SALALAH -- Oman has experienced huge change in the pattern of education over the past few years in terms of reforms, curriculum, teaching-learning processes and students concerns. The Sultanate thus has thus been on the forefront not just on economic growth but also on human development index and human resource development through education. A research paper on 'New Trends in Education and their Implications' touched upon the new trends that include focus on updating and developing the academic institutions so that they can be at par with established institutions so as to attract large number of students for enrolment. The country's education policy intends to offer the Omani youth the opportunity not only to acquire the academic and professional skills, but also to have a capacity for original thoughts to study thoroughly with deep concern for their country's civilisation with its great historical heritage.
"The past few years have shown that the Gulf countries have taken bold steps in terms of bringing in internationalisation by letting the foreign universities establish their campuses for the local students." The paper cited international tie ups with premier universities with Omani universities and colleges as also in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. These initiatives, according to the paper, are being successfully implemented in the Gulf region. The paper was presented recently by two faculty members of Salalah College of Applied Sciences at the International Conference on New Trends in Education and their Implications, in Antalya, Turkey. Dr Neeta Baporikar of International Business Administration (IBA) and Vandana Jyotirmayee of Communication Studies highlighted many positive trends being initiated by the Sultanate in the recent past.
The paper sought a balance between catering to the local needs and maintaining the standards and expectations on the international levels as "it is difficult to decide between the importance of traditional societal mission of education and the commercialisation of education." The paper termed the recent trends in the higher education sector as "an academic revolution in the past half century which is marked by unprecedented transformations in its scope and diversity." The paper states that it is not an easy task for any country, institution or individuals to take up the challenges of education. "Arguably, the developments of the recent past are at least as dramatic as those in the 19th century when the research university evolved, first in Germany and then elsewhere and fundamentally redesigned the nature of the university worldwide."
The paper examined the changes that took place since 1990's in Sultanate of Oman. It also examined the main engines of change and their impact on higher education. And the main engines for change have been identified in the forms of greater social mobility for a growing segment of the population; new patterns of funding higher education, increasingly diversified higher education systems, generally an overall lowering of academic standards, and other tendencies. The paper finds new trends in the areas of globalisation, technical and information literacy, enrolment retention and branding. The trends are seen also in the fields of evolution of teaching and learning, pedagogical centres and innovative campus and edutainment.
© Oman Daily Observer 2014
