Doha summit to address key questions in education sector

By Joseph Varghese/Staff ReporterThe World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) 2013 with the theme ‘Reinventing Education for Life’ will take place at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) from October 29-31. More than 1,200 prominent education, corporate, political and social leaders from over 100 countries will take part in three days of debate, dialogue and networking. The WISE 2013 programme will include interactive plenary sessions, debates, and focus sessions on innovative best practices or projects, along with workshops to facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration on specific issues.The 2013 WISE summit will study how innovation can close the gap between education, learning and life. The summit will explore  and analyse emerging trends and successful practices in order to address certain key questions in the education scenario.The three-day summit will open with a plenary session on ‘Reinventing Education for Life.’ The participants will reflect on how it can be ensured that learning is relevant to people’s everyday needs and aspirations and addresses real-world challenges and opportunities. The major topics of discussion on the opening day will be ‘Bringing Learning Life,’ ‘21st Century Citizenship: How to Balance Local and Global’, ‘Literacy and Numeracy’, ‘Making Goals a Reality’ and ‘How Much Does STEM matter?’On Day 2 and 3, sessions will focus on how international, national and local communities can provide and support lifelong learning that is accessible, lively and engaging. Issues to be discussed will include, ‘Teachers - Can we have education without teachers?’, ‘Data for education - What are the big questions we want big data to answer and for what purposes?’, ‘Risk, success and failures - Are entrepreneurial approaches to risk-taking relevant for educators?’, ‘MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) - Will MOOCs improve quality and access for all learners, or are they just the most recent fashion of the day?’, Frugal innovation - Can we do more with less?’ and ‘Technology - Is technology liberating learning?’Meanwhile, a large number of experts in education from around the globe have confirmed their participation as speakers in the WISE Summit 2013. Speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds will participate in different sessions exploring current educational challenges and highlighting innovative solutions. The WISE speakers are from among the leading practitioners, innovators, donors, thinkers and policy makers.