Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

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TABLE 3-3Comparison of overall results of students in Arab countries andstudents in USA on the business administration test 66Grade categories Ranking Ratio of students inArab countries(per cent)Ratio of studentsin the US(per cent)120-130 Fail 15 0131-140 Poor 26 15141-150 Pass 28 22151-160 Good 19 39161-170 Very good 9 10171-200 Excellent 3 14Total 100 100Source: UNESCO Regional Bureau report (Salamé and El-Murr, 2005)rule. The vast majority (about 70 per centcompared with 37 per cent of their USAcounterparts) are clustered in the lowerrankings. This extremely high figure raisesgrave questions concerning the quality ofthe human resource capital coming out ofhigher educational institutions in the Arabworld. As to the specifics, students in theArab states are more or less on a par withtheir counterparts in the USA in a singlecomponent in the business administrationprogramme: economics. They do notcome off at all well in any of the othercomponents–accounting, management,statistics, finance, marketing, legal affairsand international business administration–all of which constitute essential appliedknowledge needed to participate in theknowledge economy.The available data also points to tellingdiscrepancies in how students from thedifferent participating universitiesperformed. None of the students fromthe participating universities in Lebanon,Jordan, Palestine, Yemen, and Algeriaattained the general average observedamong the students from the universitiesin the USA. Nor was this average attainedby 75 per cent of students from otheruniversities in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, 67Sudan, and Morocco. Only the studentsfrom a single university in Morocco cameclose to rivalling their USA counterparts. 68In Table 3-4, showing the results of thecomputer science test, we find the samepercentages of failed marks for both thestudents from the Arab region and thosefrom the USA (15 per cent of each group).The divergence begins from the poorranking upwards, with results in favourof the USA students. Whereas the vastmajority of students from Arab countriesare split between the lower grade category,with 48 per cent receiving failed or poormarks, and the middle category, with 47per cent receiving pass or good marks,TABLE 3-4Comparison of overall results of students in Arab countriesand students in USA on the computer science test. 69Grade categories Ranking Ratio of studentsin Arab countries(per cent)Ratio of studentsin the USA (percent)120-130 Fail 15 15131-140 Poor 33 23141-150 Pass 32 19151-160 Good 15 23161-170 Very good 4 12171-200 Excellent 1 8Total 100 100Source: UNESCO Regional Bureau report (Salamé and El-Murr, 2005)While there do existstudents in Arabcountries in thehigher performancecategories, theyare the exceptionsto the ruleEDUCATION AND THE FORMATION OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL117
Literacy ratesamong adults havenot reached thesaturation point (95per cent and above)in any Arab stateThe available datashows steadyprogress in theaverage number ofyears of schoolingcompleted in allArab statesBOX 3-7The internet site of Saudi Arabia’sMinistry of Economy and Planning 76provides precise statistics on theeducation level of the Saudi people. Onthe basis of this data, we have calculatedthe level of education of the latter asan illustration of how the same may bedone in other countries. Each individualwas given a mark according to his levelof education, starting from zero forilliterate and ending with eight for adoctoral degree graduate, according tothe scale of educational levels attainedby adults. 77According to the findings, theaverage educational level of Saudiscurrently employed is the secondaryschool level (with a mark of 3.97), whichis not bad from the perspectives of theknowledge economy and knowledgesociety. The average level of educationamong Saudis not employed, most ofwhom are women (79 per cent), is justleaving only 5 per cent at the top end ofthe scale, students from the USA range asfollows: 38 per cent with grades of failedor poor, 42 per cent with grades of passor good, and 20 per cent with grades ofvery good or excellent (four times the ratioamong students of Arab countries in thiscategory). It follows that the Arab highereducational institutes under study havea 50 per cent success rate of producingacceptable levels of knowledge in computerscience. But this is not good enough togenerate a critical mass of highly skilledhuman resources capable of engaging inthe processes of development, renewal,innovation and other such activities thatwould propel Arab countries toward theknowledge economy.KNOWLEDGE CAPITALACQUIRED BY ADULTSTHROUGH EDUCATION 70Literacy rates among adults have notreached the saturation point (95 per centand above) in any Arab state. 71 However,they do approach this level (with rates ofbetween 85 per cent and 94 per cent) inThe Educational Level of Saudi Arabiansa little beyond primary school (2.13),which suggests deficiencies in meetingthe requirements of a knowledgesociety. Thus, the overall rate ofschooling among Saudi adults is 2.95,or the equivalent of the intermediarylevel. 78It is clear from these findings thatthe higher a person’s educational level inSaudi Arabia the greater the likelihoodof his participation in the country’seconomic life. Therefore, even thoughthe general level of education in SaudiArabia falls short of the minimal levelfor creating a knowledge society, wecould say that the forces active in thedevelopmental fields in society haveattained the required educational level, 79while the educational level of more thanhalf of Saudi adults, especially women,is clearly too low to enable them toparticipate in the knowledge society.eight countries, and have attained lowerrates (from 70 per cent to 84 per cent) ineight others. They remain poor (from 54per cent to 65 per cent) in five countries.There is a noticeable discrepancy betweenmales and females in these rates. It isabout 20 per cent in favour of malesoverall in the Arab region, with the highestdiscrepancy (38 per cent) in Yemen. Theonly exceptions to the gender discrepancy(with differences of 5 per cent or less) areQatar, the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain.The average number of years ofschooling completed is consideredthe best indicator of the quantitativeknowledge capital acquired by adultsthrough the educational system. However,to calculate this indicator requiresaccurate information on the school gradereached by every member of a society.UN organisations involved in populationstudies use a clear scale