Education Minister Prince Khaled Al-Faisal speaks at the Global Competitiveness Forum 2015 in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Education Minister Prince Khaled Al-Faisal said that the Kingdom has launched an ambitious national strategy to achieve sustainable development at all levels through integrated education.

In a keynote speech made at the GCF 2015 which concluded here on Tuesday, Prince Faisal said that it is imperative that states should draw up their plan for education for sustainable development as well as to enable citizens to fit into the society for a peaceful living. To achieve his end, he stressed that the state should not only encourage competitiveness but also develop the human capital with the excepted norms of ethical, social and religious values.

“The Ministry of Education is seeking to develop the students’ level and teach them new skills to keep pace with the evolution of times, we focus on a curriculum that encourages creativity, problem solving, and link education with life and continuous learning and research outside the classroom and making the maximum use of modern technology and access to culture and literature, history and religion, and to identify the rights and obligations of citizens.”

Prince Al-Faisal said the ministry is interested in imparting education that leads to economic prosperity with the help of trained teachers, and promote students’ self-confidence and their potentials in achieving their goals. “Education must encourage students to be innovative and help them do research work in fields that suit their aptitudes.” He also stressed the importance of employing elearning technology and integration of education which would lead to technical and research work.

Kingdom is making a concerted effort to implement its strategies through the King Abdullah Project for Developing Public Education (Tatweer) worth SR80 billion, from the late King Abullah’s vision to make the Kingdom a knowledge base society.

He pointed out that the executive program for the five-year project focuses on producing a healthy generation which would be a valuable asset to the society.

Explaining the future program for education, he said a total of 25,000 teachers will be trained in seven developed countries to provide quality education in the Kingdom and building of 3,200 modern and specialized schools for people with creative abilities in the Kingdom.

He also said the ministry of education is in the process of setting up of 1,000 fitness and social clubs for girls which provide evening classes for deserving people. He added that around 400 clubs have been established in various parts of the Kingdom. The aim is to ensure these clubs are for members of the community, particularly young people, to develop a range of skills, he said.

He said implementation of proper plan for education will lead to an increase in the country’s GDP and increase the number of job opportunities in the country.

The minister also reminded that proper incentives should be given for the teachers to harvest the expected results from them to benefit the students.

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