Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

elatively high enrolment rates of between31 per cent and around 20 per cent,includes (from highest to lowest) Djibouti,Libya, Tunisia, Oman, and Algeria. Thesecond, in the middle range of 17 percent down to 10 per cent, includes Iraq,Morocco, Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia,Syria, Jordan, and Palestine. Lastly, with thelowest enrolment rates in the vocationaltrack, come Bahrain, Egypt, Mauritania,Qatar, and Kuwait.Consequently, at a median of 84 percent, intake in higher education is heavilyconcentrated in the universities at theundergraduate phase. Only a very smallproportion of students continue to thepost-graduate phase. The median is 1 percent, with some noticeably higher rates inTunisia (7 per cent); Morocco, Iraq, Syria(5 per cent), and Algeria (4 per cent). Whilefemale enrolment exists at all three highereducational levels, it exceeds 40 per cent inonly three countries (Tunisia 55 per cent,Algeria 44 per cent, and Saudi Arabia 40per cent).There are many reasons why the youngare reluctant to enter the vocational stream.Prime among them is the low regard thatsociety has for this branch of learning.Students, therefore, flock to universityprogrammes, with the aim of obtainingthe prestige of a degree and title, even ifthey end up in jobs that do not require auniversity education and have very little todo with the specialisation engraved on theircertificates. This is a clear manifestation ofthe squandering and misuse of resources,a phenomenon that runs counter therequirements for creating a diverse humanresource capital capable of meeting theneeds of comprehensive, integrated, andsustained development.The second phenomenon that needsto be urgently addressed is the very lowenrolment rates in graduate studies.In order to strike a balance betweenhigher educational institutions’ task oftransmitting knowledge and the task ofdeveloping and renewing this knowledgethrough its various uses, graduate studiesmust be expanded, especially at the doctoralBOX 3-5Expansion in General and TechnicalSecondary Education in Bahrain and itsImpact on Female EnrolmentBahrain has scored a series ofachievements in education that haveraised it to level of the vanguard of Arabcountries in this domain. Its experiencemerits attention. Bahrain boasts oneof the lowest ratios of children outof school, the highest level of netenrolment in primary education, thebest enrolment rates in secondaryeducation as a whole, and gender parity.It has nearly reached the saturationpoint in enrolment rates at the uppersecondary education level, and it hasthe highest enrolment rate in technicalsecondary education among both Araband Asian countries.Secondary education enrolmentrates in Bahrain have risen steadily from1999 to 2006. It is clear that this growthis due to the noticeable increase in theenrolment, depicted in the graph below,of young women (f.) and men (m.) in thetechnical and vocational programmes.This increase is much higher than therise in the gross enrolment rate at thiseducational level, whether taking intoaccount all programmes combined oronly the general secondary schoolprogrammes.20018016014012010080level. In developed societies, doctoraldegree-holders account for 1.3 per centThis quantitative development isundoubtedly connected with thestructural reform of secondaryeducation that Bahrain put into effectin the last decade. In addition todiversifying the programmes oftechnical secondary education andproviding an element of flexibility inthese programmes, the avenue is nowopen to enrol in corresponding highereducational programmes, therebyoffering a horizon for technicalsecondary school graduates to continuetheir studies and progress further intheir vocational choice.Some characteristics of Bahrainisociety may have played a part in thisdual development (the rise in technicalsecondary school enrolment and the risein female enrolment in this educationalbranch). Bahrain is an urban society.With a per capita income lower thanthat of other small Gulf countries,it depends more on its own peoplethan on imported labor to keep life’swheels turning and promote economicdevelopment.Development in general and technical secondary schoolenrolment in Bahrain, 1999 to 2006 (100=1999)1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, 13 March 2009.Enrolment technicalprogrammes (f.)Enrolment technicalprogrammes (m.)Gross enrolmentratio (f.)Gross enrolmentratio (m.)Enrolment allprogrammesEnrolment generalprogrammesEDUCATION AND THE FORMATION OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL113