Summer 2019 ECM34KM Report: Knowledge Management in Oman Education

This report provides a critical analysis of knowledge management within the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman. It begins with an overview of the ministry's responsibilities and its development since 1970. The report identifies key issues and challenges, including a lack of management skills among senior administrators, teacher attrition, and poor information and communication technology (ICT) integration. The negative impacts of these issues are discussed, particularly concerning inclusive education. The report offers several recommendations to improve knowledge management, such as integrating ICT in teaching, improving ICT infrastructure, developing policies to foster technology use, and implementing pilot projects to provide computers to schools. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need for revising the reward system and establishing a learning environment to promote transformational leadership. The report concludes with a call for partnerships with NGOs and private institutions to meet ICT resource requirements.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
In Sultanate of Oman
Name of the Student:
Student ID:

About Ministry of Education, Oman
 The Ministry of Education is a major governmental body that is located
in Sultanate of Oman.
 The organization is mainly responsible for proper development of the
educational system preceding the university education (Saleh, Piaw and
Idris 2015).
 The development of the Ministry of Higher Education had started after
the start of renaissance period in the year 1970.
 The major responsibility of the Board is related to the ways by which
higher education can be managed by the Sultanate effectively.

Issues and Challenges
 The “head teachers and other senior administrators lacked management
skills.”
 There is also lack of trained teachers. The average loss of the teachers
is about 12% every year with about 40 to 45% being the trained ones
(Lindqvist, Nordanger and Carlsson 2014).
 Within more than three years, about 633 trained teachers have left the
public education sector for different reasons.
 Information and communication technology in different areas of the
education system is very poor as a result students are not getting
appropriate literacy knowledge.

Impacts
 Poor attention is paid for creating a highly inclusive system of education
that provides equitable and quality opportunities to the hinterland and
indigenous children as well as the children who are disable.
 Ministry of Education needs to create the opportunities for all the
students in order to be in regular classes where the education
programme caters for the individual needs and where they are
supported and accepted.

Recommendations
 Effective incorporation of the information and communication
technology in the teaching practices needs to be ensured by the Ministry
of Education. At the same time, the improvement of information and
communication technology equipment is required to be sustained.
 Ministry of Education should outlined different policies which are aimed
towards the creation of environment that will enhance and foster the
use of technology and at the same time, encourage the investment in
this area. It must include the policies that will allow import of the
computers in the schools of Oman in free of tax as well as the
integration of the information and communication technology in some
important areas like education.

Continuation..
 It is also to be ensured “that the reward system required revising and an
effective learning environment is required to be established for fostering
transformational leadership in place.”
 For addressing the problem of computers to schools, the Ministry of
Education of Oman should implement a pilot project with an assistance
from the Oman government. With the help of this project, the ministry could
place about 500 refurbished computers in the schools and at the same
time, must set up a Computer Refurbishing Centre at the country wide
technical institutes.
 The main of this project should be continuing the programmes while
encouraging the partnerships with the NGOs, private and public institutions
in order to get help in meeting the information and communication resource
requirements.

References
 Lindqvist, P., Nordänger, U.K. and Carlsson, R., 2014. Teacher attrition
the first five years–A multifaceted image. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 40, pp.94-103.
 Saleh, A.S., Piaw, C.Y. and Idris, A.R., 2015. Factors influencing the
employees’ service performance in Ministry Of Education in Sultanate of
Oman. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, pp.23-30.

Thank You