Education in the Middle East and North Africa

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has emphasized education’s importance as a social right and an imperative factor for development^[1]. Education encompasses the kernel of social values, morality, tradition, religion, politics and history. It is the acquired body of knowledge that provides the labor force with the necessary skills that ensure its active contribution to the country’s nation building. The acquisition of literacy, numeric and problem solving skills helps to improve the value and efficiency of labor. It creates a skilled and intellectually flexible labor force through training, expertise and academic credentials.A professional working force enhances the quality of a country’s economic productivity and guarantees its suitability for global markets competitiveness^[2].According to a recent research reported by the United Nations Population Fund, countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Algeria have invested in family planning, health and education. Consequently, they have experienced a more rapid economic development than the countries that were reluctant to invest in social development programmes.^[3]

Contents 1 The status of education in the Middle East 1.1 Background 1.2 Post-colonial period 2 Literacy rates 3 Quality of education 4 Problems of education quality in the MENA region 5 Gender 6 Recommended changes and future reforms 7 Notes & References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] The status of education in the Middle East

[edit] Background

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region comprises the countries of Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), West Bank and Gaza (Palestine), and Yemen^[4]. Despite that Israel is geographically situated in the MENA(Middle East and North Africa) region; this article focuses on the countries that are bound by the Islamic religion and Arabic language, except Iran where Persian, is the official language .

Although MENA countries share common identity formation features: Islam as the main religion and Arabic as a common language, they differ in ethnicity, tradition, history and spoken form of Arabic. Economic development strategies also vary between the oil-producing countries such as Kuwait and United Arab Emirates and the non-oil producing countries such as Tunisia and Jordan.^[5]

During the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, most countries of the region were under European colonization. Despite that the colonizing authorities were the first to introduce a compulsory education, access to modern education was restricted to a selected minority. The aim was to control the natives’ intellectual development and reduce their ability to challenge the colonizers’ political control, while enhancing the rule of the colonial administrations.^[6]

During the same period, the native formal education in the region was based on the inculcation of Koran. It was in constant competition with the newly introduced European educational system. This, however, was not due to Islamic refutation of western culture, but it resulted from the colonizer’s willingness to advance a dominant and superior western culture while annexing further territories in the MENA region and imposing restrictions on nationals.^[7]

Other colonies such as Tunisia and Egypt adopted a different approach to the western culture. Governments in such countries invested on missions that aimed at sending elites to Europe in order to learn about the European technologies and modes of life and ultimately transfer their newly westernized knowledge to their countries of origin.^[8] Such measures resulted in the creation of modern schools in the nineteenth century such as the polytechnic school of Bardo that was created in 1830 and represented the French Ecole Polytechnique in Tunisia.^[9]

By the late nineteenth century, there was a widespread awareness of western culture's power.The new Ottoman ruling élite, referred to as intelligentsia, was trained in specialized schools. Governments that were seeking reforms trained the intelligentsia élite as officials, doctors, engineers and police officers. In Cairo, lawyers were formed in a French law school in order to be able to work in mixed courts.In Tunisia,the French colonizers controlled both primary and secondary schools such as the Sadiqiyya,a secondary school established as a model of a lycée.^[10]

In AlgeriaThe new generation produced a class that was found of knowledge. Bilingualism was widespread. In some families,the higher educational system is as much developed as the frensh one,and the pre college education has demonstrated a big world wide succes.the actual ratio of literacy is 99%,and blingulism is above 90%,conversely with the nabor countries such as Morocco and Tunisia literacy is still below 70%,and the new modern Algerian society has equal educational opportunities,according to the stats made on 2005:53% of enroled college student are females,and 47% males.

[edit] Post-colonial period

1-Historical perspective:

In the Middle East and North Africa, during the post-colonial era,education spread as result of the significant social changes and the rise of indigenous élite to a ruling power.The willigness of national governments to build a strong nation, made the acquisition of literacy a necessary skill for creating efficient human potential.^[11]Most scholars and policy makers in the region have argued that education is the cornerstone of a society’s economic growth and expansion. They stress the importance to invest in education in order to promote a sustained economic development.^[12]

In the post-colonial period, the dominant pattern has been governments’ control of education.^[13] Free education has become the central issue for nation-building. The expansion of primary, secondary and tertiary education has paralleled the rapid population growth. Between 1965 and 1990, the percentage of students enrolled in primary education increased from 61% to 98%.^[14]

Despite the challenge imposed by the rising number of students at different educational levels, governments in the Arab world have provided a compulsory basic education for most children, while enrolment at secondary and higher education has increased significantly.In 1960, 60 per cent of children were attending primary schools in Egypt. School population could reach 3 million,including 200.000 students in secondary schools.Similarly, between 1954 and 1963, school enrolment increased from 11 to 65 per cent in Tunisia and from 12 to 60 per cent in Algeria.^[15]

