The influence of child rights laws on principals practice in Oman

The Sultanate of Oman is the first country in the Middle East/North Africa region to commit to integrating child rights as outlined in the United Nations? Convention on the Rights of the Child throughout its educational system. UNICEF?s framework for education, called Child-Friendly Schools (CFS), is a multi-dimensional framework for educational quality and equity that serves to enhance all aspects of school life for children, thereby ensuring their rights are enacted. Oman?s Ministry of Education (MoE), in partnership with UNICEF, has operationalized its vision for educational quality and equity by developing standards and indicators of quality for its six Dimensions of CFS (Promotion of Child Rights and Responsibilities; Health, Safety, and Protection; Learning Effectiveness; Societal Participation; Inclusion; Gender Responsiveness). In October 2015 the Ministry of Education extended the CFS initiative from the nine Pilot Schools in three governorates to a total of 24 schools in five governorates (Muscat, Dhofar, Musandam, Dhahliyah, and Al Batinah South. There is now a group of 24 principals throughout the Sultanate who have spent from one to three years working with the concepts of child rights and Oman?s CFS model. Given the 2014 introduction of Oman?s Child Law which is based on the CRC, along with the MoE?s ongoing commitment to improving educational quality and equity, this proposed study on how involvement in CFS has influenced principal thinking and practice in Oman has the potential to inform future expansion of CFS and of principal development efforts in the Sultanate.