News & Event

HE Dr. Khalfan bin Said Al Shuaili, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning auspice this (Sunday) morning, the opening of the symposium “The Future of School Buildings” organized by the Ministry of Education in line with the Urban October Conference implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning this October under the slogan “Urban Planning and Sustainability of Cities.” The symposium is taking place at the Oman Convention and Exhibitions Center.

The symposium began with the Ministry of Education’s speech delivered by Hamad Al Rashdi, Advisor to the Minister of Education for Administrational Affairs, in which he said: “The school building is pivotal basis for learning outcomes and is one of the basic components of the educational learning process. Scientific studies agree on its growing impact on levels of school performance and levels of academic achievement, including multi-use facilities, educational means, and technical and electronic devices. The school building has witnessed continuous development during the last five decades in order to achieve the requirements of developing education and its study plans. To keep pace with the urban development in the Sultanate of Oman, technical, engineering, and architectural design maps of the school building have been updated in accordance with the approved construction specifications, and multiple educational facilities have been created and enhanced with the latest devices, equipment, tools, and educational means in response to successive educational developments.”

Al Rashdi added: “In light of the rapid scientific and technological developments and their contribution in advancing the urban planning in all its various aspects, this symposium comes to explore the future of school buildings in partnership with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning to prepare a general framework for the components of school building facilities in the future and the scientific, technical and artistic equipment it contains that keeps pace with modern educational developments based on the vision of the Ministry of Education represented by (high-quality education integrated with multi-track technology that enhances innovation, entrepreneurship, and skills building) and is consistent with the national strategy for urban development emanating from Oman Vision 2024.”

Over the course of the two days of the symposium, (23) papers are reviewed, addressed by speakers of different nationalities who review their expertise and experiences in multiple topics within the fields of planning policies, construction designs, educational environment, and financial sustainability, in the presence of (300) participants from various categories of the educational community, civil society, and parents’ councils, as well as students sharing their visions and aspirations for the school building’s facilities and contents using artificial intelligence technology as they are the focus of the educational process.

The symposium discusses the topic (planning policies for the school building), and the aspects of planning policies for establishing schools in the future, in line with national strategies, and aspects of selecting schools, their locations, type, and capacity. The second topic is (structural design of the school building), from which several aspects emerge, including the contemporary engineering design of the school building in accordance with the Omani environment, the engineering and architectural technical specifications of the school building, and the engineering technical specifications of school facilities in general. The third topic is (the educational environment in the future school building) which addresses the future school environment in light of the visions of developing education in the Sultanate of Oman, and the trends in implementing vocational and technical education, with a focus on the educational dimensions in the school building, in accordance with the visions of students and teachers and their future expectations. The final topic is (alternatives for financing the financial sustainability of school buildings in new urban plans) which addresses the aspects that support achieving financial sustainability in line with future trends in finding appropriate planning integration in this field.

On the first day of the symposium, two sessions were held, where Dr. Ali bin Humaid Al-Jahwari, Director-General of the Directorate-General of Education in Muscat Governorate, chaired the first session, which included the presentation of five papers. Dr. Zainab Al-Balushi and Dr. Fatima Al-Balushi from the Ministry of Education, the first paper entitled: “Future visions for school buildings: an analysis of the opinions of students and the administrative and teaching bodies in the schools of the Sultanate of Oman.” In the topic of planning policies, Afrah Al Zadjali, from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning presented the second paper, entitled “Planning Standards for School Building Sites.” In the educational environment in school buildings, Dr. Muhammad Al Abri from the School Education Quality Assurance Center at the Omani Authority for Academic Accreditation and Education

Quality Ensuring, presented the third paper titled “School climate and learning environment in the school performance evaluation system in the Sultanate of Oman.” Dr. Saud Al Ameri from the Ministry of Education presented the fourth paper on “Technology in Schools of the Future.” The fifth paper was on the topic of planning policies, titled “School Planning in Sultan Haitham City,” presented by Al-Hassan Al-Shukri from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning.

Shamsa Al Abri from Muscat Municipality chaired the second session, which included the presentation of (4) papers, where Gram Fisher presented the first paper in the structural design theme entitled “Designing a Stimulating Learning Experience,” and Sonia Pangle presented the second paper in the planning policies theme entitled “Re-envisioning Our Cities: Education at the Heart of Planning.” Benjamin William presented the third paper entitled “Shaping the Place of the Future School: A Set of Patterns to Provide Innovative and Integrated Learning Environments.” The fourth paper was titled “School Interior Design in the Sultanate of Oman and the Extent of Its Impact on the Student,” and presented by Daniel Schultz.

The symposium is accompanied with two cornors of the Ministry of Education, Said Al-Kalbani, Senior Digital Services Specialist, said: “Based on the Ministry of Education’s keenness to integrate technology into education and all its services and facilities and its endeavor to attract and participate with all members of society with their ideas and perceptions about the future of school buildings, the Ministry worked to operate two corners accompanying the symposium: the first is a special corner for artificial intelligence, in which students, teachers, engineers, painters, and parents participate to produce pictures and drawings, whether using digital design or artificial intelligence, to express their ideas, perceptions, and aspirations for what the school building could, using advanced models of artificial intelligence that transform students’ thoughts into images reflecting their true ideas and aspirations, and are easier to read and recognize.”

The artificial intelligence team in the Ministry of Education also worked hard to create visions for future schools according to what artificial intelligence itself predicts. In addition to activating technology further and attracting students’ ideas, the Minecraft application was activated, which a group of students used to express their ideas and perceptions through building a virtual environment that contains the school building, its facilities, and its services. As part of its keenness to benefit from the ideas of digital engineers and designers, the corner attracted a group of them and

expressed their ideas through digital drawing with the use of artificial intelligence in improving the ideas, which produced visualizations of school buildings that are compatible with many standards and are in line with the future of education.

As for the second cornor, the Ministry directed it to review the developments in work and achievements made by the Ministry and the directorates in various aspects that support the educational process and society. Some of the participating directorates also reviewed their plans and aspirations for the coming period in line with the Ministry’s plans to move towards a bright educational future.