News & Event

HE Dr. Madiha bint Ahmed Al Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education, inaugurated the Technical Development Laboratory on Thursday last week at the Ministry's General Diwan, in cooperation with the Omani-Indian Fertilizer Company (OMFICO), in a ceremony held on this occasion.

HE Majid bin Said Al Bahri, Undersecretary of the Ministry for Administrative and Financial Affairs, attended the inauguration ceremony with Said bin Salim Al Salmi, Director-General of Human Resources and Work Culture at the Omani Indian Fertilizer Company (OMFICO), and a number of advisors and directors-general of the Ministry's General Diwan.

On this occasion, HE Majid bin Said Al-Bahri, Undersecretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs, said: “Based on the government policy that works to provide an opportunity for private sector institutions to contribute into development, and on the educational policy approach that emphasizes the need to cooperate with private sector institutions to contribute in developing the educational process and its resources, and keeping pace with modern digital developments and the dimensions of the fourth industrial revolution, the idea of establishing a laboratory for technological development in the education sector came to support the ministry's efforts in digital transformation, and a contribution from the Omani-Indian Fertilizer Company to harness part of its resources to develop the educational process.”

HE added: "The laboratory contributes to the development of smart digital systems and builds the capacities, skills and technical expertise of the Ministry's employees through the implementation of several workshops and development programs in various fields. The laboratory also addresses a number of smart technologies based on future technology, which contribute to supporting education trends and the continuous enrichment and digitization of the educational process without stopping on building a curriculum development plan. This laboratory also contributes to the development of e-learning by studying many supporting applications, or enabling capabilities, skills and technical expertise in this aspect, as well as helping to support the trends of institutional excellence in light of the laboratory's plans to study developmental educational projects enhanced by the use

of information and communication technology in education on an ongoing basis, as the laboratory is expected to provide its services to train more than (600) beneficiaries annually from various sectors in the Ministry.”

Said bin Salim Al Salmi, Director-General of Human Resources and Work Culture at the Omani Indian Fertilizer Company (OMFICO), said: “We are pleased and proud in (OMIFCO) of our cooperation with the Ministry of Education in supporting educational projects that contribute to the development of the innovation system in the Sultanate of Oman in general. The technical development laboratory project is part of the company's social responsibility programs group, to develop human capital, and to create a supportive environment to promote the technical, innovative, and creative development of national cadres.”

The inauguration ceremony began with a visual presentation on the lab’s objectives that the Ministry seeks to achieve, including information and communication technology, digital transformation in education, building capabilities and skills, empowering job performance, studying and developing digital projects, providing an attractive environment for all directorates, and motivating employees to give more.

After that, Dr. Badr Al-Hadidi, Awareness and Digital Services Specialist at the Directorate-General of Information Technology, gave a presentation of the general objectives of establishing this laboratory, including providing an incubating and supportive technical environment for capabilities and multitasking, and organizing and implementing training workshops and programs to build these capabilities. He also indicated the pillars of this laboratory which include a computer lab corner, a multipurpose discussion area corner, a brainstorming area corner, and a dedicated work booths corner. The presentation also touched on the stages of implementation of this laboratory, its operational and implementation plan, and reservation mechanisms, and how to provide feedback and continuous development.

After that, HE the Minister of Education and the attendees toured the corners of the laboratory, where in the discussion booth (1), an experimental project to raise awareness of virtual reality was shown, and in the discussion booth (2) displayed a presentation on developing the official website of the Ministry. In the laboratory, a presentation of technical services in schools (E-SCHOOL) was presented, in the brainstorming corner, the pilot project (Smart Student Card) was presented, and in the computer corner, a training workshop for the (Power Apps) program was presented.