Minister of Education Dr. Majid bin Ali Al-Nuaimi praised existing, ongoing cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Arab Educational Research Center – an affiliate of the Arab Educational Bureau – and lauded the center’s significant role in supporting developmental programs implemented by the Ministry of Education as well as the expertise and programs provided to the Ministry in order to boost national capabilities. The Minister of Education inaugurated a workshop for application of training kits for the compensatory program for basic skills organized by the Arab Educational Research Center for the GCC countries in the presence of the Center’s director Dr. Marzooq Al-Ghunaim and the Arabian Gulf University’s - (AGU’s) - chancellor Dr. Khalid Al-Awhali, with participation of a number of curricula specialists in Arabic Language, Mathematics and Computer who hailed from members countries hosted at the Diplomat Hotel. The Minister, in his speech, added that the Ministry, in the light of its implementation of the initiatives of the national project for developing education and training primarily the program for improvement of schools performance, had recently formed more than 40 working teams from various academic domains, organized tens of training workshops, prepared more than 3000 schoolteachers on modern classroom- and time- management aimed at raising efficiency of educational staff and their skills, in order to enhance basic skills in schoolchildren of various age groups whilst observant to individualistic variations. The Minister cited the steps taken by the Minister for assimilation of students with special needs who are eligible to schooling in government schools, as 220 such students were assimilated last year. The total number of students assimilated this year reached 119 from both genders, in recognition of the right students with special needs to receive education ensured to them by the Constitution. The Minister thanked AGU’s chancellor Dr. Khalid Al-Awhali for the university’s provision of programs aimed at qualifying the Ministry of Education’s cadres on taking care of students with special needs.