His Excellency Prof. Adnan Badran, the Chancellor of University of Petra and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, emphasized that true human capital lies in developing thinking skills to achieve a knowledge-based society and scientific research, and how to transform its outputs into technology. He highlighted the importance of fostering creative thinking in innovation and creativity to enhance production and self-reliance, and how to shift from a rentier society to a productive one.
During his lecture "The Education System: Realities and Aspirations" was on Tuesday, as part of the Petra Cultural Salon activities, he stated that the desired education is one that keeps pace with global knowledge advancements in learning patterns, moving beyond traditional rote memorization. The role of the teacher should shift from being an instructor to a facilitator who motivates learners and participates with them in building knowledge from information and data banks, bridging the gap between the knowledgeable and the uninformed.
He explained that society's readiness for the knowledge economy depends on a culture of change and renewal, and building individuals capable of interacting with ongoing growth and development through modern curricula and learning methods that meet local, regional, and global market needs. This includes instilling ethics, behaviors, and respect for our cultural values and those of others, starting from early childhood.
The Chancellor pointed out that some countries were poorer and less developed than us but have surpassed us significantly. He attributed this to the difference in the quality of their education, scientific research, and technical training systems compared to ours. He noted that we currently stand at a crossroads for revival, which can only be achieved by building rich and intelligent human capital. The perplexing question for us all is: What challenge must we overcome to achieve sustainable development goals? How do we transform our vast current human resources—nearly 400,000 in higher education and over two million in pre-university education—into productive human resources that lift us out of poverty and unemployment, using the outputs of scientific research, technology, and data to develop industry, agriculture, food security, water, energy, health, epidemiological security, and services, to build wealth and achieve comprehensive economic and social development?
Prof. Adnan Badran emphasized the necessity of a radical change in our educational system to secure a more dynamic mindset that nurtures questioning, inquiry, and deductive analysis: How do I learn? How do I think, plan, experiment, and conclude? How do I develop my skills? How do I innovate and create? All of this is to achieve the four main pillars of UNESCO's education for the 21st century as laid out by Jacques Delors Commission: learning to be, learning to know, learning to do, and learning to live together.
He added that the era of national, ethnic, religious, or sectarian isolation without interaction with other civilizations and peoples is over. Respecting differences and serving common interests that promote peace based on justice and human rights and enhancing human dignity are crucial. Opening up to the world and economic, social, and cultural exchanges are fundamental in establishing the foundations of partnership and shared interests to create a global local society that preserves human dignity and cooperates in addressing global issues like climate change, pandemics, terrorism, wars, displacement, and migration.
Therefore, developing learner competencies to find solutions to the challenges facing the nation and its citizens, particularly in improving the quality and relevance of learning outcomes, is essential.
The Chancellor questioned what we have done and offered to society to overcome its problems, especially economic and social ones. He called on the educational system to have a contemporary vision to renew itself, producing generations with modern skills and competencies, which are also continually renewed through lifelong learning to meet new skills requirements for a rapidly changing society. This involves moving towards blended learning, combining e-learning with face-to-face learning, which necessitates training teachers in using programmed media, vast amounts of data, and a qualified educational platform for synchronous and asynchronous teaching, contributing to distance learning and lifelong learning.
He added that this requires restructuring education to transition from narration to building creative thinking and intelligence. We need charisma to take us to new, vast horizons, planting hope and optimism in us instead of despair and pessimism, to build a creative generation capable of facing future challenges. He emphasized the need for less teaching and more learning to develop thinking skills and move into realms of discovery, questioning, and reflection.
