MOVING FORWARD ON MATH AND SCIENCE COLLABORATION

UNCLAS MUSCAT 001098 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/SAT FECHAVARRIA; OES/PCI MTOKMAN; NEA/ARP AMMAN FOR JWHITTLESEY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TSPL KGLB PREL SENV MU SUBJECT: MOVING FORWARD ON MATH AND SCIENCE COLLABORATION REF: A. ECHAVARRIA-GRIMM TELCON OF 6/19/06 ¶B. TOKMAN-GRIMM EMAIL OF 3/23/06 ¶1. This is an action request for OES. Please see paragraph 4. ¶2. On July 11, Econoff delivered ref A reply to Dr. Sana Sabeel Sulaiman al-Belushi, Director of the Technical Office for Studies and Development, Ministry of Education (MOE). Econoff noted that after careful review of the comments made by the Ministry, the USG could not accept their suggestions, given that the GLOBE Agreement was a standard legal document that has been accepted by over 100 global partners. Al-Belushi understood the USG position and would speak with her colleagues at the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Royal Oman Police-Customs to ascertain whether either organization would be able to reconsider its position. ¶3. Econoff also inquired about MOE's interest in participating in a USG-sponsored collaborative effort regarding the mathematics and science curriculum with Jordanian company Rubicon (ref B). Al-Belushi expressed interest in the proposal, but needed further information before she could raise it with the Education Minister. Specifically, al-Belushi requested further explanation on what equipment would be involved with this project, whether the instruction would be in Arabic or English, what grade level would the pilot project include, whether a contract would be involved, whether the Ministry would primarily be working with the Jordanian company or with the USG, whether a DSL line was necessary, and when the anticipated start date of the project would be. Al-Belushi also raised financial considerations, noting that the Ministry worked on a five-year plan. She inquired whether a cost estimate would be available for a system that has over 500,000 students dispersed through 1,046 schools, and whether corporate sponsorship would be possible. ¶4. Action request: Embassy requests OES to provide responses to the questions raised by MOE in paragraph 3. ¶5. Comment. On the GLOBE program, the Embassy is not certain that MOE will be able to convince the Ministry of Legal Affairs and ROP-Customs to drop their concerns regarding the proposed agreement. On the Rubicon proposal, while the Ministry is interested in learning more about the mechanisms of the project, it remains concerned about long-term funding of the program should the MOE wish to implement it system-wide beyond the pilot stage. GRAPPO