(File Photo) Pak Shama students. Pic: Abdul Basit
About 61 million children between the ages of six and 11 are still out of schools worldwide and the number in Qatar is not more than one percent, says the recently- released Global Education Monitoring Report 2016.
This was disclosed at a symposium organised by the Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science to discuss the report.
The meeting held at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, Qatar University, Education Above All Foundation, Qatar Foundation For Education, Science and Community Development and National Committee for Education for All.
The report and its outcome is very important because it includes national indicators for evaluation of education levels, quality of education, outputs, accessibility of education starting from pre-school and many relevant issues, said Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti, Secretary-General of the National Committee for Education, Culture and Science speaking at the opening session of the symposium.
The committee organises this meeting every year to highlight major issues addressed by the report at global level and educational indicators.
The report mentioned that around 61 million child between the ages of six and 11 years are still out of schools and the number in Qatar is not more than 1 percent which is very good, said Ferial Khan, Educational Programs Specialist at Unesco regional office in Doha. Ferial also highlighted that there are 60 million girls in the 12 -14 years age group out of the education system, in addition to 143 million between the ages of 15 and 17 years in various parts of the world.
Speaking about the content of the report, Ferial pointed out that, there is long way to go for achieving gender equality in education at global level. However, in Qatar the number of females completing their education is higher than males, she emphasised. Ferial who lauded Qatari and GCC state’s efforts in various area of education, emphasised the readiness of Unesco regional office to cooperate and provide the necessary support to competent authorities to improve the quality of education in the region.
The report is an annual document assessing global progress and achievements in the Dakar Educational Goals which include six internationally agreed education goals aiming to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults.
