Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association announced in a statement that it is holding its thirty-third annual educational conference under the title “Character Education and Values at the Heart of Learning: An Approach to Good Citizenship”, on the fifth of September, under the patronage of the Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Hector Hajjar, in the Al-Zahraa Hall attached to the Imamain Al-Hassanain Complex - Haret Hreik.
It said in the statement: “Al-Mabarrat emerged from the womb of a deeply rooted vision (mission-driven human development). Guided by this vision, its schools and care institutions have been a space in which it aspires to refine the person of life, with personal qualities and values that form the backbone, clothed in knowledge, skills and techniques, so that they may be as God Almighty wanted - His steward on earth.”
It added: “From this vision Al-Mabarrat drew its mission and set within it the features of its graduate. It wanted that graduate to be righteous, believing, cultured, productive, creative, aware, responsible and open to the issues of the age - giving life strength and creativity and taking part in making the future - looking through this toward their engagement in developing the society around them, and toward building a good citizenship that is a starting point toward the world. Accordingly Al-Mabarrat framed its curricula, prepared its programmes and activities, and wove the framework for its administrative, teaching and care practices.”
Al-Mabarrat noted in its statement that “achieving this vision and preserving it has never been an easy matter, and it is not so today, in a country living a deep crisis with many dimensions, and in a region weighed down with challenges - in addition to the age of digitization and artificial intelligence, which has turned standards and concepts upside down”.
It continued: “All of this imposes on us as educational institutions fundamental questions, arising from the vision we carry, about the learner's personal qualities, the ethics and the values we aspire to, the extent to which they head our priorities, and the resources devoted to them.”
It concluded that: “Al-Mabarrat looks toward the learner remaining drawn to their roots, proud of their identity and belonging to it, setting out from it to form their deep patriotism, sailing with wisdom and awareness through the data pumped out around the clock, and seeking righteousness in their society, their homeland, their Arab world and the wider world in all its breadth.”
The association then set out in the statement the programme of the conference's opening session as follows:
- Excerpts from an address by the religious authority Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah entitled “The example is stronger than the deed”.
- A word by the conference's patron, the Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Hector Hajjar.
- A word by the Director General of Al-Mabarrat Dr. Mohammad Baqer Fadlallah.
- A video, “Certificates and Ranks”, about Al-Mabarrat's students of the 2023-2024 cohort.
- An artistic segment presented by the Al-Mabarrat choir entitled “Mawtini”.
- A word by the president of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, the scholar Sayyed Ali Fadlallah.
- A seminar entitled “Character Education in Learning: From Vision to Application”, comprising the following interventions:
• The formation of values and their role in learning and teaching:
Dr. Mourad Jurdak, emeritus professor in the department of education at the American University of Beirut.
• Main Principles for Effective Character Education:
Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, professor of character education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in the United States.
• Character Education from the Standpoint of Human Agency:
Dr. Khosrow Bagheri
Professor in the department of philosophical and social foundations of education in Tehran.
The Media Department
