70 percent of secondary school graduates head to higher education
Oman, Education, 3/9/2002

Yahya bin Mahfoudh al Manthri, Oman's Minister of Higher Education, has said it is envisaged that 70% of secondary school graduates will be admitted by Higher Education Institutions in the Sultanate towards the end of the current Sixth Five-Year Plan, ONA reported.

In a statement published by Al Watan Newspaper today the Minister said it was planned that government owned higher education institutions enroll 52% of secondary school output at the end of the current five-year plan and that private institutions were to work to admit 20 to 25% during the same period.

The Minister said since the inception of the renaissance, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said accorded a special attention to boosting the education sector and qualify human resources.

He said that as from the Eighties that policy led to the emergence of higher education which was launched by the creation of colleges of education and expanded by the establishment of Sultan Qaboos University, technical colleges and specialized institutions and colleges.

The Minister said the private sector started to invest in the sector of higher education in the Nineties and private colleges that were opened offered various specializations including engineering, fire-fighting and safety, medicine, administration, computer and tourism. The private higher education drive culminated in the establishment of Sohar University which enrolls at present 816 students and this year admitted 360 new students.

The Minister said 12 private colleges and one university provide higher education to 6,250 male and female students during the current 2001-2002 academic year, ONA reported.

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