Science education in the sultanate of Oman

Science teaching in Omani schools has undergone noticeable developments in all aspects since Oman adopted a new education system in Basic Education (grades 1–10) and Post Basic Education (grades 11–12)) in 1998. The Omani Ministry of Education set out certain goals of teaching science in order to produce well-educated and scientifically literate people. However, in order to achieve these goals good science teachers and a well-designed science curriculum are needed. The content of science curriculum was revised and developed. Several initiatives were proposed including: Road safety within the Omani curricula, environmental education for sustainable development into the Omani curricula, knowledge development program for students in science, mathematics and concepts of environmental geography and using modern technology. Omani science teachers were asked to use inquiry based learning and cooperative learning to make students more involvement in the classroom. The results of Omani students in two rounds of TIMSS (2007, 2011) was not promising which was leaded the Ministry of Education to reform the type and the nature of students’ assessment. There are some challenges that Oman faces in the science teaching such as raising students’ achievements locally and in the international studies like TIMSS, enhance the quality of science teaching and the use of ICT in science teaching effectively.