Kingdom’s education to embrace revolutionary technologies

The education sector in the Kingdom may soon see the use of new technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and online digital classrooms in technical education. The revelation was made by the Minister of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) Hang Chuon Naron in an online meeting hosted by the People’s Republic of China on Thursday in China’s Tanjin.The online meeting of the 2024 World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference, titled “Innovation Empowers the Future, Skills Enlighten New Lives,” was organised by the Ministry of Education of China. The Tianjin Municipal Government, under the leadership of Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Education, served as the co-organiser. The event saw the participation of representatives from national institutions, enterprises, media, and over 300 technical education institutions from 32 countries.

Making his participation virtually, Naron said that the Education Ministry in Cambodia has been giving due consideration to incorporating new technologies like VR, AR and online digital classrooms in regular technical education. The move would also include the designing of the curricula to meet the demands of the actual job market.

Other initiatives would include short-term training courses, collaboration with higher education institutes and public-private partnerships in the domain of technical education.

AR uses digital imagery, sound and other stimuli to portray an improved physical world using digital imagery on smart devices. VR on the other hand, uses computer technology to create a 360-degree visual virtual world in which users can interact physically in real time with the help of special electronic devices including helmet with in-built screens or sensor-equipped gloves.

Topics featured during the event were the declaration on the establishment of the global technical education alliance, parallel discussion session on technical education, ministerial roundtable and the Tianjin consensus on the development of global technical education.

Also speaking at the event, Jinpeng pointed out that technical education is a vital part of education today. It has tremendous potential to cater to the demand for human resources for industrial development. In China, technical education is large-scale with active participation from relevant enterprises and is integrated with general education. He expressed the willingness of the Chinese side to lend support in technical education.