The Supreme Education Council signs MOU with Al Jazeera Children's Channel

The Supreme Education Council of Qatar (SEC) and Al Jazeera Children's Channel (JCC) signed today a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) giving all Independent Schools working under SEC's umbrella access to JCC's VoD educational website Taalam.TV launched by JCC in early 2010.

The agreement was signed by SEC's Director of Education Institution Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous and JCC's Executive General Manager Mahmoud Bouneb at SEC's headquarters in Doha, Qatar in the presence of delegations from both parties.

The educational portal's database is rich with thousands of audiovisual materials extracted from the Channel's library and further more enriched with curricula-based tutoring documents to assist educators in offering more stimulating and engaging classes' subjects. According to the MOU, JCC is committed to providing the necessary teachers' training, resources, and technical installation for Taalam.TV in schools.

Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous  said: "Encouraging creativity in students and enabling them to deal with and benefit from ICT are among the  educational development priorities  we aim to achieve.  We believe that the partnership with Al Jazeera Children  Channel, through Taalam.TV website,  will provide the Independent Schools a very reliable and authenticated learning resource.  We hope our schools will use these resources effectively to achieve excellent  performance in the  teaching and learning process."

JCC's Executive General Manager, Mahmoud Bouneb expressed his gratitude to the Supreme Educational Council represented by the Director of  Education Institute Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous for putting their trust in Taalam.TV and for their continuous support. "I would like to seize this opportunity to express our commitment to work hand in hand with the SEC to revolutionize and reform teaching and learning practices in Qatar, by continuously providing schools with the latest audiovisual educational materials made possible by the State's devotion to education and innovation." Bouneb also expressed his gratitude to Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser for her support to such progressive initiatives.

Taalam.TV has been designed in collaboration with a group of Arab teachers and educational experts making it the first educational Video-on-Demand online platform in the Arab World.

JCC has recently signed a similar agreement with UNRWA in December 2010, and previously signed an MOU with the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman in April 2010. Taalam.TV is currently being used by more than 500,000 Arab students in more than 500 schools from 28 countries across the globe including Qatar, KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, France, Britain, USA and Canada.

The Supreme Education Council has previously signed similar agreements with many institutions, Aiming to support the educational process and achieving Qatar Vision for the year 2030, and contributing to establish learning societies in schools and elevating teachers' academic performance in Qatar's schools.