Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, will on Tuesday begin an official visit to Kuwait aimed at bolstering long-standing ties between the Gulf countries.
Sheikh Mansour is to hold talks with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal to explore ways to enhance partnerships in various fields, state news agency Wam reported.
The Emirates is one of Kuwait's largest economic partners, with trade between the countries growing markedly in recently years.
President Sheikh Mohamed paid a state visit to Kuwait in November last year, during which he met Sheikh Meshal.
In September last year, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, joined Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Abdullah Al Yahya to inaugurate Kuwait's new embassy in Abu Dhabi. The building is in the Embassies District, Al Ma'arid.
Sheikh Abdullah said at the time that the new embassy showed the strength of ties between the UAE and Kuwait. He witnessed the signing of eight agreements related to sectors including infrastructure, technology, telecoms, national funding, sport, culture, cyber security and defence.
Education reform in Abu Dhabi
The emirate’s public education system has been in a constant state of change since the New School Model was launched in 2010 by the Abu Dhabi Education Council. The NSM, which is also known as the Abu Dhabi School Model, transformed the public school curriculum by introducing bilingual education starting with students from grades one to five. Under this new curriculum, the children spend half the day learning in Arabic and half in English – being taught maths, science and English language by mostly Western educated, native English speakers. The NSM curriculum also moved away from rote learning and required teachers to develop a “child-centered learning environment” that promoted critical thinking and independent learning. The NSM expanded by one grade each year and by the 2017-2018 academic year, it will have reached the high school level. Major reforms to the high school curriculum were announced in 2015. The two-stream curriculum, which allowed pupils to elect to follow a science or humanities course of study, was eliminated. In its place was a singular curriculum in which stem -- science, technology, engineering and maths – accounted for at least 50 per cent of all subjects. In 2016, Adec announced additional changes, including the introduction of two levels of maths and physics – advanced or general – to pupils in Grade 10, and a new core subject, career guidance, for grades 10 to 12; and a digital technology and innovation course for Grade 9. Next year, the focus will be on launching a new moral education subject to teach pupils from grades 1 to 9 character and morality, civic studies, cultural studies and the individual and the community.
