Dubai Cares, Expo 2020 to redefine education

A three-day global education summit, RewirEd, that will bring together heads of state, policy makers, thinktanks and NGOs, youth leaders and the private sector, will produce a first-of-its-kind dossier that will offer solutions to redefine education and make it sustainable and accessible to all, Dr Tariq Al Gurg, CEO and vice-chairman of Dubai Cares, said on Tuesday.

The first in-person education conference after COVID-19 will be held at the Dubai Exhibition Centre from December 12 to 14 on the sidelines of Expo 2020 and will coincide with the Expo’s Knowledge and Learning thematic week.

Speakers include Jakaya Kikwete, former president of Tanzania; Gordon Brown, the UN’s Special Envoy for Global Education and former UK prime minister; Shamma Al Mazrui, UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE and Director General of Expo 2020 Dubai, and Bob Moritz, Global Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, among others.

“All the outcomes of the three-day summit, we will put it in a dossier and get it to the United Nations so they can start designing and devising the first-ever goal or agenda towards a unified approach towards education,” Al Gurg said during a press briefing at Expo 2020.

Al Gurg said Dubai Cares has roped in international organisations like Uincef, Unesco, UNHCR, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the World Food Programme (WFP), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, as strategic partners of RewirEd.

“These are the global entities that can dictate the future of education,” said the Dubai Cares chief.

“The RewirEd Summit in Dubai represents a unique opportunity for the global education community to come together to jump-start and scale the positive and bold change we want to see in education. The education community is realising that now, more than ever, especially because of the large-scale disruption to education globally due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need for a seismic shift in education globally. We at Dubai Cares are proud to be spearheading this movement towards a global change,” said Al Gurg.

“We are delighted to bring together, for the first time in one place, some of the most prolific minds in the education sector to deliver a programme that will be both thought-provoking and challenging to the way we think about education. Over the course of the three-day flagship event, we will tackle some of the most pressing issues when it comes to forging a new path forward for education, so that it puts forward a new framework for creating an innovative, prosperous, sustainable and inclusive future for all.”

Omar Shehadeh, chief international participants officer at Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “The world is witnessing an unprecedented disruption of educational systems. Creative thinking, innovative solutions and technology must be deployed to ensure quality education for all. The RewirEd Summit, which is the flagship event during Expo2020 Dubai’s Knowledge and Learning Week, provides a platform to spark conversation among different people in efforts to generate new ideas on how to tackle the future of education.”