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Malek Helali
Doha
The Emir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani patronised the 2017 Education Excellence Day Award ceremony at Doha Sheraton Hotel on Wednesday.
The Emir honoured the winners and met some of the outstanding students. The Emir praised the winners for their achievements, hard work and perseverance that made them a source of pride.
The Emir urged the winners to pursue excellence so that they can serve the community and nation better and help in the process of development and growth.
Minister of Education and Higher Education HE Dr Mohammed bin Abdul Wahid al Hammadi highlighted the ministry's efforts in promoting excellence and further refining the quality of education in the country.
The Excellence Day ceremony marking its 10th anniversary was also attended by sheikhs, ministers, diplomats, education officials, parents, students and guests.
"The Education Excellence Award maintained the same enthusiasm it started with 10 years ago in 2007 and continue to encourage the increasing number of ambitious applicants to unleash their creativity and human potential by competing and contributing to the enhancement of the educational outcome," Hammadi said.
There are a total of 46 winners -- 20 are primary school students, two preparatory school students, nine secondary school pupils, eight higher education students, two teachers, one school, two research papers and two doctorate projects.
Hammadi added,"Four hundred and twenty-five talented students were honoured 180 in the secondary degree category, 116 in the University degree category and 23 in the PhD category, in addition to other talented youngsters in the primary and preparatory phases, scientific research, outstanding school and outstanding teacher categories."
Furthermore, the minister pointed out the outstanding achievements attained by Qatar in regards to education reflected by its ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report 2016-17 as it came third globally and first in the region in terms of the quality of education.
Speaking to Qatar Tribune on the sidelines of the ceremony, Dr Darwish al Emadi, a member of the Evaluation Committee, underlined the huge improvement in quality of work submitted by the applicants over the years.
"Over the past 10 years, I could really see a great improvement in the quality of work we actually receive. For instance, when we first started, there wasn't as much emphasis on publication. However, applicants are now more focused on publishing as more research is generated through their work. There has been more emphasis on research addressing the social, administrative and financial issues within society," Dr Emadi explained.
Dr Emadi also noted that there have been occasional refinements of the evaluation criteria.
On the outcomes of the award, Dr Emadi said,"We have an entrepreneurial centre in Qatar University where ideas are incubated and taken from the initial stages to commercialisation. Some small projects we see in the market emerged through this award. We collaborate with the Development Bank that supports these initiatives by financing as well as the Qatar Business Incubation Center."