Despite that higher education was introduced during colonization, the pace of enrolment at universities grew swiftly after independence. In 1939, there were no more than nine universities in the region. By 1960, this number rose to 20 universities most of them were national.Also, the number of university students increased.The largest numbers were in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.^[16]

In the conservative regimes of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, a modern education was very slow to emerge. Such regimes were careful to expose the indigenous students to the new westernized doctrines that might contradict with the Islamic culture.However Kuwait was an exception in the conservative Arab peninsula. It invested its revenues from the export of oil to modernize its society.^[17]

2-Post-independence challenges:

The problems to expand education were common to all MENA countries in their development and nation-building episode. Affording education to most children did not necessarily reduce the number of uneducated children as result of the ongoing demographic growth. Similarly, the educational system was inadequate as classrooms were too crowded and very often teachers were not properly trained for such profession. The result could be identifiable as students who could reach the level of higher education lacked the required knowledge and skills for academic studies.^[18]

Other problems resulted from governments policies towards educational institutions after independence.The inherited institutions varied between modern and Islamic, public and private, schools teaching in Arabic and others in a foreign language,usually French or English. The newly independent governments tended to unify such different institutions under the control of the state. As a result, while some Islamic schools were closed, others became part of universities. As an example, the Zaytuna, a traditional Islamic school in Tunis, was incorporated to the school of Shari'a of the University of Tunis.^[19]

Another pattern of post-colonial government control of education was the Arabization of educational institutions. Schools that during colonial rule taught through the medium of a foreign language, started now to teach in Arabic. As a consequence, students' ability to master a foreign language decreased in countries such as Syria where the introduction of a second language was only in the secondary schools rather than starting in the primary education.^[20]

Students who wanted to pursue their studies abroad had to rely on family wealth or government scholarships. Nevertheless, those who were not able to master a foreign language faced serious obstacles. Besides, as the best education could only be obtained in private schools, a wealthy educated élite emerged.The intelligentsia class could master foreign languages and enjoy better employment advantages. By contrast, the larger part of society had to rely on the government's educational facilities.^[21]

3-Women in post-colonial societies:

The spread of education in the region has engendered many social changes that influenced the position of women in MENA countries. Most importantly, even in the conservative regimes, women were now able to go school. Throughout the region, while the percentage of girls in primary schools was as important as that of boys, female access to higher education was steadily rising. Correspondingly, due to their improved level of literacy, educated women could work as lawyers, doctors and employees in social services.In some countries such as Tunisia and Iraq where the state governments were willing to modernize their societies, women held offices with high responsibilities in government.^[22]

[edit] Literacy rates

As a result of government investment in education, the average of educational attainment of the labor force increased. Though mostly regarded as a symbol of national achievement rather than a financial goal, high literacy rates had more than doubled in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa in the period spanning from 1960 to 1995. Despite the improvement of literacy level in the region, there was a discrepancy between the countries with a significant urban population in which literacy rates had marked a steady increase and the predominantly rural countries where the percentage of illiteracy was remarkably high.^[23]

Due to the rising number of young students and especially in rural areas, countries such as Yemen, Egypt and Morocco face a serious obstacle towards achieving universal basic education. In Egypt, guaranteeing education for those aged below 15 is an enormous challenge as more than third of its population is between 6 and 14 with a concentration in rural areas. ^[24]In the mountain areas of Yemen, despite substantial efforts to build new schools or repair some old ones, classes may meet outdoors.^[25]

Further attempts at raising literacy rates are being processed in the MENA region with a particular emphasis on educating women in rural areas where the level of illiteracy in general is high especially among females. According to the World Bank report in 1999, in the rural areas of Morocco, only one woman out of ten can read and write.^[26] The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization reported that over seventy-five million women and forty-five million men across the Middle East and North Africa region were illiterate.^[27]

[edit] Quality of education

The quality of education is a crucial issue in economic development. In order to evaluate the quality of education, it is important to uncover the results of learning achievement. Such a process can be through comparative studies both within the MENA region and internationally. However,as only Iran and Jordan accepted to participate in recent international assessment studies, the available data on the quality of education in the MENA region is very low and does not allow adequate investigation.When Jordan participated in the 1991 International Assessment of Educational progress and similarly Iran did so in the 1995 Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study, both countries showed a very low level in maths and science.^[28]

Much more importantly, educational systems in MENA do not strongly rely on the inculcation of cognitive skills. This signifies that students are not taught to develop their knowledge through their thought, experience and the use of senses. They are rather encouraged to memorize answers to a limited number of problems. As a result, they are rewarded for being passive rather than active learners and recipients.^[29]

