LOC18:07
15:07 GMT
KUWAIT, Oct 21 (KUNA) -- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce and Industry and Acting Minister of Education and Higher Education Abdulmohsen Al-Madaj on Tuesday called for caring for the youth, protecting them against deviant thoughts and in the meantime inculcating values of national loyalty in their minds.
Opening the 23rd ministerial conference of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Arab Education Office here today, Al-Madaj urged collaboration of efforts to overcome the hard conditions the region is going through to maintain stability.
The two-day conference brings together Ministers of Education from the member states in the GCC Arab Education Office.
The office has been seeking development of education policies through 18 programs that cover fields like education systems, concepts of quality, financing education, assessment of education administration and organizing training courses and research contests, the Minister said.
Al-Madaj emphasized the importance of promoting Arabic, saying that 11 programs were devoted to developing policies for teaching the language and qualifying instructors, as well as reinforcing the Arab dimension in education.
He recalled the decision by the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in October 2012, setting December 18 every year as "Arabic Language Day."
Prominent achievements in education and higher education in the GCC and Yemen are source of pride, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani told the gathering.
He stressed that the participant countries strongly believe in the importance of education for sustainable development.
Al-Zayahi noted that they are looking for more education achievements, referring to the challenges facing the region on the political, security, economic and social levels.
The conference is held amid complicated political and security conditions in the Middle East, as some countries in the region are experiencing escalating violence and chaos, he said.
It is sorrowful and regrettable that the victim of the extremist and terrorist thoughts is the youth who are regarded as the tool for the aspired development and leaders of the future, he added. (end)
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