Minister of Education participates in UNESCO meet

Doha, October 06 (QNA) - HE Saad bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, the Minister of Education and Higher Education and Secretary General of the Supreme Education Council is taking part in the 35th session of UNESCO's general conference. The meet began on Monday, October 5, 2009 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and will continue till Friday, October 23, 2009.

Every two years, the General Conference brings together representatives of UNESCO’s 193 Member States to determine the Organization's policies and modus operandi.

It examines and adopts the programme and sets a two-year budget, as well as international standard-setting instruments. Kochiro Matsuura, the Director General of UNESCO addressed the opening session of the General Conference, his last session, as his second term comes to an end. HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education also took part in meeting of the heads of Arab delegations which was held ahead of the UNESCO General Conference. The meeting focussed on coordination among the Arab delegations to take a unified stand concerning all topics on the agenda of the UNESCO General Conference including current excavations under Al Aqsa Mosque and the dire need to stop such acts which clearly violate the principle of protecting the states' cultural heritage.

The Arab delegation also agreed to raise the issue of supporting the educational institutions in the occupied territories and in Golan Heights. The five committees concerned with education, natural sciences , humanities and social sciences, cultural, communications and information will start their deliberations from October 12, 2009 until October 19, 2009.