The Sultan’s School Tops “The United Nations Agenda!”
PRESS RELEASE 7 DECEMBER 2005

Following the major success of The First Oman Model United Nations Project last year, we are now expanding the project into a full-scale international student conference, which will take place at The Sultan’s School on Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd February 2006.

Last year, we were delighted that our first project was joined by ten other local schools. In Year Two, we additionally welcome nine leading international schools from Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, India and the UK, with another seven schools from as far away as Canada and China expressing an interest in joining the project in Year Three.

Also last year, The Sultan’s School also took the bold decision to introduce the International Baccalaureate and International GCSE curriculums. Beyond the obvious link with these new developments, our decision to invite overseas schools has many other objectives:
To ensure that The Sultan’s School sets a positive educational example within Oman and the Gulf region as a whole, an example which will also enhance the status of the Oman Ministry of Education - whose support for the project has been unfailing from day one.
To establish links with other IB and International schools that could build into future overseas exchange programmes for the students of Oman – so important as The Sultan’s School leads the way in the process of internationalising the curriculum within the Omani private school system.
To attract some of the very best students from the Gulf Region and beyond to Oman, students who will be the leaders of tomorrow – a move that will no doubt help to enhance Oman’s future status within the region.
To give our own students genuine international exposure in a way that cannot be achieved solely within the classroom, thus developing a cultural exchange aspect to the conference – which again, can only be good for the students of Oman.
For the second year in a row, the ground-breaking nature of our Oman MUN project has been rewarded by an invitation to send four students to the Students’ League of Nations, a prestigious international conference in the Palais des Nations itself in Geneva, between 10th and 14th December 2005.

This year, two of our students have really excelled themselves. As part of their preparation for the Geneva conference, all participating students have to write and submit a draft resolution on an issue of international importance. Over a hundred draft resolutions are submitted and just five are selected for debate at the UN.

We are therefore extremely proud to announce that Maha Al-Ghafri and Basma Hussein have had their resolution selected as one of the five for debate. Bearing in mind that many local participants have direct connections with the UN in Geneva, this is an even more impressive achievement – and to cap it all, their resolution is first on the agenda, top of the list! They will be sharing the podium with Mr Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. Congratulations to both girls, and also to Amna Al-Busaidi and Fatima Muneer who were also selected for the conference.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the vision of our main sponsors, Bank Muscat, without whose generous support this ambitious project would be impossible. You understand clearly that the leading youth of today are the leading adults of tomorrow. Your willingness to invest in the future is greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank Muscat Pharmacy who have pledged to support a “Cultural Programme” for our “International Visitors” and finally SWISS who have generously helped with our travel to Geneva.

Tom Vignoles, Chairman, The Oman Model United Nations Project