Education and Training, emerged to define standards particular to assuring the quality of education and training, whereby it set the standards particular to assuring the quality of education, training, institutional classification, and domiciliation of national qualifications, and preparing and conducting the national examinations for testing the performance standards in the pre-university educational phases, alongside preparing and reviewing the quality of performance of educational and training institutions in light of the guidance standards and models, while the National Commission also sets the national framework for qualifications in accordance with the various levels of the outputs of education, in a manner compatible with the job market, and the Law-Decree did not overlook defining the formation of the National Commission and its work mechanism. 7. Moreover, the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Bahrain based on the directives of His Majesty the King implemented the Digital Empowerment in Education as an advanced step by means of providing digital electronic devices to students and increased specialized training for teachers which would contribute to building national capacities and experiences while supporting the knowledge economy, which aims in turn to develop the capabilities of the students in innovation and invention and developing and building knowledge, and also developing the skills of communication and participation with other colleagues and specialists in using numerous digital environments and means, in addition to utilizing the various digital tools in the educational process with effectiveness and productivity alongside the safe harnessing of technology in the shadow of its safe use. 8. The digital empowerment project in education included two phases, the first was in 2015-2016 where the program was applied in five schools, and the second phase is presently unfolding (20162017) aiming to reach twelve schools, and it is currently being applied to all the schools of the Kingdom in the coming phases in time periods compatible with the academic phases and levels. 13 9. At the international level, the international instruments and conventions concerned with human rights have attached importance, in particular, to the right to education, where Article (26) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) included the necessity for all states to guarantee the right to education of all persons, where education in its first stages is free of charge and compulsory, while emphasizing the necessity of spreading technical and vocational education, and facilitating admission to higher education in a context of equality for all and based on merit, while ensuring that the educational curricula contribute to the full development of the human personality. 10. Article Number (13) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which acceded the Kingdom of Bahrain in accordance with Law Number (10) of 2007 affirms the right of every person to education, while the signatory states under the provisions of the Covenant undertake to make elementary education compulsory while making it available for free to all, while also spreading secondary education of various kinds, including technical and vocational education, and rendering higher education available to all in an equal manner based on capability and by the appropriate means, and rendering it gradually free, and the aforementioned Article did not overlook stating the necessity of respecting the freedom of the parents or guardians- if present13 The official website of the Ministry of Education: www.moe.gov.bh/Digital_Empowerment.aspx 93

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