Enabling head teachers and school leaders to be innovative in the classroom is the key to positively impacting the student experience across the Middle East and North Africa. That's the message from Education Changemakers, a unique organization focused on unleashing teacher-led innovation, that is gearing up to address the regional education industry at EdEx MENA, running on Nov. 22-23 at the Conrad Hotel Dubai. Dave Faulkner, CEO of Education Changemakers and the author of the book ‹Edupreneur› said: "One of the most powerful ways to improve the education outcomes of young people is to empower teachers and school leaders to build relevant solutions to the challenges they face in their schools. "By up-skilling educators in innovation, design thinking and entrepreneurial concepts, education systems can witness inspiring and powerful results in their schools. Some of the most innovative education approaches in the world are emerging in the MENA region, and we are excited to engage with education leaders from the schools and systems." Focusing on facilitating business development and partnership opportunities within the regional private education industry, EdEx MENA will host four targeted conferences, and provide a key networking platform for decision makers. Running in tandem, the Education Investment MENA, Higher Education MENA, Future Education Spaces MENA and K-12 Leaders Forum conferences will address the latest developments in their respective sectors. Highlighting the necessary steps governments and organizations can take to improve education systems and approaches to teaching; each conference will have industry experts leading a mix of keynote sessions, panels and roundtable discussions. For Professor Martin Henson, Managing Director for Khozama Academic Consulting, cultivating leadership and organizational change to tackle internal and external challenges is paramount when delivering quality education. Speaking ahead of his workshop at the Higher Education MENA conference titled ‘Leading through Governance', he said: "The session aims to help senior managers of colleges and universities think through their internal and external challenges. "These might be addressed through leadership and organizational change. There are, for all Higher Education Institutions in the GCC, many challenges to address and opportunities to grasp – the workshop and the conference more generally will provide excellent mechanisms for taking higher education forward in the MENA region." Visitors will have access to conferences led by senior representatives from entities involved in the regulation, financing, equipping and improvement of private education delivery systems in emerging markets. From Kindergarten through to K-12, Higher and Vocational programs, attendees of the show will benefit from workshops focused on a range of challenges faced by different sectors in the private education industry. Henson added: "The major challenges for higher education in the MENA region concern domestic relevance, international partnerships and the importance of engaging meaningfully in research to achieve world-class status." "To achieve this, targeted resourcing, a balanced approach to public and private providers, and a relationship between government and providers that encourages innovation while insisting on the highest quality, is required." — SG
