Deputy premier chairs Supreme Education, Training Council meeting

Manama, June 29 (BNA): Deputy Premier and President of the Supreme Council for Development of Education and Training, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, presided over the Council's meeting today. The Council listed to a presentation regarding the progress made in the Executive Plan of the National Initiatives for Development of Education and Training, endorsed by the council during its previous meeting. Regarding the development of vocational training, the presentation pointed out that the preliminary National Strategy on Vocational Training, and the expansion in its areas, in addition to improvement of technical schools for boys increased student chances of joining the labour market and increased the number of students in the diverse training programmes. Shaikh Mohammed said the real criteria to gauge the extent of progression in terms of achieving goal of labour market acceptance necessitates engaging the private sector establishments in the nature of various training programmes to suit their requirements. Also, regarding the quality of education and leadership in schools, and the modernization of national curricula, it was found out that the progress made in the Executive Plan regarding the formation of a working team to consider the development of curricula and improvement of school performance in low-rated performance schools, and setting up initiative to boost teachers' performance and assist the whole community's components to undertake their duty in the optimum manner. The meeting reviewed the progress of the Executive Plan regarding methods and ways followed to improve the quality of higher education according to highest international standards through the attraction of the best international educational institutions and building national capacities and achieving cooperation and integration between the organizing entities in this key sector. The council also reviewed the University of Bahrain (UoB)'s achievement of QS global rating approved by the World Bank in the Innovation and Academic Research report for Arab universities. UoB has been ranked 33rd this year, climbing the ladder from 32nd last year and obtaining the international academic accreditation regarding the number of its programmes from international institutions and bodies