Education in Oman

Back in the early 20^th century Oman was undiscovered and unidentified land of opportunities for the world as it had isolated itself from the rest of the world. It believed in solely satisfying its needs and wants by not having economic relations with the rest of the world and so on. Unlike the developed countries of the world at that time where the development was already well-paced. And many other developing countries who at that time had recently taken up the axe of development in hand, Oman was still occupied in sorting out royal throne issues and border issues with their neighbours. Naturally, less development means less attention to other areas like education, health, standard of living etc. Education being the serious issue of all the above, it needed a serious boost.

Let’s go back to the history of education in Oman. In the early 20^th century and midway of it education in Oman, on a serious note, was only the cup of tea of boys/men who followed Quran, principles of Arabic language and mathematics. The day was not yet dawned when the education for women was evident. The doors of education to women were still closed. With hardly any schools in the country the lectures used to take place in the mosques and under the trees. The responsibility of spreading knowledge was on the shoulders of the great leaders of the society. They had the onus of spreading education in the society. Certainly, there were many loopholes and lack of centralized system.

Later, in the post 1960’s era when Sultan Qaboos acceded his father’s thrown he assured of setting up modern governance in the society and education both for men and women would be given the utmost priority. When the ratio of schools to that of students was too low with only 3 government schools imparting education to almost 1000 plus students, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos set up many schools and colleges for education enhancement of the children. The scenario of education in Oman changed drastically when the great leaders like Dr P Mohamed Ali supported Sultan Qaboos in this noble move. The first university of Oman named after Sultan Qaboos university was set in 1986 giving a broader scope of educational development in the society. Between 1970 to the dawn of 21^st century there were as many 300 schools set up in Oman. This clearly indicated the educational boost in Oman and it helped it developing the many facets of the society and improved the standard of living of the people.

Now the education system is well in place offering pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher education in the country.