News & Event

The Ministry of Education, represented by the Directorate-General of Curriculum Development, in cooperation with the Omani Environmental Services Holding Company (Beah), implemented last week on Thursday morning a training seminar on “Concepts of Sustainability and the Circular Economy,” The seminar targeted “two hundred” educational curriculum specialists, the senior supervisors in the Ministry’s General Diwan, and the educational directorates in the Governorates (Muscat - Al Batinah South - Al Batinah North - Al Dakhiliyah - North Al Sharqiyah). The seminar took place at the multi-purpose hall in the Ministry’s General Diwan.

The seminar was presented by Hafsa Al-Harrasi, Communication Specialist at the Center for Sustainability and Circular Economy, at Beah Company. The seminar included presentations about Beah Company, the strategic objectives in environmental awareness and education, presenting waste as a problem, the reasons for the increase in its production rate, quality and quantity, and daily practices to get rid of it, and the broad impacts of their production, (such as wasting natural resources, increasing the rate of public expenditures,) and increasing awareness of the importance of public hygiene.

The seminar also included the theoretical foundations of environmental education that touched on environmental awareness, education as a solution to the problem of waste production, and a focus on schools as laboratories to monitor good practices in waste management, and the mechanism for reducing waste production to be implemented with students. The seminar also included an introduction to sustainable consumption, to achieve the goal of reducing waste and purchasing practices, that contribute to changing the practical aspect, through wise shopping and purchase planning.

The seminar also included environmental academic programs, such as the programs implemented in schools in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, their objectives, and the target group, presenting sustainable environmental projects

for teachers, which were implemented in their schools, and the mechanism for implementing ideas to activate the “My Journey towards Sustainability” page in schools, and the mechanism of evaluation is by supervisors.

The training seminar aimed to strengthen the partnership with the teaching staff and school supervisors, by including environmental concepts in the school curricula, empowering the teaching staff in the field of environmental awareness, promoting sustainable consumption to reduce waste production, improving the environment, and achieving strategic goals linked to the sustainable development goals by improving public health, preserving natural resources, raising the quality of life, motivating students to shift towards positive environmental behaviors by adopting sustainable purchasing habits, involving the local community, and providing information and statistics that illustrate the importance of reducing waste production and its positive impact on the environment and society.

The seminar came within the framework of a memorandum of cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Beah Company to integrate the concepts of sustainability and the circular economy into school curricula, to spread the culture of resource management among emerging generations, enhance awareness of the importance of the circular economy, environmental education in schools, and encourage correct environmental behaviors.