The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Prize initiative to identify and reward individuals or a team of people,who have made outstanding contribution to innovation in education,will help heighten creativity and synergy in this field,a senior jury said. "The global Prize instituted by WISE,established in 2009 under the benevolent patronage of Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser of Qatar,will ensure that it helps in enhancing innovation,synergy and collaboration as strategic priorities to enhance the delivery,accessibility and impact of education worldwide," Fatma Rafiq Zakaria,one of the five international jury members for the WISE Prize said from Aurangabad in Maharashtra. "The WISE Prize was announced during its last year meet at Doha and is dedicated to bring together thinking minds and innovative practices with a view to harness the untapped energies of the young,the experienced and the seasoned to address challenges of the 21st century," Zakaria Chairman,Maulana Azad Educational Trust in Aurangabad,said. The nominees for the WISE Prize will be screened by a 11-member Committee which will make a pre-selection of no more than 15 people. An international jury of five distinguished individuals will consider the 15 final nominations and select a winner,who will receive the award comprising USD 500,000 and a gold medal. The first annual WISE Prize for Education will be awarded at the WISE 2011 Summit in Doha in November,she said. "WISE will award serious and innovative initiatives in educational institutions wherever they might be located," she said adding it does not differentiate between regions,languages,nationalities,ethnicity and gender. It will reward anyone,however distantly or differently located,who has made a significant and worthwhile contribution to education in India,Africa,China,Brazil or anywhere,it does not matter,Zakaria said. With luminaries such as Dr James H Billington of the Library of Congress,Washington,Prof Jeffrey D Sachs,celebrated economist in the United States,Hon'ble Naledi Pandor,Minister of Science and Technology,South Africa as jurors,its global impact is absolutely secure,she said. Talking on future growth options,Zakaria said,the WISE thought would contribute to a cultural integration of global opinion leaders through exchange opportunities and by creating a platform for discussion involving academics,intellectuals and futurists for this social enhancement through learning media. "Adherents of this cultural approach must determine that educationists must focus on the principles of impact,practicality and sustainability,and strive to adapt the education system globally to a new value order," she said. "This adaptation could take diverse routes-it is possible to align to this rising post-modern culture favourably,then recommend radical changes in the education structure in order to render it adequate to a new milieu," she added. It is also possible to strengthen it in order to preserve existing education structures in static or stable settings,Zakaria who was the editor of a women's journal in Mumbai and established over 12 institutions of Higher Learning along with her late husband,the renowned Islamic scholar,Senator and prolific writer,Dr Rafiq Zakaria,said.