of completedlevels of education among adults 72 for thispurpose. Although countries have used thescale for their comprehensive and interimcensuses, Arab countries rarely publishthis data. Therefore, two approaches havebeen brought into play in order to estimatethe knowledge level of adults. The firstrelies on past school life expectancy rates,since the adults of today are the childrenwho entered the school system nineteenor more years ago. Accordingly, the rateof school life expectancy was calculatedfor the period from 1990 (those born in1984 at the latest) working backwards to1970 (beginning with those born in 1958),which is to say as far back as statistics areavailable. This approach thus coveredadults who, in 2008, were between aminimum of twenty-five and a maximumof fifty years of age.The available data 73 shows steadyprogress in this rate in all Arab statesfor which statistical data is available. Themedian school life expectancy rates inArab states ranged from the primarylevel to the intermediate level, withdiscrepancies favouring males, except forin Qatar, the UAE, and Bahrain in recentperiods, when the discrepancies favoured118 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009
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United Nations Development Programm
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This Report has been produced throu
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This year’s report may perhapsbes
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ICT in the Arab countries and reinf
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CONTENTSPREAMBLEIntroductionPrelimi
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Quantitative indicatorsTertiary edu
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LIST OF BOXESBox 1 The Effect of th
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Figure 5-7 Published scientific art
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Table 21 Time devoted to secondary
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The knowledgefield and revolutionto
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The literature onhuman rights place
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Arabic istechnologicallypoor in com
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Intercommunicationwith the self mea
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Table 2CountryGroupGroup 1: Oilecon
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Figure 2504540353025201510508070605
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In the period2003-2007, morethan 83
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eversion, in many cases, is not ass
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Thus the Arab region in general, an
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knowledge over recent years. This w
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However, this progress remains limi
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CHAPTER ONETHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWOR
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The successfuldeployment ofthe know
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The knowledgerevolution atthe end o
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Technology, theeconomy, andsociety,
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No one pursuesknowledge forits own
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The Report adoptsa concept ofknowle
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The goal of thiscritical review isn
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In our bidfor economicand humandeve
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The political reformproject remains
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Globalisation isdependent oninforma
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The battle overknowledge in oursoci
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The most obviousexample of the gapb
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BOX 1-9The Virtual as an Interrogat
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The upsurge intechnologicalprowess
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Collective humaneffort must bedirec
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End Notes1Epistemic saturation refe
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CHAPTER TWOARAB KNOWLEDGE PERFORMAN
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current economic crisis in the autu
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FIGURE 2-3Perceptions of corruption
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technology infrastructure, blogs ar
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Page 86 and 87: to the third oil boom, which reache
Page 88 and 89: have realised a degree of progress
Page 90 and 91: FIGURE 2-8Index of global competiti
Page 92 and 93: FIGURE 2-10Net exports of manufactu
Page 94 and 95: namely the spread of poverty, socia
Page 96 and 97: TABLE 2-2Arab Countries according t
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Page 110: specific cases.These flexibilities
Page 114 and 115: CHAPTER THREEEDUCATION AND THE FORM
Page 116 and 117: FIGURE 3-1Education and human resou
Page 118 and 119: of the qualitative knowledge capita
Page 120 and 121: TABLE 3-1CountryOpportunities for b
Page 122 and 123: Virtually the only area in which Ar
Page 124 and 125: must possess if they aspire to part
Page 126 and 127: TABLE 3-2Opportunities for the form
Page 128 and 129: General secondary education andthe
Page 130 and 131: elatively high enrolment rates of b
Page 132 and 133: Available data shows large discrepa
Page 136 and 137: females. According to this data, to
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Page 140 and 141: inroads well beyond their current f
Page 142 and 143: FIGURE 3-6aMaths performance of eig
Page 144 and 145: BOX 3-8The Contribution of Non-Publ
Page 146 and 147: Kuwait, and the worst performers su
Page 148 and 149: emained encumbered by the prevailin
Page 150 and 151: eveal the breadth of the gap that c
Page 152 and 153: countries and providing a picture o
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Page 156: 89Finland, for example, whose stude
Page 160 and 161: CHAPTER FOURINFORMATION AND COMMUNI
Page 162 and 163: FIGURE 4-1ICT index values for Arab
Page 164 and 165: countries and the Arab countries. T
Page 166 and 167: Arab countries-Egypt, Algeria, Leba
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Page 170 and 171: exchange of future technology servi
