Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, Chair of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development says time has come for education to be placed in a global context rather than confining it to keep up with technological advances aimed at meeting market and competition demands. For her, such innovation could neither be imported nor implanted in a foreign body, adding that it is a social culture which appreciates the human mind, a culture which develops and also grows when it meets the necessary requirements of the hosting environment. Addressing participants on her vision towards education; the answer to the challenges posed today by globalization at the opening of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar on Monday, Sheikha Mozah indicated that “Innovation should be at the heart of education which is the force which exerts human energy and guides it wisely for the purpose of expanding human intelligence and creativity to serve the objective of just and equitable human societies”. The Doha summit which started from November 16 and ended Wednesday 18, was on the theme “Global Education: Working Together for Sustainable Achievements”. It was aimed at nurturing a free space and a fertile ground for producing innovative thoughts and initiatives for the sustenance of human dignity. One thousand leading education stakeholders, opinion leaders and decision-makers from 120 countries and from the spheres of education, politics, international institutions, NGOs, grassroots movements, the private sector, media and multimedia, culture and the arts were in attendance at the summit. WISE is a global, groundbreaking collaborative initiative established by the Qatar Foundation under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah and it seeks to monitor and contribute to 21st century challenges and their impact on education. The Qatar Foundation was founded in 1995 by a decree of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar. It is a non-profit organization which focuses on education, scientific research and community development. She continued that normally when innovation was addressed, “we accentuate the role of industry, technology and business sectors and I believe that this approach is both simple and naive”. Innovation in education, which is the focus of this summit, the Chair, conceded should become achievable and an executable process, noting therefore that “this summit requires us to debate deeply and discuss a series of issues at the core of the right to education in order to draft an agreement on which we can build our next steps”. “We will strive to ensure that this inaugural summit and the annual meetings which will follow assertively renew our commitment to education as a basic right in shaping our identity in line with Qatar’s strategic vision for the year 2030”, Her Highness Sheikha Mozah assured. She however affirmed her commitment to UNESCO, the United Nations, academic forums and other entities to loudly sound the alarm with regard to the often intentional and premeditated threat to the right to education. The newly appointed UNESCO Director-General, Mrs Irina Bokova, on her first official intervention abroad told participants that the world is undergoing a profound and rapid transformation with the economic and financial crisis bringing education sharply into focus. “Education is a lifetime pursuit and an investment for the future”, she emphasised. Dr. Abdulla Bin Ali Al-thani, Chairman of WISE and Qatar Foundation’s Vice-President of Education also urged participants to make the most out of the unique dialogue opportunity, expressing hope for meaningful debates which eventually would lead to a global collaboration to help identify the strategic educational priorities for the upcoming years. “We hope WISE will become a medium - a global education forum where all actors can meet, reflect and consider, and ultimately enact them. Through this collaborative process, we can identify major educational challenges and explore innovative and sustainable ways to address them. The priorities identified over the next three days, will be formalised in a declaration, a universal call for action, to be announced at the end of the Summit”, Dr. Ali Al-thani said. Story by Nathaniel Yankson/Daily Guide