Al Sharq, Al Raya Affirm Qatar's Keenness to Provide Quality Education Worldwide

Doha, July 11 (QNA) - Al Sharq and Al Raya newspapers emphasized Qatar's keenness to help all the peoples and countries of the world to achieve high levels of education even in light of the spread of diseases, epidemics, wars, and conflicts. In their editorials on Saturday, the two newspapers said that the participants, in the discussion session hosted by the Education Above All Foundation as an official side event on the sidelines of the HLPF 2020, praised the efforts led by the Education Above All Foundation and the Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD) and their commitment to supporting educational projects, stressing that this praise represents a new global victory, not only for the Foundation but for the State of Qatar. Al Sharq said that since the HLPF is the core United Nations platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level, it was important to interact with the forum to ensure the success of its development goals, and for this purpose, the session was organized jointly with the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the UN, QFFD, the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development, and the Asian Development Bank and with the participation of officials, partners and experts from all over the world. The daily pointed out that the discussion session focused on partnerships between development funds, global development banks and NGOs to help out-of-school children, adding that the event is fully consistent with the goals of the Education Above All Foundation, and Qatar's tendencies in general to always support the affected and most vulnerable. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing education access to children around the world is not an easy task, because the pandemic has added to the complexity of the process, therefore, it was necessary to think about how to increase cooperation and exchange important information and find appropriate solutions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on education, as well as help in addressing the problem of lack of financial support for educational systems, which Qatar is keen on completely, Al Sharq said. Al Sharq concluded its editorial by emphasizing that the Education Above All Foundation has developed various financing solutions to meet the educational needs of children in difficult areas. During the past few years, the Foundation has managed, in partnership with international organizations and institutions, to provide quality education for 10 million out-of-school children in more than 50 countries around the world, including the most difficult areas. Al Raya said that the commendation of the participants, in the discussion session hosted by the Education Above All Foundation as an official side event on the sidelines of HLPF 2020, to the efforts led by the Education Above All Foundation and QFFD and their commitment to support educational projects - represents a global victory not only for the Foundation but also for the State of Qatar, especially as this praise came from a platform that is the core UN platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 SDGs at the global level. The paper added that this praise represents international recognition of the role that Qatar plays through its continuous support for the Education Above All Foundation, as an important and strategic provider of education for children in countries affected by crises, disasters, and wars. The newspaper added that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the education of the most marginalized groups, therefore. the session came to discuss how to increase cooperation and exchange important information and find appropriate solutions to mitigate the impact of that pandemic and help address the problem of lack of financial support to rebuild better educational systems. It further added the participation of Qatar through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations and QFFD in these sessions came out of its keenness and commitment to supporting educational projects, especially that more than 1.7 billion students have been negatively affected by the pandemic, which compounds the difficulties on the work of the international education community to ensure that all children receive a good primary education. Al Raya clarified that the world is still suffering from an increase in the number of children whose education has been disrupted as a result of the closure of schools and social separation between people to protect the health of those societies, stressing the need to focus on immediate, long-term and flexible guarantee and sustainable solutions to rebuild an educational system that allows innovation, sustainability, justice, and inclusiveness so that no one is left behind, as well as working better, to protect more than 70 million children and young adults who are at risk of not returning to school. The paper pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of global health and the exacerbation of existing inequalities. Therefore, Education Above All Foundation, supported by Qatar, affirmed the importance of developing various financing solutions to meet the educational needs of children in the most difficult to reach areas, through a focus on innovative and sustainable financial partnerships to support access to education for out-of-school children. Al Raya concluded its editorial by emphasizing that announcing partnerships between the Education For All Foundation and its partners, in addition to the discussion session, presented a strong message to the world of the importance of rebuilding a stronger and more sustainable educational system and that it is necessary to take lessons from the pandemic before returning to normal work together through partnerships, expertise, resources, and innovation to reach more out-of-school children and overcome the devastating effects of this pandemic. (QNA)