Wednesday, February 22, 2006

First example of Oman’s policy to launch e-governance

MUSCAT — This is the first example of the Sultanate’s policy to introduce e-governance, where people will conduct their entire businesses with a public institution, electronically.
In the past, when students got their examination results, they and their parents had to undertake an expensive and time-consuming process to visit many institutions, fill in many application forms, and then had to wait sometimes for weeks, hoping to achieve their aims. In order to make the process much easier and less expensive, the Ministry of Higher Education has decided to centralise the procedures. Accordingly, the Higher Education Admission Centre (HEAC) has been set up to be responsible for the processing of all admissions, using a new computerised system.
From April 1 until June 1, 2006, students will be able to apply for upto 20 programmes simply by submitting a single electronic application, from any computer which is connected to the Internet.
The 20 choices may be taken from all the external or internal scholarships, as well as all the programmes of study available in all the public and private institutions in Oman. A minimum of six choices must be made.
When applying for the 20 choices, applicants must put them in order of preference. This is very important because the basic aim of the system will be to offer each applicant the highest preference to which they are entitled.
Centres which have suitable access to the Internet will be available at which applications may be submitted. Through the schools, HEAC will notify students about the nearest local centre at which they may submit their application. The purpose is to ensure that there will be no need for applicants to travel long distances or suffer great expense.
Through the schools, HEAC will also distribute a student guidebook. This will provide all the details about the new system.
In addition, the guidebook will also show the details of every scholarship and all the programmes which are available in all the institutions. This will include information about the entry requirements, programme content, etc.
For the first time, therefore, in a single guidebook, applicants will be able to get details about all programmes, instead of having to contact each institution as in the past.

posted by Unknown @ 10:33 PM