HE. Shaikh Hisham Bin Abdul Aziz Al Khalifa



Shaikh Hisham Bin Abdul Aziz Al Khalifa is currently the Undersecretary for Resources and Services of the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Bahrain, a position he has held since 2006. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Bahrain and Chairman of the Bahrain Teachers College Governing Council both of which he held since 2008. Shaikh Hisham has a very wide experience in Bahrain's Civil Service. Soon after graduating from St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas in 1986 with a Bachelor of Business and Administration degree in Marketing, Shaikh Hisham joined the Civil Aviation Authority in 1987 where he remained through 2003, holding positions from Chief of Operations to Director, to Assistant Undersecretary to Chairman of the Airport Promotion Board. He represented Bahrain International Airport in the Airport Council International. Shaikh Hisham joined the Ministry of Education in 2003 as Assistant Undersecretary for Administration and Finance and he chaired the Ministry's Planning Committee for Teacher's Cadre in 2004. Shaikh Hisham represented the Ministry of Education in the Higher Education Reform Committee in 2006 and in 2007, he chaired the Ministry's Committee for School Reform.

School Improvement Programme

The MOE in Bahrain embarked on a major reform initiative in education. Following a comprehensive evaluation report of the education quality compiled by UNESCO and a diagnostic of the current education scene in the kingdom of Bahrain by the Economic Development Board (EDB), the leadership in Bahrain, put forward an ambitious plan to reform the education system in Bahrain as a whole. H.H the Crown Prince lead the reform initiative by launching five major initiatives:

1. Excellent School: our aspiration.
2. Leadership for outcomes.
3. Partnership for performance.
4. Teaching for learning.
5. Ministry improvement: Support our schools (Ministry Improvement MIP)

These initiatives provided the platform for the Ministry to begin its School Improvement Programme (SIP) which focuses on five projects dealing with what an excellent school looks like, what sort of leadership and performance is expected of such schools and in what different ways the Ministry can support them for the outcomes we want from our schools. The aim of these projects is to bring into schools best practices from successful models that are adapted to the Bahrain environment to support them in various fields, chief of which is professional development of teachers. Teachers will be taken through a robust training process at the Bahrain Teachers College (BTC) to ensure quality of teaching. In addition a mandatory and rigorous on the job professional development programmed for teachers is being set up to give teachers the necessary tools they need to develop their capacity to become better teachers. Our schools' performance will be assessed by an independent authority, the QAA, whose role is to evaluate the educational establishments in the country in accordance with set criteria so that they are made aware of the areas that need improvements and are given the means and tools to effect change with the aim of all schools getting at least a rating of good. Ten of our government schools were selected to pilot this ambitious program. The selection process took into account schools size, governorate, gender and the QAA pilot assessment. The support our schools will then attempt to focus the Ministry of Education's directorates' work to provide schools with the necessary support to help them achieve their goals. The initiative will streamline all MOE activities to this end and in the process re-evaluate current priorities and practices and see where change is needed and make it happen in partnership with the Ministry of Finance, the Civil Service Bureau, and the Economical Development Board.