Some indicators such as the available sources of information per student or the patterns of expenditure in primary schools can be helpful to determine the quality of education in MENA.In many MENA primary schools, students have access to a single textbook in every subject each year. This implies that the book itself is the only source of information. Correspondingly, the development of cognitive skills tends to be slow and depends on the student's personal efforts to assimilate new information, hence progress. In addition, such a process can even be slower because of the absence of other reading materials and video programs that may provide further illustrations and make the studied topic clear and understandable.^[30]

From a different perspective, countries in the Gulf states spent four times more on a student in higher education than on a student in basic school.Tunisia, Jordan and Morocco spent correspondingly about 8, 14, and 15 times more on a student in university than on a student in compulsory education. Even though it might be argued that they do do primarily because higher education is costly, governments that spend more than ten times per student in higher education tend to ignore the importance of compulsory education's quality.^[31]

In the Arab world, the low-quality of the educational system is not due to the lack of monetary funding but emanates from the inadequate management of the available monetary resources aiming at improving education in the region.^[32]The Education Performance Index(EPI) that measures the quality of education in the developing countries conveyed a discrepancy between the different countries in the region. They varied in the ways of exploiting the advantages of economic potential for the benefit of their people.Countries such as Tunisia succeeded in investing more than six per cent of its GNP in free public education.As a consequence,more than 1.4 million students could enjoy a free and compulsory education in 1991.^[33] In other countries countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, despite the available financial resources, basic education was not improved.^[34]This can be interpreted as being the result of the low net enrollment rate.Moreover, while the gender gap in compulsory education in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait is not very high, Qatar suffers a gender gap of 20 per cent in students enrollment in basic education.^[35]

[edit] Problems of education quality in the MENA region

According to the 2002 Arab Human Development Report, “the most worrying aspect of the crisis in education is education’s inability to provide the requirements for the development of Arab societies.”^[36] Despite that both secondary and higher education are regarded as the most suitable sources that provide training and expertise for the future labor force , access to colleges or universities is still limited. In cases when education is available, it suffers from the low quality of its educational system, lack of educational materials or qualified teachers.^[37]

The financial problem emanates from the region itself: the intervention of government to provide a free education has started to become burdensome as result of the increasing number of students who complete their basic education and seek to further their studies. As a result, the central government faces the challenge to control the unsustainable cost of providing free education for the ever rising number of students and doing so at different educational levels.^[38]

From a different perspective, in the MENA region, despite intensive governmental investments in education in order to improve the efficiency of education and rise the level of academic achievement, the quality of education remains a problem.^[39]According to the 1995 World Education Report, although females access to education in the MENA is low when compared to male enrolment rates, the low quality of educational systems in the region affects both males and females.

One way to explain such phenomenon could be to argue that educational management have not witnessed substantial changes and reforms since the post-independence period. In fact, during the 1950s and the 1960s, educational systems were framed and planned in accordance with the demands of state indistries, agriculture and services. The central government used to anticipate the required skills for the future employees before deciding and planning the different educational specializations. No less important, the number of new workers was also determined. Manpower forecasts had to predict the number of employees required in every field prior to students' graduation and completion of secondary or higher education.^[40]

Similarly, access to higher education was also monitored by government.Very often programs open and close according to governmental planning and in accordance with market demands. Also, the centralized planning helped to determine the necessary technical, manual or professional services that lead to the nation's economic growth. Thereupon, the mobility across specialization was not flexible. In addition, as there was more emphasis on skilled manual and technical professions, academic training was considered irrelevant.^[41] Furthermore, entry to the specialized universities of medicine required the acquisition of specific academic experiences taught in specialized secondary schools located in the cities. Consequently, students who lived in urban areas could attend previledged educational institutions. However, students from rural areas very often cannot enjoy the same educational advantages.^[42]Most of those willing to continue their education at a higher level are concentrated in the over-crowded technical schools or universities of humanities and social sciences.

