by Abigail Roch
International Baccalaureate Director General Olli-Pekka Heinonen has strengthened the collaboration with the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO) at a conference this month.
ICESCO and the Omani Ministry of Education hosted the 3rd Conference of ICESCO Education Ministers in Muscat on 2nd and 3rd October. Olli-Pekka Heinonen visited H.E Dr Salim M. AlMalik – Director General of ICESCO – to discuss the improvement of educational outcomes in Islamic countries.
He delivered a speech on“Developing Teaching Quality” which has become a joint policy paper and marks the collaboration between ICESCO and the IB.
The IB Director General said: “We are asking [teachers] to change how they teach, what they teach and their role, their professional identity to move from passive to active, from transferring knowledge to become the creators and designers of learning.”
He agreed with the Saudi Arabian Minister of Education Mr. Yousef Bin Abdullah al-Banyan who stated that education ministries must be closer to schools.
Olli-Pekka Heinonen added that they need to understand what teachers’ everyday challenges are, and that teachers also need to be aware of the challenges the ministries face. He also emphasised the importance of communication.
The IB curriculum was created 56 years ago by “educators wanting to create an education system that would enable and support the creation of a better and more peaceful world through education”, said Heinonen.
The IB organisation works in 160 countries with approximately 6,000 schools which have had the opportunity with ICESCO to prepare a report for this conference on developing quality teachers.
Heinonen believes that there are three requirements that teachers should abide by to stay in education: “First of all the love and care for students, the second is the passion for learning, and the third is the commitment to the transformative power of education to change lives [and] to develop societies.”
IB Director General Olli-Pekka Heinonen then joined Global Director of Business Development Haif Bannayan, Chief Education Officer Shehzad Jeeva and IB Senior Manager Mary Tadros to visit the ABA Oman International School – the first school in Oman to offer the whole IB curriculum.
LYIS thought piece: This conference is a step forward for the International Baccalaureate which is visibly gaining more importance around the world. It should encourage international schools to take into consideration the “Developing Teaching Quality” report.
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