JEDDAH, 31 January 2005 — An initiative for improving higher education in the Gulf Cooperation Council states took a significant move forward yesterday at King Abdul Aziz University.

A three-day workshop for academics across the GCC is focusing on implementing Crown Prince Abdullah’s opinion document on higher education in the Kingdom.

The document was presented at a meeting of the GCC and subsequently approved by GCC members in December 2002 at Doha, Qatar.

The university was chosen to host this workshop during the GCC meeting held last year in Manama, Bahrain. The document is considered one of the important sources for educational reform activities in the Gulf. Its importance lies in its approach toward education as playing an integral role in societal development by focusing on improving academic and training curricula as well as the graduates’ attitudes and interests. The document also promotes cooperation, as well as standardizing curricula among GCC countries.

The workshop aims to identify means of implementing the crown prince’s proposals through lectures and workshops by academics from universities across the Gulf as well as the United States, Japan, Britain and France.

In addition to providing an opportunity for academics to create a dialog on these issues between Gulf educational institutions, the workshop also aims at presenting ways to develop scientific research in these countries, including diversification of funding resources and identification of the requirements so that educational and vocational institutes can meet job market requirements.

“Education is the main measure of a nation’s development,” said KAAU President Dr. Osamah Taieb in his opening speech. “A wise leadership is the one that cares for education, and our government has always put a priority on education.”

Dr. Khaled Al-Angari, minister of higher education, spoke about some of the achievements made during the past years, including increased postgraduate enrollment, and expanding curricula and the spread of universities and colleges throughout the Kingdom.

“There are plans and programs that follow up and evaluate our achievements at the National Center for Measuring and Evaluating as well as the Fund for Higher Education,” Dr. Al-Angari said in his speech. “Among our priorities is improving the curricula and coordination between the education institutions of the Gulf countries.”

The crown prince’s opinion document calling for six major projects to develop the education system included having a holistic, comprehensive view of educational development, professionalizing teachers, quality assessment of the institution’s performance, establishing e-learning, raising the standards for educational results and creating partnership between education institutions and society.

Included in each of these projects are specific programs that can be implemented. Some impediments to the current education system were also discussed, such as reliance on rote memorization, poor teaching skills and administrative centralization.

“The document reflects the crown prince’s and the government’s interest in education and everything that is of benefit to our sons and daughters,” said Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, who opened the event on behalf of Prince Sultan. The prince embraced one initiative proposed by the university to establish a fund for scientific research during Ramadan, and at the workshop he launched the Trust for Scientific Research on Haj and Umrah Services and Solving Societal Problems.

“There is a session on the last day for recommendations, and depending on those recommendations, steps will be taken to implement them,” said Dr. Salem Sahab, vice president for development at KAAU.

“We hope the implementation process will move right away but we have no way of enforcing them. It depends on the concession of higher education institutes, agreements, good intentions and follow-up measures at each education institution,” Dr. Sahab told Arab News.

He said the workshop took thousands of man-hours over the last four months to mount.

“We wanted to make it as regional as possible and invite all education institutions in the Gulf countries to take part, either through speeches, research papers or the exhibition,” he said.

Asked what he considers the most pressing concerns are that need immediate attention, Dr. Sahab said progress required movement on many fronts at the same time and that institutions likely would base their priorities upon their individual needs.