50 Schools to apply the E-education system this year

A responsible source in the Supreme Education Council (SEC) said to Al-Arab Newspaper: “the E-education will be applied in this academic year to 20 additional schools to make the total number of schools that apply this system reach 50 schools.

The same source revealed that this system will be applied on 2014 in all Qatari schools in order for Qatar to be the first Arab country where this new and innovative system which opens the door wide to learning.

Al-Arab Newspaper sources reported that the Supreme Education Council had been embarking recently on qualifying a certain number of teachers which exceeds 600 teachers via giving them courses in order to be familiar with the new system.

Such sources stressed that this system will not supersede the role of the teacher indicating that this E-education system allows communication and participation among the parties of the educational process (the student, teacher, and parent) as well as enables students to communicate with teachers, do their homework electronically, and revise what was studied at classes. Such system also allows the parent to communicate with the school and follow up the level and behavior of students. It also enables teachers to prepare their lessons and share them with students as wells sending homework electronically and recording attendance and behavior of students.

The same sources said that the E-education program is considered a step in the path of progress and evolution in the field of education in Qatar. Such program is consistent with Qatar vision for the year of 2030 and keeps pace with all developments in the world especially in the field of education. Such sources indicated that the E-education has become the optimum option that shall be adopted and handled with seriousness and enthusiasm and does not supersede the role of the teacher or the educational spirit in classes but on the contrary E-education will be an important mechanism to develop the traditional educational techniques and facilitates the learning process.

Al-Arab Newspaper sources asserted that providing the digital content is based on the criteria of curricula in the State of Qatar in order to make it easy for the teacher and student to obtain an electronic content which is identical to the required standard, make it easy for the student to revise his lessons individually, and reduces the time required by the teacher to search for appropriate academic materials to enhance lessons.

As for the initiative of “a computer for each student”, our sources indicated that such initiative aims at providing a personal learning computer for both the student and teacher which enables them to have access to all electronic systems and contents noting that such computer contains all books in their electronic versions, consequently the student can abandon the paper book and reduce the load of the school bag as this computer becomes fully integrated in the life of the student in order to achieve a great improvement in the learning results. The distribution of such computers is conducted with specific policies that guarantee achieving the maximum use of the computer as required; such sources said that the duration of this project is three years.

Strategy

Director of information technology Department at the Supreme Education Council stated that these projects come within the framework of the strategy of comprehensive E-education adopted by the SEC; they are educational services and initiatives based on integrated technology and a group of digital and educational systems in order to support the efforts made by the government of the State of Qatar towards improving the quality of teaching and learning as well as promoting the decision-making process in education sector on all levels from schools to the Supreme Education Council.

She also highlighted that E-education constitutes one of the essential stakes produced by information technology within the international community indicating that the objectives of the plan aim at achieving three main pivots which are: to empower all directors, teachers, and administrators in schools to use all technology-usage skills in teaching and learning processes, achieve empowerment of these skills progressively, ensure the effective application of technology in the strategies of teaching, learning, and all relevant activities of research, studies, development, and evaluation in order to raise the teaching and learning processes with the degree suitable with the ambitions of education system in the State of Qatar.

She also referred that gradual levels of training were applied. the plan, put forth by the Supreme Education Council, comprised four levels of training that differ according to its objectives, the targeted category, and the entity which will deliver such level of training noting that the first level of training aims at mastering the basic skills to use technology and integrate it in education while the objective of the fourth level of training focuses on enabling directors and local trainers to have more professional skills that make them able to innovate in leading groups and making a qualitative leap in E-education.

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Executive plans       

The Supreme Education Council announced earlier the completion of executive plans of the E-education applications as providing a high-quality electronic content, which is suitable with the criteria of national curricula and achieves the aspirations of the educational system in the State of Qatar, is one of the most important projects which the SEC is working to implement on gradual executive phases starting from the next academic year. The SEC is implementing these projects as a part of its leading and supervisory role in this regard.

The SEC noted that such efforts are made in order to enable teachers to provide students with knowledge, facts, and concepts with the depth required by employing the electronic content effectively. Such efforts come within the framework of the necessity to use technology in the processes of teaching and learning in the independent schools in a smooth and suitable manner to the students, teachers, and academic leadership which leads to enhancing the skills of students and encourage them to learn and provide them with practical skills, values, and directives that make them able to deal with the flow of knowledge and its associated technologies.

Electronic content

The electronic content is considered one of the projects of E-education which the SEC started to implement its applications in accordance with a comprehensive strategy which will be implemented on time phases and with the cooperation of all the authorities of the SEC.

A steering committee was formed in order to follow up all the applications of the electronic content with His Excellency, Mr. Saad bin Ibrahim Al-Mahmoud as a chairman and with the membership of the directors of Authorities and the concerned offices in order to follow up the quality of implementation performance. To ensure that the electronic content is easy to use by students, the content will be provided as arranged and specifying each topic in accordance with the sequence of topics in the learning sources as well as broad areas of research, exploration, and staying away from randomness in addition to enabling teachers to innovate in education via providing an innovative educational environment.

The electronic content will contribute to providing students with a number of tools which will help them in developing skills, knowledge, and experiences that lead to developing productivity and own independence as well as increasing the effectiveness of education management system in schools through providing broad options of learning for students with special needs and outstanding students with a degree suitable with their abilities via providing various sources in addition to assisting Parallel Education students in the State in a way that suitable with the establishment of the culture of technology usage as teacher-assisting sources and enriching to the educational process.

Content

The E-education project includes employing technology in the educational process which arouses the passion of students and facilitates learning in an interactive way via applying many mechanisms as learning management system that includes the follow up of student performance, teacher agenda, electronic mail, educational sources, permanent homework and evaluations in addition to the electronic lesson, and this is in connection with the teacher. As for the student, such project includes educational sources, homework, permanent evaluations, introduction and completion file, student agenda, and electronic mail.

As for the parent, such project includes the follow up of the performance of sons, communicating via mobile phones, promoting communication between the home and the school, and applying electronic content which includes contents in Arabic and English in addition to bilingual contents and contents appropriate to the Qatari standards classified according to the stage, grade, academic subjects which are English, Science, Arabic, Religious Sciences, and Social Studies, as well as the initiative of “a computer for each student” which provides a computer for each student and reduces the daily load of heavy books inside the school bag and facilitates logging into digital school books at the Supreme Education Council and to the electronic content, other educational systems inside the system of the SEC, such initiative enables students to learn wherever they are and at any time, and the electronic library provides the electronic content for many books, magazines, literary and scientific periodicals in many formats whether written or visual or audio in addition to recording the contents of the central library and the libraries of schools which allows exchange of information and school and central libraries making use of the contents of each other as well as issuing indicators about activity and type of reading which allows the decision-makers in schools to promote the importance of reading and academic research among students.

The electronic library helps in providing subscription in world libraries which provides many learning and development sources for students and teachers with following up the activity of borrowing of the contents of libraries and signing up over the internet which will be considered as one of the steps which will be adopted in the students’ registration process which makes it easy for parents and school management as well as save their time and effort.

Some schools will participate as a first phase then a greater number of schools will participate according to the results of every pilot phase knowing that the SEC will provide all the requirements of schools of training courses and guidance and qualification circles as well as providing electronic educational programs and relevant computers.

source: Al Arab Newspaper