Amman – (IINA) February 05 –The World Bank has said the quality of education in the Arab World is falling behind other regions and needs urgent reform if it is to tackle unemployment. Marwan Musher, senior vice president of the World Bank, launched the report, titled the “Road not Traveled” in Amman yesterday. According to the report, the quality of education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has not kept up with pressing economic challenges and urged reforms in the sector. “The relationship between education and economic growth in the MENA has remained weak, and the divide between education and unemployment has not been bridged. Countries in the region have made significant progress in reforming educational systems … yet these achievements remain below other countries at similar levels of economic development,” the report noted.
The World Bank officials said Arab States had to make improving education their top priority, because it went hand-in-hand with economic development. The region had not seen the increasing literacy and school enrolment witnessed in Asia and Latin America, they said. According to the report, Jordan and Kuwait were the top educational reformers in the region, while Djibouti, Yemen, Iraq and Morocco ranked lowest in terms of access, efficiency and quality of education. Egypt, Iran, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories were ranked average in the study, which investigated elementary, secondary and university level education. It is noteworthy that another study carried out last month by the Tunis-based Arab League Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ALESCO) found that 75% percent of the 100 million people in the Arab World were illiterate.
In its report, the World Bank issued a stark warning about the need for better education in the Arab World. It said that although education was becoming more accessible and the gender gap was being reduced, the region had not witnessed the positive changes seen in Asia and Latin America, particularly in literacy rates and enrolments in secondary schools and universities. The report said unemployment in the Arab world averaged 14%, which is higher than other areas in the world, except Sub-Saharan Africa, with the Palestinian territories coming highest with nearly 26% percent.
Muasher said educational reform went hand in hand with economic development, especially given the region’s extremely high youth population. “It’s a very youthful region – 60% of the region’s population is under 30 years of age, close to 100 million new jobs will need to be created over the next 10 to 15 years in the Arab World,” he explained.
“If we are to create such jobs, then we have to start with education.” “There is a pressing need within the region to redirect educational approaches across all stages and all forms to educate students on how to think and not what to think,” Marwan Musher said adding education systems do not support adequately the development by girls and boys of analytical skills, problem-solving skills, critical thinking and innovation.