Thursday 12 / December / 2024
Muscat: The Ministry of Education held a ceremony to honour outstanding students of the General Education Diploma for the academic year 2023/2024 under the auspices of Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi, Minister of Finance, and in the presence of Dr. Madiha bint Ahmed Al Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education, the ministers and members of the State Council, Undersecretaries, teachers, and parents of the honoured students.
The ceremony was held at the Grand Events Hall at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Center.
The ceremony included the Ministry’s speech, delivered by Dr. Abdullah bin Khamis Ambosaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, in which he said: “This ceremony comes to honour the distinguished students in the General Education Diploma, its equivalent levels and international qualifications in the schools of the Sultanate of Oman for the academic year 2023/2024. Today, it is our duty to congratulate and celebrate them for what they have achieved to deserve such an honour.”
He emphasised that “one of the goals of Oman Vision 2040 is to strengthen the national partnership between the government sector and the private sector so that we can all be one hand in building this country and serving its generations, and this ceremony today is nothing but an authentic model that confirms the seriousness of this partnership and its successful achieved results, as our annual ceremony comes with the generous support of Occidental Oman Company, and we truly have to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to them for supporting the youth of the country.”
He added: “In this regard, we call on our distinguished students who have successfully passed this stage to continue their excellence in the upcoming educational stages, and to strive to achieve success no less than what they have achieved at this stage.
“We also call them to invest their excellence in what supports our country and achieves its goals, and we can only extend our highest expressions of thanks and gratitude to everyone who contributed to reaching this goal and everyone who persevered towards it from parents, school administrations, teachers, and everyone who contributed to this excellence.”
Nasser Al Maskari, Director of Social Responsibility at Occidental Oman, delivered the sponsoring company’s speech, saying: “At Occidental Oman, through our social responsibility strategy, we attach great importance to supporting and investing in education, as it is a sustainable investment that has a positive impact on successive generations.
“This exclusive sponsorship that we are providing today for the honoring ceremony of outstanding students holding a general diploma is not the first, and will not be the last, as the beginning of this project was limited in its first years to schools in the concession areas due to the privacy enjoyed by these areas, and then this honor was generalised to include schools in all governorates of the Sultanate of Oman.
“Our partnership with the Ministry of Education is a long-standing partnership that has been strengthened in many community projects that have had a positive impact on society, and which directly aim to develop the education system in the Sultanate.”
After that, students Abdul Aziz Al Zadjali from South Al Batinah Governorate and Elaf Al Darmaki from Muscat Governorate gave a speech on behalf of the distinguished students, saying: “This moment is the beginning of a new journey of challenges and achievements. We promise to continue to seek knowledge, filled with hope and ambition, to achieve our dreams and goals, and will remain on the straight path.
“This moment has come to water long years of fatigue and diligence, and to drown hearts with success that we will never forget throughout our lives. Yesterday we were planting the seedlings, and today we are reaping the fruits. We will work on achieving our dreams and goals in order to achieve the vision for our country, which we all seek to be a destination for progress, advancement and a lighthouse of cultural excellence.
“We have a vast future ahead of us full of opportunities, challenges, academic study, and a bright university life. Let us face it with the same spirit, let us maintain optimism and ambition, let us renew our determination to work hard to achieve our dreams towards a bright future full of achievements for our beloved country, Oman.”
The honouring ceremony included a national anthem performed by students of the Directorate-General of Education in Muscat, and a visual presentation containing photos and videos of programmes and initiatives such as the Chinese Language Bridge Programme, the Summer Programme for Learning German, and the French Language Programme.
At the end of the ceremony, the outstanding students were honoured by the Minister of Finance, the patronage of the ceremony, and commemorative photos were taken.
