Technology and entrepreneurship should be made part of school curriculum to equip future generations of the Sultanate of Oman, suggests a young educationist who won the National Research Award given by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. Yasir al Shuhumi’s project ‘Studying the reality of pioneering education and future technology in school education in the Sultanate of Oman’ won the award in the Education and Human Resources field under the Young Researcher’s category.
Al Shuhumi, a young researcher from the Ministry of Education studied the reality of entrepreneurial education and technology in school education in Oman.
He analysed the role of technology in school education in Oman and explored the projects to train students in the field of future technology in Omani schools.
The study is expected to assist the decision-makers in developing the educational system in line with local and international trends in the economic and technological fields.
“During my study of the Education system of Oman, I found that only 28 per cent of future technology technologies were covered in school curricula and that there was no clear formal application of future technology entrepreneurship in schools,” Yasir told the Observer.
“Most of the technology in use was presented to students in a theoretical manner that did not fetch the desired results such as empowering them with skills for entrepreneurship. Additionally, the information technology curricula were not updated in line with the development and global trends, as the world tends to teach future technologies and go beyond teaching the basics of information technology,” he said.
The results of his study showed that there were no organised and planned projects or activities for school principals, educational activities specialists and career guidance specialists in the field of future technology.
Added to it, the vocational guidance centre based on entrepreneurship in schools did not have any current programmes dedicated to training and mentoring students in technology.
The challenges facing entrepreneurial education in schools are the lack of specialised teachers, weak training and the ambiguity of the idea of implementing entrepreneurship in the field of future technology in schools.
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