Saeed Al-Khotani Saudi Gazette RIYADH — The five-day International Exhibition and Forum of Education (IEFE) 2013 concluded in Riyadh on Friday with over 60,000 visitors, according to Naif Bin Alromi, deputy education minister for planning and development and the supervisor general of the event. “While the majority of visitors toured the exhibition, thousands of them attended the forum, and we hope that they all benefited from the exhibits, lectures and workshops,” Alromi told Saudi Gazette. “We consider this event, conducted for the third consecutive year, a good success as we could bring under one roof exhibitors and experts from different countries and local professionals, business people and government officials to share and learn the latest in educational ideas, concepts and tools,” he said. The event, which attracted exhibitors from 22 countries, was opened by Minister of Education Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah on Monday night. Finland, which is the official guest of the year, participated with a large delegation of more than 70 members, including senior education officials, experts and business leaders in the field. The Finnish delegation was led by State Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Culture Tapio Kosunen. In his address to one of the forum sessions, Kosunen expressed his country's pride for being selected as the guest country at the IEFE and hoped that Finnish expertise in education evaluation and school construction will benefit the Kingdom. He said a school currently being built in the country with Finnish expertise will be completed by 2014 and will have a capacity to accommodate 3,000 students. “The school will become a model for new Saudi school buildings,” said the official. Saudi Gazette met a number of exhibitors and visitors to learn about their impressions. Veli-Jussi Jalkanen, the chief executive of Sally Systems Co., said on behalf of his colleagues at the Finnish pavilion, “We all were very happy to be in this friendly and hospitable country. Our innovative tools and concepts received wide interest from the visitors. They had the attention of the media, as well as professionals, including those from the Saudi Ministry of Education.” He added: “Though it is hard to tell which of them got most attention, I could say in general the main focus was on universities, management consultancy services, e-learning and future IT technologies.” Ronald Hajj, the chief innovative officer and technology adviser at Lebanon's FVC, said his company participated with an e-solution called SILEX Education, which is the next generation of classroom systems designed and built around interaction for better productivity through an advanced video conferencing system. The solution that takes both students and teachers beyond traditional teaching and learning can control the whole classroom through an iPad application. Hajj said the feedback he received from visitors was “amazing.” Visitors in general seemed satisfied with the exhibition. Raed Al-Haqbani, a teacher, said: “I came to see the latest electronic devices that can help me in my work. I was happy I found what I wanted: a smart board and an electronic answer sheet corrector.” Noof Hamad Al-Ugla, an English literature student, said: “My father brought us to the exhibition. It was useful. Because of my specialty in English, I bought many books and programs on English teaching and translation.” Muna Tahseen, a hospital employee, said she was not happy because she could find any stall of private schools to inquire on the possibilities of enrolling her and her friends' kids. “This could be because of lack of organization at the exhibition, or maybe because of our inability to locate such stalls,” she said.
