Now in its fourth year, the Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF), convened by the Varkey Foundation and held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will debate how education can be made everybody's business on March 12-13 at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai.

Leading the vital plenary sessions are Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Irina Bokova, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Sir Martin Sorrell, Group CEO of WPP.

Other key speakers participating in the two day occasion consist of; Prof. Mohammad Thneibat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education of Jordan; H.E. Elias Abu Saab, Education Minister of Lebanon; Arne Duncan, United States Secretary of Education from 2009 through early 2016 and Tariq Al Gurg, CEO, Dubai Cares.

This year's GESF, whose partners include UNESCO, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Dubai Cares, will witness extreme arguments on fixing up the relevance, excellence and inclusiveness of both public and private learning environments through the cumulative duty by politicians, business leaders, educationalists and media experts.

Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation, said: "Half a billion kids are presently in failing schools. This is simply not appropriate in a world where we're now so interconnected.

"This online forum plans to tackle this head on by asking the simple question of how we can make education everyone's business. Throughout the forum we will take part in pioneering disputes, discuss fresh proof and launch brand new initiatives that can assist make the goal of supplying every kid on earth a quality education a real possibility".

This year's GESF will see a vital panel discussion on How do we address the challenge of refugee children?. This will consist of Prof. Mohammad Thneibat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education of Jordan, George Papandreou, previous Prime Minister of Greece, Global Teacher Prize Top 10 finalist, Aqeela Asifi, a teacher with the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees and Tom Fletcher, Global Strategy Director, Global Business Coalition For Education.

Vikas Pota, CEO of the Varkey Foundation, included: "Last year, according to UNHCR, there were 19.5 million refugees worldwide; of them, 51 percent were under 18 years old-- the highest figure for child refugees in more than a years.

"With a whole generations of displaced children losing out on education, long-lasting human capacity problems are only compounded for nations already in crisis. This crucial panel discussion will supply understandings into how, jointly, we can make sure that all kids receive quality education, whether displaced internally or abroad.".

The forum will likewise see the launch of brand-new alliances comprised of private companies, academic community, government and the third sector to start work on drawing up suggestions on education's most pressing problems-- varying form Girls Education to Education Innovation.

Another Forum emphasize is a series of 30 minute EdTalks which will inspire and challenge delegates in ways they can each take duty for public education. As part of these sessions, delegates likewise get to satisfy education technology suppliers.

On March 12, pioneers of education from Silicon Valley will discuss The latest edtech thinking from Silicon Valley to Singapore and dispute how today's digital knowing specialists are already redefining obligations and success in public education.

Another crucial edtech session is an effective brief talk with Dennis Yang, CEO of Udemy, where he will share his unique viewpoint on the online education market and real life experience of permanently altering the way Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are made.

Some of the world's leading EdTech companies including Speakaboos and Brainpop will remain in attendance along with some of Silicon Valley's edtech expert investor such as Reach Capital and Owl Ventures. After each brief presentation delegates, school leaders, and journalists will have time to satisfy each business individually to deep dive and learn more about their products and services.

This year's Forum will also see masterclasses conducted by the Top 10 finalists of the US$ 1 million Global Teacher Prize (GTP). These 10 teachers, from Australia, Finland, India, Japan, Kenya, Pakistan, Palestine, UK and USA, will share their teaching designs that saw them make it to the last 10 from over 8,000 applicants from 148 countries.

GESF 2016 will culminate on Sunday March 13 with the live announcement of the 2nd annual award of the US $1 million Global Teacher Prize.

The Global Teacher Prize was set up to recognize one extraordinary teacher who has made an impressive contribution to the occupation in addition to shine a spotlight on the crucial role teachers play in society.

By unearthing thousands of stories of heroes that have transformed youths's lives, the reward wishes to bring to life the exceptional work of millions of instructors all over the world. By highlighting their stories the Varkey Foundation hopes that the public will have the ability to participate in passionate debates about the significance of teachers.