Their Highnesses attend 2012 WISE Summit opening

His Highness the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, opened Tuesday the fourth edition of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) at the Qatar National Convention Centre.

President of the Republic of Croatia Ivo Josipovic attended the ceremony.

The opening ceremony was also attended by several of Their Excellencies Sheikhs and Ministers and pioneering experts interested in the areas of innovation in education.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the 4th edition of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser underlined that education is a right of all human beings as it represents, indisputably, the environment in which the future, the development and common dreams are formulated.

"If the problems of education and strengthen the fact that it is everyone s right, then we will eliminate many social, economic, political and security problems that are the results of the failure to realize this human right," Her Highness said.

Her Highness noted that despite the international efforts in the field of education, there are still serious deficiencies that require serious cooperation to accomplish change.

In mid September, Her Highness said, the world leaders in the United Nations, renewed their pledge to give all the children of the world primary education by year 2015. This requires a comprehensive international effort, whose result would move us in the future from addressing this issue to confronting other challenges.

"And here we annually meet under the umbrella of WISE to set a culture of innovation in education, and renewal in innovation, while we re all aware that education is a field that combines all issues. Education can lead countries to prosperity or to ruin... It is through education that the collective mind of the community is formed... It is with education that we draw the features of the future: a future that should always be new and innovative... With education, we choose either progress or backwardness... Civilization or lagging behind... 

With education, we establish either the values of peace or the values of war. And the historic value of your annual conference stems from all the above," Her Highnesssaid.

She noted that it is not an emergency occasion for meeting, but rather an annual gathering that becomes busy, throughout the year, with the projects and topics of innovation in education that the participants have agreed upon.

Her Highness stressed the need for innovation in how to meet the challenges of education and stimulate the spirit of innovation requires a qualitative work that can meet our need for quality education, just as sustainable development requires sustainable education and exceptional problems require exceptional solutions. 

She said that perhaps one of WISE s pioneering features lies in the support and generalization of innovative and scalable projects applicable to various environments within an innovation network based on cooperation and continuous coordination. 

Her Highness underlined that the project of "Brac" institution" in Bangladesh, whose founder Mr. Fadel Hasan Obeid has won the WISE Prize in 2011, is considered as a good example of the support of innovative solutions in order to meet such conditions. There, in marshy areas water isolated populations
and impeded the possibility of establishing schools, until the Brac institution provided an innovative solution that might be called the "floating schools" through gathering students in classrooms on boats that were prepared for the purposes of education and transportation.

"Last month when I visited one of these schools, to have a close look on the project, I was astonished by the unlimited human capacity to challenge difficulties and tame nature conditions," she said.

"That s the role of WISE, which we look forward to expand in creating a relationship of communication and knowledge between the tough issues and those who are capable of innovating effective solutions," Her Highness underlined.

She noted that WISE currently heads towards a new social contract through a number of programs; however, the completion of the change in education dictates a moral and practical obligation on everyone to contribute to these efforts that will not succeed if you do not believe in real and effective partnership.

"Each one of us, starting from his own country or institution, can proceed with this change in the context of his quest to instill a culture of innovation in education; however, the act of knowledge in general and the creation of the innovation culture in particular require a collective action of cooperation and coordination in order to achieve the common goals," Her Highness said.

HH Sheikha Moza invited the participants to attend tomorrow the launch of a new initiative that would contribute in putting practical solutions to send students who are deprived from education back to school.