Tribune News Network
Doha
The National Cyber Security Agency held a closing ceremony for the ‘Cyber Eco’ and the ‘Educational Cybersecurity Curricula’ in the private education sector for the current academic year 2023-2024, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
The ceremony was attended by Minister of Education and Higher Education, Her Excellency Buthaina bint Ali Al-Jabr Al-Nuaimi, and Engineer Abdulrahman bin Ali Al-Farahid Al-Malki, president of the National Cyber Security Agency.
During the ceremony, the two dignitaries honoured 19 outstanding students in the ‘Cyber Eco’ project and 11 distinguished schools at the national level.
On this occasion, Omar Abdulaziz Al Naama, assistant undersecretary for Private Education Affairs commended the National Cyber Security Agency for bolstering cybersecurity in schools in a tech-driven era where cybersecurity has gained immense importance, underscoring the need to educate students on cybersecurity issues to safeguard them from cyber threats and online bullying.
Al Naama emphasised the importance of guiding students to optimal and safe utilisation of the internet and electronic applications to enrich their learning experience, inspire them to explore their cybersecurity skills, promote innovation and creativity, raise awareness about online risks, teach them secure practices and assist them in keeping up with technological advancements.
In his closing remarks, he congratulated the winning students and their schools, urging them to persist in their work and development in the field of cybersecurity, while also acknowledging the efforts made by schools in fostering and supporting these inspiring initiatives.
On this occasion, Khaled Al-Hashmi, director of National Cyber Enablement and Excellence Affairs at the National Cyber Security Agency, highlighted that the “Cyber Eco” and the “Educational Cybersecurity Curricula” projects are crucial strategic initiatives that aim to enhance cyber security capabilities of the community. These projects align with the Agency’s vision of creating a secure cyber community, were all its segments are sufficiently able to tackle future challenges brought by the global accelerating technological revolution, pointing out that the cyber risks awareness program for school students has proven successful locally and globally.
Al-Hashmi praised the fruitful cooperation with public and private schools in implementing awareness projects, highlighting the diligent efforts and hard work of the joint team between the National Cyber Security Agency and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education before and during the execution of these projects.
Maha Zayed Al Ruwaili, assistant undersecretary for Educational Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, stressed on the significance of these initiatives and the fruitful partnership between the ministry and the National Cyber Security Agency. “The Educational Cybersecurity Curricula” project aims to deliver engaging and informative visual content to students at all educational levels, incorporating animated visuals to enhance their comprehension and spark their interest in digital safety and information security topics. Whereas, the “Cyber Eco” project seeks to digitally equip students across various educational stages, promoting a deeper understanding of cybersecurity and digital safety within the broader community and among school students. This is achieved by raising their awareness on the safe use the internet through field trips, training workshops, educational competitions, and awareness presentations. These activities cover the basics concepts of cybersecurity and digital citizenship.
Al-Ruwaili pointed out that the positive impact of these projects, evident through the quality of the cybersecurity related projects they participated in. She mentioned that 300 government and private schools have benefited from implementing these projects in the past two years, with plans to continue implementation in the rest of the schools in the coming years according to a future vision that focuses on spreading cybersecurity awareness to protect individuals and society from data breach and other incidents.
For her part, Dalal Al-Aqeedi, director of the National Cyber Excellence Department at the National Cyber Security Agency, stated that “Today’s ceremony aims to shed light on the outstanding results achieved by both projects, whether in enhancing students’ awareness of cybersecurity concepts and digital safety, or in external competitions, as we witnessed the selection of the “Cyber Eco” project among the best 4 projects in the World Summit on the Information Society Prizes WSIS2024.
Al-Aqeedi added that the ceremony witnessed the honouring of the best schools and distinguished students within the “Cyber Eco” project. It also highlighted the indicators and statistics that were achieved, and their positive impact.
She explained that the “Cyber Eco” and the “Educational Cybersecurity Curricula” reflect the agency’s interest in cyber education, stemming from the idea that cyber education and cyber knowledge begin with the education of children and youths. The interest in cyber education for students does not stop at this segment, but extends to encompass the entire society. Therefore, these projects can be described as strategic.
The Cyber Eco project is considered a pioneering and distinguished project in enhancing cybersecurity and digital safety by providing educational awareness content to students in various educational stages; through field visits to schools, implementing activities and events, and presenting the awareness content in an innovative and engaging manner, while moving away from the indoctrination style and traditional content. It targets students of public and private schools at various educational stages, as well as qualifying teachers and educational staff, and involving parents to enhance a digital safe environment.
The “Educational Cybersecurity Curricula” aims to build a new generation capable of securely and effectively deal with the digital world, and raise awareness of children and youths of various concepts and principles related to cybersecurity and digital safety. The curricula targets students at various educational stages from the first primary grade to the third secondary grade.
