Conference 11: "Educational Policies and Their Role in Achieving the Fourth Goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, Education 2030", Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, November 2019.

Conference 11: "Educational Policies and Their Role in Achieving the Fourth Goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, Education 2030", Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, November 2019.

The eleventh (11th) Conference of Ministers of Education in the Arab World, hosted by the Kingdom of Bahrain in November 2019 in celebration of the centenary of formal education in the Kingdom, discussed the topic of "Educational Policies and Their Role in Achieving the Fourth Goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, Education 2030," on the basis of the main document bearing the conference's title. It addressed the achievement of the fourth goal concerning ensuring quality, equitable, and inclusive education for all and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, and dealt with the topics of educational policy and ways to improve it, these being two complementary matters: the first is a national, regional, and international requirement linked to the development of education, with international indicators and reports monitoring it within the Education 2030 framework of action; the second is required by the need to reconsider the evaluation of educational policies with a view to adapting them so as to help achieve the aforementioned goal. The document consists of two sections: the first serves as the philosophical foundation for building and developing educational policies in the Arab world and envisioning their mechanisms according to established scientific principles; the second is an attempt to present the policies appropriate for achieving the fourth goal by addressing each of its targets, understanding and interpreting it, and linking it to the appropriate and related educational policy.

Also presented to the conference's work were the document "Formal Education in Bahrain: A Bright Journey in One Hundred Years," the document "The Integration of the Education Evaluation System to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: A Reading of the Experience of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the document "Mainstreaming Open Educational Resources to Support the Fourth Goal of the Sustainable Development Goals," and the document "Integrating the Concepts of Arabism and the Arab Dimension into Public Education Curricula," in addition to the Organization's documents on the implementation of the recommendations of the tenth Conference of Arab Ministers of Education (Amman, Jordan, 2016), namely the document "Mechanisms for Activating the Study on Evaluating and Developing Public Examinations in the Arab World" and the document "Licensing the Practice of Teaching to Ensure Professionalization and Improve Quality in the Arab States."

The conference issued a number of recommendations arising from the documents submitted, which are:

Recommendations addressed to the Arab states:

1. Enabling the Organization to draw on their successful experiences and good practices in implementing educational policies that help achieve the fourth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, Education 2030, in order to work to disseminate their benefit to the rest of the Arab states.
2. Strengthening their policies in financing education and working to diversify its sources and search for new mechanisms that make it possible to support general budgets and achieve the standards and indicators required internationally by the year 2030.
3. Supporting the efforts and initiatives made to assist the Arab states passing through difficult circumstances and to restore their role.
4. Establishing a reference framework of professional competencies for teachers and strengthening what already exists of it, with the aim of responding to national requirements in developing education and international standards in qualifying and training teachers, and establishing cooperation networks among their training institutions.
5. Supporting the monitoring, follow-up, and evaluation system by working to:

• Develop legislative frameworks and policies related to education statistics.
• Strengthen national capacities in the field of monitoring and collecting and analysing data.
• Prepare national reports on the indicators of implementing the targets of the fourth goal and support their use to address the shortfall in the data required for the Education 2030 agenda.
• Give attention to disseminating the relevant data.

The issue of "Evaluating and Developing Public Examinations in the Arab World," on the basis of a main study submitted to the conference and prepared by ALECSO, which set out from a diagnosis of the reality of the educational evaluation process and concluded by presenting proposals for its development so that educational evaluation may respond to the challenges of the coming stage and the aspirations of its educational institutions. To achieve this goal the document consisted of four parts, as follows:

• Part One: The main problems and concepts of examination systems and educational evaluation.
• Part Two: The reality of examinations and evaluation in the Arab states.
• Part Three: Global experiences in the field of examinations and educational evaluation.
• Part Four: The proposed vision for developing examinations and educational evaluation systems in the Arab world.

In addition to the report submitted by the experts, which included a summary of the presented studies, the general directions in their discussion, and the list of proposed recommendations.

The Director-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization also presented a report on what ALECSO has done to implement the recommendations addressed to it, and what the Arab states have done to implement the recommendations that concern them from the conference that dealt with the topic of "Advancing Basic Education in the Arab World." A set of resolutions and recommendations was issued, consisting of a resolution to form a ministerial committee to prepare a study on the reality of public education in the Arab world and ways to develop it, two recommendations addressed to the Arab states, three addressed to the Organization, and three others concerning the promotion of the dissemination and teaching of the Arabic language in the Republic of Chad.

At the end of its work, the conference approved the following:

First: Recommendations addressed to the Arab states:

1. Working to modernize educational evaluation and examination systems in terms of: diversifying the forms of evaluation and providing multiple opportunities to sit the examination, in a manner suited to the circumstances of each state and achieving what the study recommended.
2. Allocating a percentage of between 20-30% of the secondary-school average, with the remaining percentage given to the achievement and aptitude test for equivalency purposes, or for submission to universities, or for obtaining scholarships; this applies to public, private, and international schools.
3. Taking the necessary measures to reorganize the educational stages in terms of: the Arab qualifications framework, criteria for the equivalency of certificates, defining the knowledge and skills to be acquired by the end of each stage, and amending legislation, so as to facilitate the movement of Arab students between states.
4. Enacting legislation and taking the necessary measures to attract endowments (awqaf) in the field of financing, expanding, and developing Arab education.
5. Providing support and assistance for the education of children in Arab states suffering from crises, with special attention given to education in Palestine.

Second: Recommendations addressed to the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization:

1. Coordinating with the Arab states in exchanging experiences and setting indicators to follow up on educational policies aimed at achieving the fourth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, Education 2030.
2. Coordinating with the national bodies and centres concerned with measurement and evaluation to establish a comprehensive Arab network with the aim of unifying their efforts and strengthening their role in developing the educational evaluation system to help improve the quality and performance of educational systems.
3. Holding training courses to strengthen the capacities of those responsible for the quality of education in the Arab states.
4. Organizing a regional forum on strengthening the standing of shared Arab and human values and incorporating them into education curricula in the Arab world.
5. Working to mainstream the use of open educational resources according to the standards adopted in the Arab states, by encouraging the production of Arabic content and making it available on electronic platforms for all, and benefiting from the Regional Center for Information and Communication Technology in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
6. Coordinating with the institutes of foresight research and studies in the Arab states in order to launch a comprehensive network for cooperation and the exchange of visions regarding education in the Arab world in light of regional and international changes, in order to develop solutions for the future.
7. Organizing an Arab youth conference on their role in achieving the fourth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals and ways to activate it nationally, regionally, and internationally.
8. Setting criteria for the best successful educational experiences and endorsing and presenting them during future conferences of ministers of education.
9. Consulting with the Arab states regarding hosting the twelfth Conference of Arab Ministers of Education, and proposing its topic.
10. Calling upon the Organization to coordinate with the Ministry of Education in the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria to organize an Arab forum in Algeria on producing Arabic open resources and ensuring their quality.
11. Calling upon the Organization to hold specialized workshops examining how to implement the recommendations and to submit their views to the Arab ministers of education.