Doha set to hold WISE 2013 summit

By Joseph Varghese/Staff ReporterOne of the premier global education conferences, The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) 2013 will be held at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) from October 29-31. This year’s conference will have ‘Reinventing Education for Life’ as its theme.With just a week to go for the summit, more than 1,200 prominent education, corporate, political and social leaders from over 100 countries are expected to gather for the event in Doha. The conference will explore how collaboration in many forms and at many levels can become the driving force of efforts to inspire innovation in education and to design long-term strategies.The conference will focus on studying how innovation can close the gap between education, learning and life. WISE defines learning as fundamental to life and key to each individual’s ability to connect with others and to participate fully in professional, cultural and civic life. The summit will explore  and  analyse emerging trends and successful practices in order to address certain key questions in the education scenario.The WISE 2013 programme includes interactive plenary sessions, debates, and focus sessions on innovative best practices or projects, along with workshops to facilitate cross-sect oral collaboration on specific issues. The summit will discuss ways to bridge the widening gap between the existing knowledge and the required learning  to meet the challenges and aspirations of societies and individuals around the world. The three-day summit will also see the announcement of the winner of  WISE Prize for Education 2013. Similarly,  during the summit, the six winners of WISE Awards 2013 will be honoured for their innovative  educational projects.  The  summit will open with a plenary session. 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?’ among others.A large number of experts in education from around the globe will  participate  in different sessions of the conference as speakers and moderators exploring current educational challenges and highlighting innovative solutions. WISE, an initiative of Qatar Foundation under the patronage of its Chairperson HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, was established in 2009. It is an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative thinking, debate and purposeful action in order to build the future of education through innovation.