author - oman observer

With the most recent and catastrophic climactic events in North Africa, the floods in Libya and the earthquake in Morocco, climate change has once again shown its threatening face.It is not only these...

Professor Braj Kachru, the famous linguist, divided the English speaking world into 3 circles: the native speaker, the circle for whom it is a second, active language, and an expanding circle. This...

As the new academic year has well and truly set in, it is a good time to reflect on the extent to which teacher’s roles are no longer limited to giving facts and information, disciplining the class,...

It is almost time for universities and colleges in the Sultanate of Oman and elsewhere to begin a new academic year. This is preceded with much excitement for first year students who are looking...

Its ‘back to school’ everywhere – in supermarkets, department stores, even food shops with their endless suggestions of meals to put in children’s lunch boxes. An entire industry gets together...

The coming academic year will perhaps be the first time that artificial intelligence (AI) tools will be comprehensively used in some form or the other in schools and colleges. After all, it was only...

With the worldwide craze over the twin film releases of July – ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’, commonly called ‘Barbenheimer’, the debate about whether a film is better than the book it is...

We are all guilty of procrastination – the tendency to postpone chores, usually of the routine or dreaded kind. Assignments, reports, even fixing the slightly leaking tap at home, all are found to...

We have all used emojis by now – smiley faces, hearts, winks, and red hot angry faces. The best? The eye roll for when nothing else will do.Language experts have studied the various ways in which...

As the General Education (High School) diploma results were announced in Oman on Thursday, there has been much talk about future options, and mainly about which majors to choose in college or...

With fast paced innovations in education, it is often difficult to keep up. Gone are the days of white chalk and a blackboard today actually means a digital educational platform. We have also moved on...

Before the internet became just another part of our lives, ‘I am bored’ would be a common refrain from children during the long, hot summer holidays. That may or may not be the case now, but...

It may sound strange sitting in the sultry heat of Muscat, but the southern tip of Oman is presently experiencing the mystic, magical weather otherwise known as the monsoons.Derived from the Arabic...

With a long summer break awaiting school and university students, there is much anticipation of how to spend the days and nights: long hours of shared family time, socialising with friends and of...

It is admission time for colleges and students often follow a variety of websites with suggestions on how to choose the right one for their purpose. Their choice is mainly determined by location,...

This is the season for a variety of academic results – school students get their final grades before going into their new classes, university students move on to another year and some of the...

Facing a class of students, all in their early 20s, I was casually explaining a postcard in the context of a poem. Looking at their blank faces, I realised they didn’t know what a postcard looked...

Many people are making mental and physical plans with the summer holidays fast approaching. These include visiting home countries, discovering new places or even indulging oneself with a...

Geoffrey Hinton, now 75, a man commonly labelled as the “godfather of AI” recently resigned from his job at Google Inc, warning that the future with Artificial Intelligence (AI) was “scary”....

In 1953, when Queen Elizabeth was crowned Queen of Great Britain at the age of 25, the kingdom was predominantly Christian. Women were just beginning to join the workforce in large numbers, the...