Challenges Facing the Education System in Oman PDF

# Challenges Facing the Education System in Oman ### Challenges * **Management of Education:** * The need for strategic planning in the education sector. * The need to use data and statistical indicators to inform educational policy-making. * Education is being supervised by multiple b...

# Challenges Facing the Education System in Oman ### Challenges * **Management of Education:** * The need for strategic planning in the education sector. * The need to use data and statistical indicators to inform educational policy-making. * Education is being supervised by multiple bodies, especially in higher education. This leads to duplication of efforts and resources as well as weaknesses in strategic planning. * The need to reinforce administrative and financial autonomy in government educational institutions to facilitate more effective working practices. * **Students:** * The need to increase pre-school enrolment rates and to set policy for this stage of education. * The need to improve students' motivation towards learning, especially male students. * Limited workplace training opportunities for students throughout their studies. * The lack of suitable employment opportunities for graduates at different levels of education and the need to diversify the economy and create job opportunities throughout the country. * **Improvement of Quality Assurance:** * The need to improve school graduates' performance in Mathematics, Science, Arabic and English. * The need to equip students with 21st century skills and competencies such as analytical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation and research skills. * The proportion of Omani staff in higher education is very low. There is also a lack of professional development programmes provided for teaching staff. * There is a need to provide data and statistics on labour market needs to ensure alignment between education and the labour market. * **Research:** * There is a need to improve research in higher education institutions. * There is a lack of Omani personnel with the required research capacities in higher education institutions. * There is a need to increase the contribution of research in education institutions towards economic and social development. * **Financing:** * Education depends on government as its main source of finance and there is a lack of alternative sources. * Private education institutions depend on study fees as the main source of their funding. * There is a need to distribute resources evenly across school education and higher education to provide students with opportunities for study at various levels of education.