With the purpose of promoting education and contributing to the development of the schools and teachers’ professional development in Iraq and KRG, an international conference on education & teaching in K-12 schools (ICET) was organised by Stirling Schools, Cambridge University Press, City & Guilds, and GEMS. This year’s ICET theme was “Empowering Education & Classroom Experience in the Post-covid World.”
ICET, which continued for two days, 17th and 18th of May 2021, brought together teacher trainers, educational experts and community leaders from the national and the international community to discuss their perspectives on certain issues related to education.
Dr. Wali Hamad, the president of Koya University, represented the university and attended the ICET opening ceremony at the VIP Reception Venue in the Rotana Hotel/Erbil.
Mr. James Thorton, British Consul-General of Erbil, delivered a keynote address on behalf of the British Embassy Baghdad and British Consulate General Erbil. Then online keynote presentations were delivered by Dr. Chris Sowton, an educational consultant, and Dr. Kim Insley, a teacher educator at University of London. The presentations focused on empowering teachers and the impact of the COVID pandemic on education.
Koya University, as supporting partner along with the University of London, British Consulate General-Erbil, and UK Teaching Academy, participated with a visual presentation entitled “student centered learning at the time of Corona virus”. The presentation, delivered by Dr. Bnar J. Ahmed, the director of pedagogy and academic development centre (PADC) at Koya University, focused on Koya University’s efforts to implant modern pedagogical methods that fit the need of the 21st century students’ needs.
The closing ceremony was with the keynote presentation by Dr. Gita Subrahmanyam, an international education expert and research and consultancy at University of London institutions. Her virtual presentation focused on the essential educational transformations for the successful future education.
More information about this international annual conference can be found on Sterling schools website: https://icet.stirlingschools.co.uk/
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Koya University (KOU) is located in the city of Koya (Koy Sanjaq) which is 1.0 hr drive to the East of the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil (Arbil, Hewlér) in Kurdistan Region of F.R. Iraq. It is on the foothills of beautiful high mountain. Its campus has been carefully laid out to embrace the beautiful mountainous nature. . There are 4 Faculties and 2 Schools in KOU; Faculty of Engineering (FENG), Faculty of Science and Health (FSCH), Faculty of Education (FEDU), Faculty of Humanities and Social Silences (FHSS), Shcool of Physical Education (SPHE) and School of Medicine (SMED). Also, there are two research centers; Genome Center and Malai Gawra Center. Moreover, at KOU there is an English Language Center (BELC) at KOU has been opened with the sponsorship of IREX and American embassy in Baghdad as well as with the support of Spring International Language Center of The University of Arkansas. KOU has two Scientific Journals; ARO-The Scientific Journal of Koya University, which is indexed by Clarivate Analytics (ESCI), and Koya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (KUJHSS). KOU is a proactive member of Erasmus/ Marhaba Project and Erasmus+. KOU signed many Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with many International Universities, e.g., The University of Arkansas (June 2015). The Lulea University in Sweden (April 2014), The University of Nottingham in the UK, The University of Buckingham in the UK (Oct 2008), Belkin University in Turkey (Sep 2009) and The University of Greenwich in the UK.
