Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — Minister of Education Dr. Ahmed Al-Issa, inaugurated a three-day International Exhibition and Forum for Education “Ta’leem” 2018 here on Monday. The exhibition and forum hosts 132 entities from 25 countries participating with expected number of 80,000.

Visitors of the exhibition are to explore the services and products that the exhibitors display especially with the participation of 120 male and female experts in the early education field, throughout 17 sessions, 48 speakers, 96 agreements and 90 different workshops.

The international forum is expected to benefit from local and global partnerships, investment deals and cooperation agreements in early childhood education, enhancing the efficiency of those involved in early childhood education and providing professional development opportunities for service providers of children from birth to the age of eight.

In addition, the preview of modern and useful means and equipment to optimize the use of resources of kindergartens, nurseries and early childhood centers that support comprehensive child education, and to review research, studies and the latest international practices and experiences is aimed at developing early childhood services in support of children's skills in the 21st century.

It aims to bring every Saudi child to the opportunities of quality education in a variety of options, focusing more on the stages of early education (in support of the development vision). It is known that the exhibition and forum is the largest annual and official event for the Ministry of Education at the level of education exhibitions and conferences in the Gulf region. The Ministry of Education supports the trend to stimulate and enrich professional knowledge at the local and Arab levels by providing excellent quality in early childhood education and related fields.

Ta’leem Exhibition also provides an opportunity in the Saudi market for local, regional and international organizations, associations, child programs, children’s cultural and media clubs, other children’s publishing houses, and family channels to meet investors interested in the products offered by exhibitors.

The ministry’s achievements at the international forum of 2016 were impressive; more than 20 countries participated, and more than 96 agreements were signed with various organizations, a 91% satisfaction from participants. This year’s achievements are expected to double the previous years, to note the number of speakers in last year’s forum was 48 speakers, and only 60 workshops to show for in three days. Moreover, a visitors list was limited to 50,000.

A number of selected workshops are taking place at the forum, presented by multiple international speakers specialized in the wide education field. Each day will contain a heavy load of material that excites every attendee of the forum, with a well-planned diversity of presenters.

Official statistics for early education in the Kingdom show the number of children included are 320,817 in the age group of 3,4 and 5 years in 2017.