Addressing the 13th Education Excellence Day award ceremony, held yesterday, HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi expressed his thanks and gratitude for His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s honour and patronisation of the ceremony, and the Amir’s gracious sponsoring of this award since its inception 13 years ago.
HE al-Hammadi hailed the important role and sincere efforts of the late former minister of education and higher education Sheikha Ahmed al-Mahmoud, who contributed to the development of education in Qatar and was one of the founders of the Education Excellence Award. 
He indicated that this edition of the award has witnessed a qualitative development in terms of the nature of participations and the honoured persons, as about 300 students and educational institutions compete for this award, 83 of whom met the criteria for excellence.
The minister added that this year has witnessed the participation of a greater number of military educational institutions, such as the Police College and the Al Zaeem Air College, in addition to the Ahmed Bin Mohamed Military College which participated in the past. 
He pointed out that this edition witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of honorees in the higher education category, especially among students and graduates of national universities. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education, he said, has been working to provide the best educational cadres and develop their capabilities through training programmes that adopt the best standards and are consistent with the Qatari values and culture, and cover 19 specialities targeting school principals, management staff and teachers. 
He affirmed in his speech that Qatar has spared no effort in providing all means of care and privileges at home and abroad, noting that as an encouragement for the outstanding persons in the educational field, they will be provided the opportunity to be ambassadors of the State of Qatar at relevant regional and international conferences and forums.
On behalf of the honoured, award winner in the category of master’s degree Mohamed al-Hosani expressed delight at His Highness the Amir’s patronage of the ceremony and honouring of the winners of the Education Excellence Award, stressing that the wise leadership paid great attention to education as the engine of progress, and provided all the capabilities necessary to build a world-class educational system, allowing the Qatari citizens to develop their creativity and innovation while adhering to the values of our true religion and our authentic Arab culture.
He also pledged that this day will not be the end but rather the beginning of a new excellence in education and in building the bright future of our beloved country Qatar.


Education Award contributes to spreading spirit of innovation

Assistant Undersecretary for Educational Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Fawzia al-Khater said yesterday that celebrating the Education Excellence Award and honouring the outstanding of Qatar embodies the commitment of Qatar to developing the capacities of its sons, and its keenness on unlocking their potentials, encouraging individuals to scientific research and prompting institutions to develop their performance.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education on the occasion of the 13th Education Excellence Day award ceremony held yesterday, al-Khater said that celebrating the Education Excellence Day also contributes to spreading the spirit of innovation and competition among researchers and directing individual and institutional energies towards excellence and moving towards the creation of knowledge locally and globally.
She underlined that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education spares no efforts in providing all support and assistance to sponsor researchers and offer all potentials for their advancement, stemming from its belief that human development is the real wealth, which was proved clearly through the outputs resulted each year by the new researches and researchers that enrich the scientific process and development path in Qatar.
With the launch of the 13th Education Excellence Award, the ministry is proud to witness the launch of a new batch of its outstanding researchers, al-Khater said, noting that each year the award sees a generation of distinguished sons in all areas, it is the generation which the State aspires for to continue the process of progress and development. As the world is moving rapidly towards scientific research, discovery and creativity, Qatar was the first to launch this award, which is sponsored and blessed by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, al-Khater added. She congratulated all winners of the Education Excellence Award, praising their efforts and their perseverance to win the award, and looking forwards their win to be a continued development for their achievements, in order to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030. The Education Excellence Award aims to enhance creativity and innovation among students and educational institutions, promote the concepts of excellence and creativity through adopting international standards and implementing quality programmes, and to achieve integration of individual and institutional efforts to improve the educational process outputs in Qatar. The award also aims to recognise its scientifically distinguished students, honour them and celebrate their achievements, in addition to deepening the concepts of distinction, encouraging all individuals and educational institutions to develop their performance, and promoting positive trends towards knowledge and scientific research. The award also aims at spreading the spirit of creativity among students, researchers and educational institutions, raising the spirit of competition between individuals and educational institutions in the field of scientific excellence.
Qatar celebrates the Education Excellence Day every year, whereby the award is granted to the winners in its nine categories: Education Excellence Award for primary students; Education Excellence Award for preparatory students; Education Excellence Award for secondary students; Education Excellence Award for University Graduates; Education Excellence Award for Masters Degree holders; Education Excellence Award for Doctorate Degree Holders; Outstanding Teacher Award; Outstanding School Award; and Outstanding Scientific Research Award.