Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

In the last quarterof a century, Arabstates have achievedremarkable progresson all indicatorsused to gauge thedissemination ofknowledge amongtheir people, fromlower illiteracy ratesto higher numbers ofuniversity graduatesAchievements shouldnot blind us to thefailures that haveprevented manyArab countries fromemerging into theknowledge societybasic skills of reading, writing, and arithmeticand inculcating the essential skills of a tradeto include the development of analytical andcritical abilities, organisational and decisionmakingskills, the powers of creativity andinnovation, and other higher behavioural andmental competencies. Nor is the knowledge thatan educational system is presumed to impartlimited anymore to the ability to answer thequestion, “What do you know?” Educationalsystems are now expected to equip students toanswer such questions as, “Do you know howto do such and such?” “Where and how doyou find such and such information?” “Howdo you assess the value of the knowledge youhave obtained?” and “How can this knowledgebe put to use?” It is through competencies ofthis sort that individuals become knowledgeablein varying degrees and ways. Thus they becomepersons aware of the underlying substance andintrinsic value of things and of how to dealwith them, educators capable of contributingto the dissemination of knowledge, and activeplayers in their environment and society throughtheir ability to take decisions and espouse viewson the basis of available knowledge, as opposedto superstitions, traditions, prejudices, randomimprovisation, or personal whim.“When all have access to the lights of knowledge,the time of democracy will have come.”- Victor Hugo (circa 1840)“An ignorant people is more tractable than aneducated one.”- Egyptian ruler Muhammad Sa‘id Pasha, son of Mohammed ‘Ali Pasha(circa 1860)THE GENERAL STATE OFKNOWLEDGE AS PROVIDEDTHROUGH EDUCATION INTHE ARAB COUNTRIESIn the last quarter of a century, Arab stateshave achieved remarkable progress on allindicators used to gauge the disseminationof knowledge among their people, fromlower illiteracy rates to higher numbers ofuniversity graduates. Taking the three majoreducation indicators used by the WorldBank to assess a country’s preparednessto compete in the knowledge economy–adult 1 literacy rates, secondary schoolenrolment rates, and enrolment in tertiaryeducation–the progress these countrieshave achieved becomes readily apparent.Whereas in 1980 the adult literacy rateacross the Arab region was approximately55 per cent for males and 25 per cent forfemales, by 2005 it had climbed to 82 percent and 62 per cent respectively. 2 In 1980,the gross enrolment ratios in all levels andtypes of secondary schooling stood at amedian of approximately 57 per cent formales and 38 per cent for females. In 2006,they had reached 70 per cent for males and65 per cent for females. 3 In 1980, tertiaryenrolment exceeded 25 per cent for malesand 20 per cent for females in Lebanon only(41 per cent and 21 per cent respectively).The medians were 8 per cent and 4.6 percent respectively and higher education wasnon-existent or virtually non-existent in athird of Arab countries (tertiary enrolmentwas less than 5 per cent). By 2005, onlythree Arab countries had tertiary enrolmentrates below 5 per cent and the median hadrisen to 18 per cent for males and 29 percent for females. 4Figure 3.1 presents the education andhuman resources 5 index for seventeen Arabcountries from the most recent periodof available statistics and the comparisonof these results with the 1995 levels. Theindices are based on the World Bank’sKnowledge Assessment Methodology(KAM). 6 The figure throws into reliefthe huge discrepancies between thesecountries, some of which have progressedsignificantly since the mid-1990s, whileothers have declined in comparison withother countries in the world. 7 It also revealsthat very few Arab countries belong to theupper half of the world’s countries on thisindex (a score of 5 or more).Nevertheless, these achievementsshould not blind us to the failures thathave prevented many Arab countries fromemerging into the knowledge society. Howcan they even see the light at the end ofthis tunnel when more than 60 million oftheir people, two thirds of them women,98 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009