Message From Chairman

Indian Schools in Oman are one of the most successful Community Schools in the region, despite thechallenges involved in delivering the Indian curriculum outside India. Thanks to the Board’sfuturistic vision and thesupport from all stakeholders and the relentless assistance and guidance of the Ministry of Education, Sultanate of Oman.

Repercussions of the ongoing COVID-19 on our society, economy and educational system seem to continue for some more time. However, this crisis has brought out the potential of our system that provided uninterrupted education under these difficult situations.Indian Schools were the first in the region to face the challenge and start with online classes in the new academic session of April 2020. Teachers were equipped with hands-on experience to manage the classes remotely; the expertise they have gained has been phenomenal and worthy of being emulated.

The prolonged online classes have completely transformed academic delivery. Teachers who were accustomed to conventional classroom teaching have flawlessly adapted to the new methods of imparting information through virtual platforms and students of all levels have become more of independent learners. The COVID-19 crisis has stimulated lots of creativity and innovation amongst our teachers and students. The Board will certainly leverage this to make our system more inclusive and resilient.

Special attention has been given to students with learning difficulties since they are not able to have personal interaction with their teachers. Our Schools have ensured holistic wellness of children by conducting various programmes and closely monitoring their progress at every stage.We have a responsibility to educate every child in our system and therefore, every effort should be made to surmount the grey areas and ensure equal opportunity for all. The Board has been striving to achieve the objective of making our system more inclusive and resilient by capacitating the schools to achieve these objectives.

Our schools will have to prioritise essential and non-essential subjects based on each student’s level to ensure educational continuity. As the importance and usefulness of our curriculum content is currently being challenged, experts recommend what is now being called ‘Authentic Learning’which can be achieved through:

1. Maximising learning outside the classroom
2. Supporting students’ independent learning
3. Developing teachers’ digital literacy skills

The Board reaffirmsits commitment to empower students to become life-long-learners and will make every effort to provide quality education based on contemporary needs. Teachers will be supported and recognised as skilled professionals with strong digital literacy skills. Our schools will engage them to focus on academic functions with fewer administrative duties.

Our schools will be reconfigured based on the needs of students and abilities of teachers to provide global and cultural competencies. Our schools will work hard to realise the parents’ expectations of safe, cost-effective, uniform, and high-quality education.

Finally, I would like to thank all stakeholders for their continued support for our schooling system. I am looking forward to our academic year getting better as we move away from the COVID-19 past to a happier and more fulfilling future for our students.

Dr Sivakumar Manickam