Page 172 and 173: of national partnerships aimed at s
Page 174 and 175: TABLE 4-2Readiness of Arab countrie
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Page 178 and 179: BOX 4-2Evaluating the Performance o
Page 180 and 181: of common principles that guarantee
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FIGURE 4-11Paper consumption and in
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processing and the methods and tool
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TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEAND FUTURE INI
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within bounds that do not hinder bu
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preservation and the consolidation
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21As a result of the nature of comp
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CHAPTER FIVEARAB PERFORMANCE IN RES
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FIGURE 5-1Innovation system index f
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The extremely lowamounts spentby Ar
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It has become clearthat the wager o
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Joint researchprojects among Arabsc
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Theoretically, themore researcherst
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Average expenditureon scientific re
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BOX 5-6Jordan’s “A Professor in
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BOX 5-8For the last three decades,
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FIGURE 5-7Published scientific arti
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A review of theperiod from 2002to 2
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Social scienceresearch holds aspeci
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Most Arabic-languageperiodicals in
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Arab societies arefilled with examp
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Human capitalis among Arabcountries
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TABLE 5-12Trade in technological pr
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It is ironic thatalthough the Arabw
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End Notes1UNESCO Institute for Stat
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CHAPTER SIXBUILDING THE KNOWLEDGE S
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The most conspicuousfeature of thek
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A review of nationalplans in the Ar
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The positiveachievements inthe Arab
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One of the keyfoundations of thevis
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Freedom andinstitutionalisationare
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Priorities are subjectto a great de
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If we admit thatlanguage is avehicl
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The major challengelies in changing
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Deployment is linkedto the creation
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The variousproposals includedin thi
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ReferencesReferences in Arabic‘Ab
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the President of the ICRC Expresses
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al-Duwal al-‘Arabiyya, UNESCO’s
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Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development asF
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Castells, Manuel. (1998/2001). LaSo
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the Age of Technology).• Binsa‘
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egional and international levels an
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ANNEX 3. MEASUREMENT OF THE ARABCOU
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indicators that make up the pillar.
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countries’ rankings among the cou
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of the Arab countries and suffer fr
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Freedom House and Heritage Institut
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Endnotes* This annex was prepared b
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STATISTICAL ANNEXGENERAL INDICATORS
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Table 3: Economic IndicatorsCountry
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KNOWLEDGE PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTST
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Table 7: Press Freedom Index in the
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EDUCATIONTable 9: Adult literacy ra
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Table 11: Gross enrolment ratios in
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Table 13: Adult illiterate populati
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Table 16: Net and gross enrolment i
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Table 18: Lessons in basic educatio
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Table 20: Literacy rates among youn
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Table 22: Evolution of enrolment ra
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Table 24: Student enrolment rates i
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Table 26: Distribution of graduates
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Table 28: Estimated educational lev
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Table 30: Enrolment rates in non-go
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RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONTable 32: Nu
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Table 34: Indicators on research an
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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHN
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FIGURE b-2Growth in average number
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competition between the internet se
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Table c-4: Ranking of a group of Ar
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United Nations Development Programm
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