DOHA - The prestigious WISE Prize for Education has been presented to Dr Patrick Awuah, founder and president of Ashesi University College, Ghana.
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, presented the prize and cash award of $500,000 to Patrick Awuah at the opening session of the eighth World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar, before an audience of 2,000 participants from 100 countries.
The WISE Prize, which aims to raise global awareness of the pivotal role of education in all societies, was launched in 2011 at the initiative of Sheikha Moza, and this year, six out of 15 projects qualified as finalists so far.
The theme of WISE 2017, “Co-Exist, Co-Create: Learning to Live and Work Together”, ignites debate about the education challenges in times of global disruption and economic uncertainty.
Central to discussions will be the role of education in a post-truth world, with sessions focusing on media literacy; artificial intelligence and virtual reality; social entrepreneurship; design thinking and nudging for right education choices, among others.
About the heavily politicized campuses of Pakistani universities, Dr Awuh says, “Teachers should be empowered to take risks through research and putting the students to pursue the path to seek the truth.”
Sir Michael Barber, former chief advisor to Tony Blair and chief education advisor at Pearson, is one of the authors to shed light on his views, in a research paper on ‘How to deliver improved outcomes for school systems’.
Besides, some of the world’s most creative leaders in the fields of education, technology, social entrepreneurship, global development, media and philanthropy flocked to Doha to participate in this conference.
The biennial global Summit, since its establishment in 2009, has become a premier international summit on the future of education.
