The Education Committee of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) has called for better public-private partnerships in the education sector to achieve greater goals and reduce government spending on education. Achieving the goals of Oman 2040 Vision is also an objective of this partnership.
Speaking during the joint meeting of the Education Committee of the OCCI, Ahmed bin Saeed al Balushi, Chairman of the Chamber’s Education Committee, said activating the partnership between the public and private sectors will see better quality education which can produce more qualified and skilled workers.
“Having more public-private partnerships through holding meetings in different economic sectors and forming joint committees will fetch in substantial changes to our education sector, while the private sector can play a greater role in reducing government spending,” he said adding that the rate of government and private spending on education sectors is the highest among other sectors.
The Education Committee has identified that the school and pre-school education sector faces many challenges, and these obstacles have been exacerbated in the wake of the financial crisis as a result of the current pandemic.
“It was the educational sector which was the first to be completely closed, and the sector includes a large number of workers in terms of faculty, management, students, and workforces in those sectors that support the education sector, such as transportation, nutrition, and the like. All their problems need to be addressed in a constructive manner and solutions need to be identified that would contribute to the return of tens of thousands to work and study in the private sector,” added Al Balushi.
The meeting, which was attended by Ridha bin Juma al Saleh, Chairman of the OCCI, and Shaikh Nasr bin Amer al Hosni, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Labour for Labour, also discussed a number of challenges being faced by educational institutions in the private sector, including the demand to change the classification of the activity of private school education institutions from commercial to service educational activity, in addition to activating part-time work contracts and activating special work contracts for Omani teachers linked to the school year.
“It’s crucial in building up a high-quality educational environment that would create a conscious generation of tomorrow,” said the OCCI Chairman.
The meeting also discussed the urgent need to take into account the categories of private and pre-school education institutions in the Labour Law and recent decisions of the Public Authority for Social Insurance, and providing facilities and incentives for owners of kindergarten schools, Holy Quran memorisation schools and private schools of different groups which devote themselves to managing their schools and achieve high results.
Accordingly, a joint committee will be formed with members from the Ministry of Labour, Education Committee, Public Authority for Social Insurance to study the issues facing the private education sector and to present recommendations covering visions and solutions to all issues presented to the committee by various educational institutions.
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