[edit] Gender

The right to education is regarded as necessary for women in the Middle East and North Africa.The importance of education for women is to enable them become good mothers for the future and active members in society. While some women perceive that education is their gateway to a better life in which they are able to understand their human rights and subsequently protect themselves against gender discrimination, others believe that educated women are more successful in raising a new generation. ^[43][44]

In the first half of the 1990s Muslim states increased girls enrollment in primary schools by two per cent, a rate four times higher than the average rate of school-age girls enrollment in developing countries. The rise of girls participation in primary schools aimed at wiping the widespread claims that Islamic rules restricted female access to education.^[45]

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the primary school enrollment rate for girls has increased from 80 to 96 per cent in 1986. Similarly, in rural areas, girls enrollment in primary schools has climbed from 60 to 80 per cent in the late 1990s.^[46]In the case of Iran, political commitment to achieve a universal compulsory education in Iran has influenced educational quality. Correspondingly, gender gap in school enrollment has significantly decreased.^[47]

In addition, several regimes in the Arab world have stressed the importance to improve female's access to education and attempted to reduce gender gaps at different educational levels.Indeed, it is predicted that by the year 2010, Arab countries can reach 70 per cent of literacy rate as result of the sustained improvement of education especially with regards to women.Tunisia stands as an illustrative example of a successful policy that has started in 1956. It aimed at reducing gender gaps.The government's liberal policy towards women has influenced women's status in the country and reduced gender inequality in access to education.^[48]

The significant shifts in girls enrollment rates in compulsory schools were experienced by other countries in the MENA region. From 1960 to 1988, girls enrollment rates in Syria, Libya and Iraq have climbed correspondingly from 44 per cent to 94 per cent(Syria), from 26 to 90 per cent (Libya) and from 39 to 88 per cent(Iraq).^[49] According to the World Bank, the wider gender gaps across the MENA region are found in Yemen, Morocco and Egypt.^[50]In Egypt, more than 600.000 girls aged between 6 to 10 do not go to school. The majority of these uneducated girls are concentrated in rural areas, especially in Upper Egypt.^[51]Such phenomenon resulted from the low quality of the national educational system and its provided services in rural areas. This was also backed with the socioeconomic difficulties in the rural areas of Egypt where it is very difficult to afford for basic educational materials.

[edit] Recommended changes and future reforms

Stephan P.Heyneman identifies six major areas for change:

1-meaningful compulsory education:

A meaningful compulsory education implies the necessity to treat 'basic education' and 'compulsory education' equally. This means that education should be universal during the compulsory basic education. Also, it needs to be universal for all children regardless of their social class, gender or ethnic group.^[52]Such a process requires the redefinition of examinations goals. This signifies that exams need to be used as an evaluative tool rather than a means by which students are selected according to their memorization skills.

2-coherent quality assurance mechanisms:

There are four mechanisms that enable the assessment of education's quality. They include "curricular objectives, examinations and other assessment, teaching materials and classroom teaching".^[53]However, in the MENA region, schools lack the resources that facilitate fulfilling educational goals. For instance, textbooks are inadequately organized in ways that do not consider students with different educational capabilities.Consequently,the coordination between curricular objectives, mechanisms used by teachers and appropriate selection of examination can be efficient in conveying a functional and coherent educational system.^[54]

3-professionalization of teachers:

In the MENA region, the teaching profession is not based on selecting teachers according to their competence, creativity and teaching performance. Teachers are rather compensated on grounds of their educational attainment.Moreover, salary scales do not importantly differ between teachers with different level of experience.This very fact have discouraged proactive improvement of teaching ad subsequently reduced the quality of teaching in general. An effective solution to such a challenge would be to introduce continuing inspections and examinations in order to assess teachers'performance in classrooms. Instructors who succeed in these evaluative examinations may move to a higher salary scale. This process would not only motivate teachers to perform but will influence the quality of education in general in a positive way.^[55]

4-educational materials:

In the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, there is a general consensus that that educational facilities are rare and inappropriately used.However, due to the changing nature of market demand, there is an urge necessity to provide students with professional and technical skills. Indeed, introducing computer software educational programs should be encouraged, organized and implemented. It is suggested that such a process would produce an up-to-date educational system that produces an internationally competitive labor force. Consequently,this does not only improve the quality of education but also creates a valuable and efficient work force.^[56]

5-higher education:

Most MENA countries have not changed the policies whereby they manage their higher education since the intervention times of central governments in the 1960s and 1970s. In other terms, the financing and delivery procedures have been identical for more than thirty years.This explains the reason why the quality of higher education has decreased.Nevertheless, in order to avoid such state of stagnation in higher educational institutions, there is a need to improve educational delivery materials through the use of modernized teaching strategies , raising access to higher education while providing both qualitative and structural reforms.^[57]

6-educational information:

Information about the quality of education in MENA is scarce and the available data is often inadequate and unreliable.Nevertheless, in order to be able to adapt to the global open market, governments in the region need to encourage the use of statistics and different data analysis tools that aim at uncovering the status of education for both local responsible authorities and international bodies. Such a process allows an effective assessment and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of education in the region. Conversely, as result of the shortage of information about these evaluative data,it is very difficult to figure out the reasons that account for the failure of educational systems in MENA.^[58]

[edit] Notes & References

[edit] See also