TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

WORLD Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has announced the names of the winning projects for its third summit to be held in Doha from November 1 to 3. Six of the projects submitted to the jury have been selected for the award which will be presented at the WISE summit.

Al Jisr School Business Partnerships from Morocco by Mhammed Abbad Andaloussi, BBC Janala in Bangladesh by Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, Connexions USA by Richard Baraniuk, Creative Partnerships from the UK by Paul Collard, Sueña Letras from Chile by Ricardo Rene Rosas Diaz and Teacher Education in Sub- Saharan Africa (TESSA) from the UK by Freda Wolfenden are the six winning projects.

Congratulating the winners, Chairman of WISE and Chairman of the WISE Awards Jury Dr Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali al Thani said, “The WISE Awards aim to showcase inspiring projects and give them the exposure they deserve. I would like to congratulate all of them for their perseverance and worthy achievements.

They are genuine role models for the entire WISE community.” The 2011 winners were selected for their innovative approaches and positive impact upon education and society, within the theme of ‘Transforming Education: Investment, Innovation and Inclusion’.

According to the organisers, all six projects would make an impact on the society in a big way and contribute to the development of education in the concerned areas.

The organisers stressed that there was an increased use of Information Communications Technology (ICT), multi-media approaches and a focus on open source platforms this year.

The spread of holistic, comprehensive learning approaches to ensure sustainability as well as the emergence of inter-sectoral and multi-stakeholder strategies involving public-private partnerships have been other features of this year’s projects.

Dr Sheikh al Thani further said, “Innovation is crucial for continuing to improve both the access and quality of education. The 2011 WISE Awards winners often have to overcome pre-conceived ideas and find creative solutions to break down barriers to innovative education. They have already been rewarded by positive results of their projects.” According to him, these real world initiatives are building a global community of education innovators.

WISE Awards have been identifying, showcasing and promoting innovative global education projects from the beginning of the WISE initiative. From 2009 till date, 18 projects have been awarded and 98 finalists have been shortlisted from 116 countries.

The WISE Awards 2011 will be presented during a gala dinner on November 2 and the winners will receive prize money worth $20,000. The winners will get the opportunity to exhibit their projects to 1,200 leading ‘international influencers’ at the WISE summit.