Ministry of Education expo to be one-stop shop for parents in Oman

Muscat: Parents searching for what Oman’s schools can offer them might want to visit Schoolex 2018, an exhibition organised by Oman’s Ministry of Education to help them decide the best path of education for their children.
Organised by the ministry in collaboration with the Directorate General of Private Schools, Schoolex 2018 runs from February 12 to 14, and also acts as a one-stop shop for any services schools are looking to add to help provide students a better education.
“Parents for example have asked us what the best school for their child was, and we would ask them what sort of services they were looking for, because sometimes it’s not so clear with parents, as many of them are not familiar with the education sector,” said Fatma Al Noorani, Director General of Private Schools.
“This event showcases all of the services schools can provide,” she added. “There are also services that schools are always looking for, such as catering, bus services, uniforms etc. and they look for companies that provide this, so here, we will have all these companies that provide these services under one roof so that schools can liaise with them and provide these services for them.”
About 35 different publishing houses have already signed up for Schoolex 2018, and more are expected to register. “When a school wants to buy books for example, not everyone gets to see the books they really want, so we will have publishers and distributors that principals, schoolteachers and school owners and visit and go through their publications,” said Al Noorani.
“We wanted to have the schools and services all under one roof.
“We’ve also invited some SMEs that are able to help children do their work better,” she explained.
“For example, there is an entrepreneur who makes dolls with Omani costumes, and in our life skills, we will be teaching them a lot about handicrafts, so she will teach children how to make this.”
In addition, an educational symposium, where schools can discuss the problems they are currently facing, has also been organised as part of Schoolex 2018.
Forty-six schools arrived for last year’s exhibition, and this year, Schoolex will see institutions from not just Muscat, but from places as far as Salalah as well.
“We also have a symposium alongside the exhibition, where we will target schoolteachers, supervisors, school owners and principals who will present papers that discuss the issues they are facing so that we can address these things,” said Al Noorani.
“Last year, we had the symposium before the exhibition, but we realised this time that it would not be feasible because teachers would have to take leave to attend the symposium for three days and then attend the exhibition, but now we have many session alongside Schoolex, so those who cannot attend the morning sessions can attend in the evening.”
With Oman looking to expand its economy through the Tanfeedh directives, the Sultanate will require to provide its next generation with top-quality education, so that they can do the jobs that will come to them in the future in the best possible manner.
“The quality of education is what we all strive for and the Ministry does many things to achieve this quality,” said Al Noorani.
“We train teachers, establish standards for categorising schools, which was done in the form of a pilot project last year in Muscat, and we hope that this year, it will be implemented across many regions ahead of being rolled out across all of Oman next year.
“There is also a checklist of criteria sent to schools in September, and we show what are criteria are, across all of our requirements, in the buildings, in the library, in the laboratories and in the classrooms,” she revealed. “Schools are provided an opportunity to evaluate themselves before we arrive for evaluation.”