- MoEHE calls for shift in global education policy as AI and new technologies rapidly transform classrooms
Qatar has concluded its participation in an international Unesco seminar in Paris with calls for teachers, school leaders and education practitioners to play a greater role in shaping global education policy as artificial intelligence (AI) and new technologies rapidly transform classrooms. The two-day meeting, organised in co-operation with the International Forum of Inclusion Practitioners (IFIP), brought together education professionals and policymakers, with Qatar represented by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE).
A key outcome was the signing of an agreement establishing the Global Education Group, designed to provide a more structured international platform for teachers, school leaders and education institutions to contribute to discussions on the future of education.
The director of the MoEHE’s Department of Private Schools and Kindergartens and acting director of its Schools Licensing Department, Dr Rania Yousri Mohammed, welcomed the initiative. She told the Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Qatar viewed the creation of the group under Unesco’s supervision as an important development in global education policymaking, particularly because it could help move the sector away from a top-down approach towards one in which teachers, school leaders, practitioners and students have a role in shaping education policy.
Dr Mohammed, who was invited to become one of the group’s founding members, said that it would be an opportunity to bring Qatar’s experience and the voice of education practitioners to the international stage, while helping narrow the gap between policymakers and those implementing education policies on the ground.
Teachers should not be the last people to hear about education policies, she said, and be involved in shaping them from the outset.
The seminar examined a range of issues, including the use of AI in education, inclusive education, vocational skills and training, educational innovation, and closer co-operation between teachers, school leaders and policymakers. Dr Mohammed said the success of the Global Education Group should not be measured by the number of meetings it holds or participants it attracts.
Instead, she said, its impact should be judged by whether it can turn the experience and concerns of education practitioners into recommendations, policies and measurable results. She identified three priorities: ensuring genuine and balanced representation of practitioners from different parts of the world, establishing a clear route through which recommendations can reach policymakers and international institutions, and creating a follow-up mechanism to measure how recommendations are translated into policies or projects.
Qatar, Dr Mohammed said, could contribute experience in areas including educational innovation, empowering schools and teachers, public-private partnerships, inclusive education and linking education with national development. She added that Qatar could also serve as a testing ground for new education initiatives, allowing their impact to be assessed and the results shared internationally.
The seminar also considered the role of education as a public good and a human right, particularly at a time when technological change risks increasing inequalities between countries and communities. Dr Mohammed said Qatar’s experience in social responsibility could provide another example for international discussion.
She pointed to a social responsibility project that provided more than 17,000 free or subsidised school places for eligible students, describing it as an example of how education policy can produce a direct social impact.
In the discussions on AI, participants examined how technology could be introduced without undermining the human relationship at the heart of education.
The Global Education Group, Dr Mohammed said, could help ensure that the debate over AI in education included the experience of practitioners rather than being dominated by technology specialists.
The objective, she said, should be to use AI to make education “better and more human”.
Qatar has called for education systems to focus more closely on future skills while urging stronger international action to protect the right to education during conflicts and emergencies. Dr Mohammed said preparing young people for a rapidly changing labour market would be a major challenge in the coming years.
Protecting education during conflicts was another key issue discussed at the seminar. Dr Mohammed said recent crises had shown that education was often among the first sectors to suffer when conflict breaks out.
She called for systems capable of continuing during emergencies through alternative learning platforms, safe spaces, psychological and educational support, protection for teachers, and mechanisms to recognise learning and qualifications when children move between countries.
She also said the Global Education Group could give teachers and practitioners working in conflict zones a direct voice in international discussions. Policymakers, she added, should listen to those working on the ground when designing responses to education crises. Dr Mohammed said that Qatar expects Unesco to play a greater role in international co-ordination, developing standards, protecting educational institutions, collecting data and helping countries build more resilient education systems.