Muscat – A current educational examine has known as for renewed deal with the humanities in Oman’s increased training system, warning that an overemphasis on know-how dangers undermining the nation’s efforts to construct a balanced and sustainable data economic system.
The examine argues that growth shouldn’t be pushed by utilized sciences alone, however should place folks, values and nationwide identification on the centre of the method. It’s authored by Dr Mariam bint Ali al Hinai, Lecturer at College of Expertise and Utilized Sciences Muscat, and Dr Mohammad Ali al Belushi, Affiliate Professor of Heritage Administration at Sultan Qaboos College, and printed within the Journal of Arabian Research.
Titled Reimagining the Information Economic system: A Important Name to Reposition the Humanities in Omani Increased Schooling, the analysis says prevailing approaches to the data economic system usually equate progress with scientific and technological innovation, whereas overlooking the function of the humanities and social sciences in growing vital pondering, moral consciousness and cultural continuity.
The examine factors to a niche between nationwide coverage frameworks, together with Oman Imaginative and prescient 2040 and the Cultural Technique 2021–2040, which emphasise tradition, creativity and identification, and present practices in increased training establishments, the place scientific, technical and enterprise disciplines are likely to obtain better precedence.
An evaluation of college distribution and pupil enrolment information in Oman and overseas reveals that the humanities proceed to have a notable presence, notably in training, social and cultural fields. Nonetheless, their share has declined compared with engineering and technical disciplines, particularly amongst college students learning abroad.
The authors stress that strengthening the humanities will not be an instructional luxurious, however a strategic requirement for reaching sustainable growth targets. They argue that the humanities contribute to constructing an knowledgeable and inventive society and assist guarantee stability between scientific development and moral and social values.
The examine requires training and analysis insurance policies that promote stronger integration between the humanities and scientific disciplines. It recommends the event of interdisciplinary curricula, elevated institutional and analysis help, and the inclusion of the humanities in nationwide innovation programs.
In response to Mariam, the analysis types a part of an mental challenge launched in 2022 to reassess the function of the humanities and data manufacturing in Omani increased training. She mentioned a rising market-driven strategy has redefined training as a purely financial device, measured primarily by profitability, somewhat than by its contribution to human and social growth.
She famous that this strategy has weakened native and humanistic data and created moral and mental gaps within the understanding of upper training’s function. A sustainable data economic system, she mentioned, relies upon not solely on know-how, but additionally on folks, values and identification, as outlined in Oman Imaginative and prescient 2040.
Belushi mentioned the dominance of technological approaches in growth and training insurance policies dangers decreasing tradition and heritage to property handled primarily as funding sources, indifferent from their historic and social context. This, he mentioned, strips tradition of its human dimension.
The actual problem within the period of digital transformation, he mentioned, lies not in buying know-how, however in guiding it ethically and culturally – a task the examine identifies as central to the humanities.
