Iranian Vice-Minister of Education and Presidents of ECOSF & ECOEI agree to Pursue Science Education at School Level

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President ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) Prof. Dr. Manzoor Hussain Soomro and the President of ECO Educational Institute (ECOEI) Ankara-Turkey Prof. Selahattin Turan visited the Ministry of Education in Iran on 3 March 2015 and met with Mr. Khalilollah Babaloo, Vice Minister of Education for International Affairs. The visit was organized by the ECO Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Iran and Mr. Hossein Darvishi accompanied the visiting delegation.

The Vice Minister welcomed Presidents and briefed about the Iranian educational system, specially their more than 100 international schools in around 75 countries. He also pointed out that they have exclusive Directorate General for school curriculum development and teachers training. He desired to have cooperation with both ECO institutes for the benefit of ECO region. Prof. Turan briefed the Vice Minister about ECO Educational Institute and stressed on importance of harnessing the educational system among ECO Member Countries on modern lines.

President ECOSF briefed the Vice-Minister about ECOSF and its objectives. He also highlighted achievements of the Foundation so far and presented a copy of ECOSF's Annual Report 2014 to the Vice Minister. He particularly emphasized on initiation of Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) program in schools in collaboration with international partners of the Foundation and invited Iran for stronger participation in the program. Dr. Soomro invited him to nominate one most relevant person to participate in the International Science Education Seminar at Paris on 1-6 June 2015 being organized by ECOSF collaborators La main a la pate Foundation of France. He also extended invitation for nomination of ECOSF's planned IBSE Capacity Building Workshop scheduled on 23-25 June 2015 at Astana Kazakhstan.

Mr. Khalilollah Babaloo in response assured his Ministry's full support for the activities and programs of both the institutions; ECO Educational Institute and ECO Science Foundation. He also offered to share the experiences and specialization of Iran in the area of education to other ECO region countries through the ECO specialized agencies, viz., ECOSF and ECOEI.