Teacher education conference today

Badea Abu Al-Naja Saudi Gazette MAKKAH — Minister of Education Ahmed Al-Issa will open the 5th teacher education conference at Umm Al-Qura University on Tuesday. The faculty of education at the university is organizing the conference with the theme of “Preparing and training teacher in the light of development requirements and contemporary developments.” Several senior officials in the education field as well as academics, researchers and directors of education from all over the Kingdom will take part in the conference. As many as 68 research and working papers will be presented at the three-day event. The minister will also preside over the 6th meeting of the deans of education faculties across the Kingdom, which will be held on the sidelines of the conference. Dr. Bakri Bin Maatouq Assas, president of the university and chairman of the supervising committee of the conference, said that there will be several brainstorming sessions at the conference that will come out with the best methods and practices in preparing and training teachers so as to enable them to perform their duties in the most effective manner. “The conference will examine the current teacher education programs in disseminating the values of moderation and tolerance and combating the phenomena of terrorism, extremism and deviant ideologies,” he said. Ali Al-Matrafi, dean of the faculty of education and the chairman of the organizing committee of the conference, said that there are 8,467 degree students at the faculty while there are 457 post-graduate degree students and 1,076 higher diploma students at the faculty of education.