeavours in establishing itself as a leader in education, science, and cultural development on both the regional and the global scale. The QF has stated its aim “to support Qatar on its journey from a carbon economy to a knowledge economy by unlocking human potential.”
The organization’s initiatives are oriented towards education, science and research, and community development. It has solicited a number of international universities to establish campuses in Qatar as part of its goal to develop a youth population with the necessary expertise to sustain a knowledge economy. Its main science and research agenda is developing Qatar’s technological capacity by researching new technologies which can be successfully commercialized. In addition to diversifying the economy, this strategy also helps achieve Qatar’s aim of becoming a research and development hub. The foundation’s social development programs aim to preserve Qatar’s culture, “foster a progressive society,” and confront pressing social issues.
Here, I would like to shed light on the education scenario at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) business school; it solely provides executive education, it is determinedly not part of a university, and there are no academic departments, except for one integrated multidisciplinary faculty. The system followed