Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Knowledge is morethan the informationacquired at school.It extends to theinformation andknow-how acquiredthrough experiencein the economicallyproductive workplace,as well as from lifeQuantitatively, themore education isuniversalised acrosssociety and the higherthe average levelof schooling, thegreater the abilityof the membersof that society toparticipate in theknowledge society;the qualitative sideof the equation isfar more difficulttrack the opportunities for knowledgeacquisition available to the youngergenerations through the educationalsystem. “Knowledge capital” refers to thesum of epistemological skills possessedby the individuals of a community. Itcovers knowledge in the various fields oflearning, notably languages and literature,maths and sciences, technology, health andenvironment, the arts, the humanities andsociology, and philosophy among others.It also includes various mental skills suchas the ability to acquire information andto learn independently, analytic abilitiesand rational processing, the ability toevaluate (which involves critical thought)and apply information and know-how tosolve theoretical or practical problems,combinatorial and synthesising skills,planning and organisational abilities, thecapacity to make projections for the future,the ability to acclimatise to change andnew givens, the ability to take advantageof opportunities for renovation, creativityand innovation, and other such higherintellectual skills. The concept furtherincludes knowledge-based human andsocial competencies, 10 foremost amongwhich are communicative skills, the abilityto form constructive and cooperativerelations with others, the ability to work aspart of a team and to participate effectivelyin public affairs, and leadership, guidanceand managerial skills.Measuring the knowledge capital of themembers of a community poses an immensechallenge to researchers and strategists inhuman resource development. Knowledgeis considerably more than the informationindividuals acquire at their desks at school.It extends to the information and knowhowacquired through experience inthe economically productive workplace,as well as from life experience–theinformal activities one engages in and theinteractions with others that lead to varioustypes of awareness about diverse aspectsof life. In the context of the process ofassessing total national wealth, in general,and intellectual capital, in particular, somescholars (Bontis, 2004) attempted tomeasure “national human capital” by usingindices that are so obviously disparate as torender their use in deducing a meaningfulindicator difficult. 11To avoid confusing the issues andlosing sight of the distinct characterof knowledge capital acquired througheducation, the approach of this reportto “national human knowledge capital”will rely solely on the direct relationshipbetween the individual, the institutionsof learning, and the learning process.This focus on what formal educationalinstitutions offer and what studentsgain from them is also determined bythe absence of reliable data on theopportunities available to individuals inArab societies to acquire knowledge outsideof their formal educational systems. Wewill also deconstruct the equation into itsquantitative and qualitative components,examine these separately, and then bringthem together in common conclusions.Quantitatively, we can presume thatthe more education, in its various levels, isuniversalised across society and the higherthe average level of schooling, the greaterthe ability of the members of that societyto participate in the knowledge society. Thebest objective gauge for this criterion is thelevel of schooling attained by those whoare currently not enrolled in educationalinstitutions. As for those who are still ofschool age or still enrolled in educationalinstitutions, more than one indicator willhave to be brought into play to determinethe level of formal schooling that theseindividuals may ultimately attain. Examplesof such indicators are enrolment rates ateach educational stage and average schoollife expectancy.The qualitative side of the equation isfar more difficult, as there are no standingagencies for monitoring the knowledgepossessed by different sectors of society,the sources of this knowledge, and therole that the systems for formal education,training, and continuous learning systemsplay in shaping it. We will, therefore, haveto use various approaches in order toobtain an overall, if only initial, estimate100 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009