Bahrain: 2022 UNESCO-King Hamad ICT in Education Prize Laureates Honoured
The UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education held its award ceremony at UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris on Sept. 7. The 2022 edition of the Prize honored “Smart Education of China” and Ireland’s “The National Resource Hub” project. UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini and Bahrain’s Minister of Education Mohammed bin Mubarak Juma conferred the awards on the laureates. Chen Jie, Vice Minister of Education and Chairperson of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, attended the ceremony.
In her speech, Giannini lauded “Smart Education of China” as an excellent platform that ensures universal accessibility and effective utilization of digital learning resources and demonstrates how digital technologies can be harnessed to expand educational and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Li Ping, Director-General of the National Centre for Educational Technology overseeing the “Smart Education of China” project also addressed the ceremony. She highlighted China’s strong commitment to digital education and explained that the “Smart Education of China” platform was launched in 2022 as part of a national initiative to facilitate public access to learning resources, school management and innovation in education. She added that the widespread use of the platform demonstrated the continuous and positive spillover effects of digital technologies on educational development, as it offers lifelong learning opportunities to all and thus contributes to educational quality and equity. She expressed China’s willingness to work with other members of the international community on issues such as sharing quality digital resources, digital education solutions and digital competency development.
Supported by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the UNESCO ICT in Education Prize recognizes individuals and organizations for their creative use of information and communication technologies to enhance learning, teaching, and overall education performance. The 2022 edition of the Prize focused on the theme of “using public platforms to ensure inclusive access to digital education content”, aligning with the global initiative of “Gateways to Public Digital Learning” launched at the Transforming Education Summit.
