Giving the young a voice to air their views From- www.gulf-times.com

From- http://www.gulf-times.com

The World Innovation Summit for Education (Wise) Learners’ Voice will become an all-year round activity providing opportunities to young to advocate and develop their skills,” Wise chairman Dr Abdullah bin Ali al-Thani announced yesterday.

“Because young people are the future of education and in order to make them the link between Wise and the learning community as well as to give them a voice to air their views, we have decided to make Learners’ Voice a year-round event,” he said during a closing remarks. 

Dr Ali al-Thani also announced that Wise 2012 will be held from November 13-15 and that an online publication on innovation will soon be published for the Wise community to continue receiving their contributions in the virtual forum until next Wise.

However, he called for the need to consolidate the momentum developed during the summit while re-echoing HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser’s announcement that Wise will support the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals of achieving the basic universal education for all children by 2015 as well as the plan to award any project aimed at innovative education financing.

“The synergies we have created towards achieving innovations are most effective for Wise because it is your initiative, take the spirit back to your respective countries and become Wise ambassadors,” he noted.

In a special address, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of the formerly known Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (Brac), who was awarded the world’s first major prize for education by HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, highlighted key issues for future in the education sphere saying: “Early childhood development is being dealt with within the context of nutrition only whereas it needs more than that such as physical-impacting on their motor skills and cognitive development that will improve their knowledge thus facilitating learning.”

He said that it was essential to equip children of today with social and emotional tools in order to navigate the 20th century.

“Education must prepare citizens of tomorrow on how to thrive in the future by giving them the right tools and technologies for universal access,” he said.