News & Event

The Ministry of Education, represented by the School Education Development and Restructuring Project Office, is organizing visits to raise awareness in the four schools that will apply vocational and technical education for the next academic year 2023/2024. These visits kicked off on Sunday and are up until today (Wednesday) and aim to introduce the tracks of business administration, information technology, study materials, teaching methods, and evaluation.

The vocational and technical education will be applied from the next academic year in the fields of business administration and information technology in the two schools in Muscat Governorate namely: Nusseibeh Bint Kaab for basic education, and Hafs bin Rashid for basic education, and in two schools in North Al Batinah Education, namely: Halima Al Saadia School in the Wilayat of Suwaiq, and Kaab Bin Barsha School in the Wilayat of Saham.

The introductory program began with a briefing presented by Ms. Mona Al Yahyai, from the Ministry of Education about the BTEC program, which is an international technical vocational program from Pearson Educational Company in partnership with the Modern College of Commerce and Science, as it qualifies students to obtain A2 level, which is equivalent to two subjects in the British Certificate GCE A LEVEL. The program includes 5 basic subjects (Islamic education, Arabic language, mathematics, and social studies), 4 specialized subjects in business administration (Introduction to business, commercial marketing, commercial decision-making, and training in the business world), and 4 specialized subjects in the field of information technology (Information Systems Management, Database Management, Programming and Development, Robotics, and social media in Business). Then, Ms. Abeer Al Belushi from the Modern College of Commerce and Science spoke about the English language program, which will be throughout the first semester with the basic subjects, and at the beginning of the semester a placement test for students will be held, which includes 100 multiple-choice questions, and will be based on reading, writing, listening, speaking, and other English language skills.

Dr. Said Al-Kitani, Assistant Dean at the Modern College of Commerce and Science, presented a paper in which he talked about the education ladder and levels, the importance of various educational systems, and touched on the challenges of

school education. He also presented BTEC solutions, including learning time, reducing the gap between school education and university education, the problem of the relationship between theory and application, achieving a balance between theoretical teaching and practical application, and evaluating the impact of learning with various assessment methods that focus on the acquired competencies.

On the introductory program, Dr. Atom Al-Khatri, Assistant Director of the School Education Management and Development Project Office and its structure , said: “The awareness program that is offered in selected schools for the application of technical and vocational education in the majors of business administration and information technology (BTEC), is a program to educate students in the tenth grade to choose these two majors to study in the next academic year in partnership and cooperation with the Modern College of Commerce and Science, and with the global international educational company Pearson, with the provision of detailed information about the two majors.” She also added: “The two majors are of a professional, technical, and applied nature, and most of the teaching methods that will be implemented are applications, experiments, projects, explorations, investigation, and action research.”

Students who will join the BTEC program will receive two certificates: a certificate from the Ministry of Education, and a certificate from Pearson, a certificate recognized in many countries of the world, which helps them to join the labor market directly, and compete in standard admission to complete studies in most non-scientific disciplines.