Abu Dhabi: The second Global Education Forum (GEF) - to be held at the Dubai Airport Expo from March 10-12 - is expected to attract 200 participants from various ministries of education from across the world, educational professionals and international educational organisations, the Ministry of Education announced at a press conference on Wednesday.
GEF will host the event jointly with the Gulf Educational Supplies and Solutions (GESS). As part of the exhibition, conferences, master classes and workshops will be held to highlight ways of improving teaching skills in the UAE.
Some of the initiatives to be highlighted during the forum include new ways of teaching, integration of technology in education, building schools for the future, special education needs - including gifted and talented children - brain training and latest innovations in education, including virtual environments.
"Our expectations from this conference and international exhibition are high. We hope to open up communication channels between the local and regional academic experts and their counterparts from higher education sectors and get acquainted with the latest teaching methods and technologies that would be of great benefit in effectively developing the regional educational systems," said Dr Hanif Hassan, the Minister of Education.
According to Virginia Kern, chairperson for Fairs and Exhibition (F&E), organisers of the Global Education Forum, the GESS exhibition floor this year will be twice the size of the 2008 event. There will be representatives from 200 international companies, of which, 60 per cent will be new to the region.
"Many of our exhibitors have saved key product launches for GESS 2009, and our visitors should be able to see new initiatives from Microsoft, Promethean and Smart, revealed for the first time in the Middle East," said Kern.
