The former Secretary General of Oman’s Higher Education Council, Salim bin Nasser Al Maskari, has been awarded with the Gold and Silver Star of the Order of the Rising Sun by Emperor Naruhito of Japan for the former’s work in the field of education.

“This Order was not conferred on me only but to all those working in the field of education in Oman,” Al Maskari said, reiterating that although he had been conferred with this honour, it was a reflection of the excellence of all those working in the field of education in Oman.

“Some view education in the Sultanate as not having excelled on the international stage,” he said.

“If that is so, why have the Japanese sent their students to Oman for further studies at masters and doctoral level? I believe this claim on the country’s standards of education is not true. Otherwise, a country like Japan would not have sought cooperation with us in the field of education since the 1980s,” he added.

Shedding light on how this cooperation was born, Al Maskari said, “When I was the Secretary General of Sultan Qaboos University, Japanese officials approached us. It was, at that time, an emerging institute in the field of education. They viewed it as a university that would give them the opportunity to enhance cooperation in the field of education.”

“In the 1990s, we began boosting cooperation by exchange of students as many Japanese students arrived in the Sultanate to study Arabic and further their education.”

“This early cooperation was engineered by the late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said bin Taimour. Around this time, collaboration also began with China and other Asian countries, enabling us to send Omani students to study abroad,” he added.

SOURCE: timesofoman