العربيةOn April 5th, UNRWA hosted the Microsoft Education Transformation Framework (ETF) workshop to improve the learning experience of Palestine refugee children. Microsoft’s education sector management in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and UNRWA’s Education management joined to support the ETF workshop.
ETF is a guide for education leaders to navigate the complexity of transformation impacting every aspect of their mission, facilitating the process of envisioning what’s possible and developing a strategy to achieve it.
Jibran Jamshad, Microsoft’s Education Sector Lead, and Hani Kurdiya, Head of IT Service Centre, welcomed the workshop participants and presented the agenda, which began with an overview of the Information and Communications Technology for Education (ICT4E) strategy, with its pillars, by Marta Lorenzo, the Acting Director of Education. After that, Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of the Information Management and Technology Department, talked about the UNRWA Digital Transformation Strategy (DTS).
The workshop featured several presentations from Microsoft representatives on education transformation, covering a range of topics. Jaye Richards-Hill, Director of Education Industry for MEA, discussed leadership and policy, Rane Moodley, Modern Work Lead for MEA, explored teaching and learning, while Solange Jarjour, Classroom Success Manager, presented on student and school success. Auda Eltahla, Azure Senior Specialist, delivered the final presentation, sharing insights into how intelligent environments can transform education. The workshop ended with a wrap-up and a lively discussion, and participants felt inspired and equipped with valuable knowledge to enhance their work in education.
The collaborative effort between UNRWA and Microsoft’s education sector management holds great potential for enhancing the quality of education for Palestine refugee children and creating more equitable access to education. It is worth mentioning that UNRWA’s partnership with Microsoft has allowed UNRWA to roll out Microsoft 365 for Education, creating accounts for over 540K students and 22K educators.
With the aim of supporting ongoing improvement in education, Microsoft and UNRWA plan to further discuss the implementation of Learning Accelerators, which are a new set of tools in Microsoft 365 Education that streamline the creation, review, and analysis of practice assignments, while providing real-time coaching to students.
