Abu Dhabi: Ensuring that happiness pervades the UAE’s education sector is a shared responsibility, and it requires both teachers and students to value their respective roles, a top education official said in the capital on Tuesday.
“Teachers must see the importance of the work they do, respect their roles and create a positive environment at school. Only then can they be happy and keep students happy too,” urged Dr Ali Al Nuaimi, director-general at the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).
He was speaking at the Khalifa Award for Education International Conference, a two-day forum that concluded on Tuesday. The conference saw nearly 2,000 educators discuss advances and challenges in the sector, including this year’s reforms in the public school curriculum, the merger of three prominent Abu Dhabi universities and the unification of the UAE’s two education-related ministries.
Educators in attendance on the second day focused on how to improve happiness within the education sector.
Hussain Ebrahim Al Hammadi, UAE Minister of Education (MoE), told Gulf News on the sidelines of the event that the ministry is currently working to measure happiness in a scientific manner.
“We began work on setting up a data centre last year. This will collect hundreds of indicators on a real-time basis, and many of these will help us evaluate teachers’ and students’ level of happiness,” he explained.
“We are positive that these will further reflect the UAE’s high levels of happiness,” he added.
In 2015, the UAE was ranked 28th on the United Nations World Happiness Report. This year, the leadership also appointed the country’s first Minister of State for Happiness, Uhoud Khalfan Al Roumi, who has urged institutions and the community to prioritise the pursuit of happiness.
According to Dr Al Nuaimi, teachers should also maximise their happiness by sharing their responsibilities and working in teams.
Al Hammadi said the MoE is also working to organise more professional development for educators.
“As for students, we have reformed the curriculum to challenge and engage them, and are placing much more emphasis on their physical and mental well-being. At the same time, school premises are being refurbished to promote a positive environment for all,” he said.
