Back to school for more than 600,000 students

Muscat: The long summer holidays are over for the hundreds of thousands of students who went back to schools in Oman yesterday for the new academic year.
In a statement, Oman’s Government Cooperation centre said : “ A new academic year filled with hard work and perseverance begins, to reinforce the march of education in Oman for the sake of generations armed with knowledge.”
“This year sees a grand total of 634,770 students, 56,717 people working in the faculty, and 11,045 working in administrative and technical departments,” the statement added.
H.E Dr. Madiha Al Sheibania, the Minister of Education, said: “I am pleased to congratulate you as we welcome another new academic year, and to ask God to make it a year full of excellence as the educational system in Oman works to achieve more great things in all fields, in a way that helps prepare the children of this dear land.”
“I would like to thank all teachers and members of the educational family for their continued efforts in achieving the mission of education. I welcome all the new teachers who joined us, as the ministry is honoured to have nearly fifteen hundred new teachers,” she added.
The ministry has also worked to update its curriculum for public schools this year, printing over 20 new books and reprinting others.
H.E Dr. Hamood Al Harthi, Undersecretary of Education for Education and Curriculums said: “The Directorate General for Curriculum Development has issued 22 new books and guides for the new school year.
“It has also reprinted 158 books and guides for the first semester, and 82 books and guides for the second semester of the new academic year,” he added.
The ministry has also finished the hiring procedures and is ready to bring on the new teachers who have already passed the written tests and personal interviews for the new academic year,” according to H.E Mustafa bin Ali bin Abdullatif, undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Administrative and Financial Affairs.
Specialists from the ministry also talked about the importance of being prepared for the new academic year.
Abdullah Al Hinai, an HR development expert said: “Parents should be aware of the psychological stress and worry that their child might be going through and remember that the child does want to do well at school. . Parents should work to prepare children mentally by spending time with them, offering advice and being in contact with the school.”
D. Jalal Al Mukhaini, head of psychological guidance at the ministry, said: “ Sleep patterns can be the first things to be affected by a change in routine. It’s important to try and adjust sleeping patterns two weeks before school begins.”
“A study by researchers from Penn State and Harvard Medical College have shown that responsiveness and performance in learning tasks is lower among those who only sleep four hours a day compared to those who get six hours of sleep,” he added.