Muscat – H E Dr Madiha bint Ahmed al Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education, inaugurated the Technical Development Laboratory recently in cooperation with the Omani-India Fertilizer Company (OMFICO), in a ceremony held on the occasion.

H E Majid bin Said al Bahri, Undersecretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs at MoE, attended the inauguration ceremony with Said bin Salim al Salmi, Director-General of Human Resources and Work Culture at OMFICO, and a number of advisors and directors-general of the Ministry’s General Diwan.

On the occasion, H E Bahri said that the idea of establishing a laboratory for technological development in the education sector came to support the ministry’s efforts in digital transformation.

“The lab comes into force based on the government policy that works to provide an opportunity for private sector institutions to contribute to the development of the country, and on the educational policy that emphasises 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.”

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 programmes 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.”