Abu-Ghazaleh and UNESCO Co-Chair ‘Innovation Standards in Education in the Arab Countries’ Workshop
AMMAN – The Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education (AROQA), in cooperation with the Regional Center for Quality and Excellence in Education (RCQE) – UNESCO, organized a workshop entitled ‘Innovation Standards and Indicators in Education in the Arab Countries’, co-chaired by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of AROQA, and Dr. Abdulrahman Almedaries, RCQE Director General.
The workshop was virtually held with the participation of a host of experts and researchers specialized in quality and innovation from the Arab countries with the aim of coming up with ideas, through brainstorming, to be formulated into standards and indicators by a specialized technical committee for submission  to the League of Arab states as proposed unified standards for the benefit of all Arab states.
During the event, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh commended cooperation between AROQA and the Center, highly emphasizing the importance of innovation in education in light of the current challenges the education sector globally faces. He affirmed the need to unify efforts to formulate unified standards for innovation to empower students all over the Arab region.
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh, who led the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF), then, chaired the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, stated that “we are witnessing one of the most influential transformations in human history: The Fourth Industrial Revolution that is based on Information Technology and characterized by the fusion of technologies in all domains". He also noted that the world will be led by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and its applications will help human beings develop and produce a generation of innovators and inventors.
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh continued to underline the importance of shifting to learning instead of teaching, saying that AROQA, under the honorary chairmanship of the League of Arab States, will make changes to its own regulations and objectives with the aim of offering its services in quality education for the purpose of innovation, and it will monitor the progress of implementation of quality in education.
For his part, Almedaries extended his gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh for his dedication and support to the education sector in the Arab world, pointing out that the workshop came by virtue of the previously signed agreement between the RCQE – UNESCO and AROQA, and the joint efforts to boost quality and innovation in education in the Arab countries,  and to review the best practices in this regard to be submitted to the decision makers within the education process.
He also expressed the  hope to conclude an agreement to introduce an education that is based on innovation, enhance competitiveness of student learning outcomes, achieve economic prosperity, and create innovative models to be followed, in order to build a more prosperous future for the Arab countries.
Moreover, Almedaries talked about the need to set up new systems in education to face challenges and respond to the new good quality in education, calling for more concentration on the "key drivers for education transformation and sustainable recovery solutions".
Meanwhile, participants in the workshop discussed innovation standards including governance and a welcoming environment that sustains freedom, productivity and support.
They concluded by expressing gratitude to AROQA and the RCQE – UNESCO for organizing the workshop, and reviewed case studies and points of view related to innovation and creativity as a preliminary steps toward formulating quality standards.