LEADING experts will speak at a global education event to be held in Bahrain next month.
The speakers include representatives from Harvard University, the World Bank and Save the Children.
The Education Project, to be held from October 15 to 17 at the Shaikh Isa Cultural Centre and National Library, Juffair, will begin with a lively debate on the state of educational outcomes.
The discussion will be chaired by Tony Wagner, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education 'Change Leadership Group'.
It will ask the question why education levels fail to meet expectations and why reform programmes designed to resolve the problem often do not have the desired effect.
"The Education Project will bring together leading experts from across the globe and from all facets of academic world," said event supporter Economic Development Board chief executive Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa.
"Most have spent a lifetime committed to the cause; they understand what works and what does not.
"And they are passionate about identifying concrete solutions to one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Education is the single most important factor in bringing stability, productivity and prosperity to all societies."
Participants include: Francois Barrault, former chief executive officer at BT Global Services and head of BT Innovate; Helen Pinnock, education adviser at Save the Children, UK; Bahram Bekhradnia, director at the UK's Higher Education Policy Institute; Angela Ho, head of the Educational Development Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Dan Shine, president of the 50x15 Foundation and senior adviser of Corporate Global Citizenship, World Economic Forum; Dennis Shirley, from Lynch School of Education, Boston College and James Knight, president and chief executive officer at the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.
The conference aims to identify practical solutions for the gap in the quality of the global education
system.
Organisers hope to encourage commitment from both the private and public sector to adapt proven models of innovation for wider roll-out, matching donors with projects to enable real outcomes.
Other representatives from Harvard and the World Bank are also set to address the event.
Dr Janice Jackson from the Harvard School of Education will discuss the need to improve long-term learning outcomes through pre-school education.
The session will include a focus on the full educational life-cycle of a child, finding the balance between developing social and emotional skills with structured academic learning (play versus learning), reducing delinquency, and supporting disadvantaged children.
In a separate session, Dr Jackson will offer thoughts on rekindling a passion for teaching to foster ownership of change, development and improvement.
Adriana Jaramillo, the World Bank's senior education specialist for the Middle East and North Africa, will discuss where the funding will come from and assessing the various models including public-private partnerships.
She will also discuss whether increased competition between academic institutions for students - and income - leads to draining poorer regions of strong students, teachers and researchers, if this is inevitable and whether the best talent should be encouraged to go where they are most challenged and put their expertise to the greatest use.
The conference is free to attend for educational professionals from all sectors as well as from public and private sector institutions with an interest in developing new models and standards in education.
For further information visit: www.educationprojectbahrain.org.
The key sessions at the Education Project are - The state of affairs of educational outcomes (televised debate); Where is the funding to come from? Public-private partnerships?; The structure of the school system: Centralising Vs. Decentralising; An early start: Increasing long-term learning outcomes through pre-school education; Attracting students to vocational training, Equipping all levels of the sector with leadership and change management skills; What will it take to attract the best and brightest to the teaching profession? and Taking seeds of success to scale (televised debate),
