The Board of Directors of the Education and Training Quality Authority held its regular virtual board meeting, chaired by His Excellency Mr. Ayman Bin Tawfiq Al-Moayyad, Minister of Youth and Sport Affairs, BQA Chairman, on Wednesday, 22 September 2021.
At the beginning of the meeting, His Excellency the Minister said that: "The improvement of education and the services provided in this sector is an objective pursued by all countries of the world, including the Kingdom of Bahrain, which, since 2006, has been determined to direct all efforts to promote the educational process through comprehensive initiatives aimed at raising the standards of education and training at all levels and equipping Bahraini youth with skills and capacity-building at the personal and vocational levels, under the umbrella of the Council for the Development of Education and Training (SCDET), chaired by the His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Council for the Development of Education and Training, who is the patron of the Kingdom's education and training development strategy".
His Excellency Mr. Ayman Bin Tawfiq Al-Moayyad stressed that the aspirations and achievements to improve the education and training sector with the quality performance of its government and private institutions were on track, and this is proved by the ability of the BQA and the bodies involved in education and training to carry out their tasks and achieve their goals before and during the spread of the pandemic.
On her part, Dr. Jawaher Shaheen Al Mudhahki, Chief Executive of the Education and Training Quality Authority (BQA), said: "In carrying out its mandate, the Authority aims to build capacities and competencies, with the continuous development of the education and training sectors, and a clear vision that promotes sustainable quality in these sectors."
As one of the development of education and training initiatives in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Authority is seeking to implement everything related to the achievement of quality standards and the frameworks associated with measuring the quality of the performance of the licensed education and training institutions operating in the Kingdom to provide, according to their mandate, an assessment of the educational situation through the issuance of review reports and the annual report being feedback to schools, universities, institutes and those involved in the education and training sectors, Dr. Al Mudhahki added.
During the meeting, the Board members were briefed on a number of reports on its agenda, and approved the findings of review of (3) academic programmes offered by higher education institutions, the placement of (5) national qualifications and the institutional listing on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), as well as the National Examinations Implementation Plan, and the date of the review of the BQA for recognition by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME).
The BQA Board of Directors also approved the 2021 Annual Report, the proposal for identifying the awarding bodies for national vocational qualifications, the proposal for recognizing prior learning, as well as the review of the communication methodology in the Authority and that the review reports will be submitted to the Council for the Development of Education and Training for endorsement.
The Board of Directors was also briefed on the plan of the BQA Forums 2021-2022 and approved the proposal for the formation of the international consultant group.
