Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

More documents

Recommendations

Info

inroads well beyond their current financialcapacities, and Saudi Arabia, Djibouti,and Sudan, where the reverse applies to aremarkable extent.It should be borne in mind that eachcountry has particular characteristics andcircumstances of its own even if it ranksthe same as others. This applies particularlyto the countries at the upper end of thescale. For example, the degree and focusof efforts the UAE must expend to liftits national knowledge capital to the levelof the knowledge society is not the sameas that required in Jordan or Lebanon.Likewise, the degree and focus of effortsrequired in Kuwait and Tunisia are not thesame as those required in Saudi Arabia andSyria. As for the countries at the lower endof the scale, they must take urgent andcomprehensive measures covering all agegroups and the majority of the indices.QUALITATIVE DIMENSIONSAll indicators for which statistical evidenceis available point to an overall decline inthe quality of the knowledge capital inall areas in the Arab region. This shouldnot be taken to mean that Arab states aretotally deficient in quality or that thereare not scattered islands of excellenceand distinguished elites. These do exist invarying degrees from one country to thenext and one field of specialisation to thenext. Frequently, however, they are theexception that proves the rule.For example, the number of class hoursallocated to maths in basic education is ona par with that in other countries for thissubject that is so essential to the formationof knowledge capital. Yet, we find at thesame time that Arab students do not, asa whole, fare well in the internationalstandardised tests that measure their mathsacquisition. In like manner, Arab countriesgenerally allocate a sufficient amount ofclasses to physical education, yet rarelydo their athletes win high medals in theOlympics or other such athletic competitionsthat demand outstanding performance.Some students perform extremely wellin standardised tests in computer scienceand business administration; however, themajority end up at the lower end of thegrade scale in the selfsame tests. Enrolmentrates in secondary and higher educationalinstitutes are climbing, but in most casesthe students flock to educational streamsand specialisations that already have morethan their fill of graduates while othertracks and specialisations are plagued byglaring shortages.In sum, Arab educational systems arenot functioning well in the creation ofcritical masses of the qualitative knowledgecapital Arab societies need to enter surefootedlyinto the knowledge economy andto participate effectively in the knowledgesociety.INVESTING IN THEFORMATION OF HUMANKNOWLEDGE CAPITALTHROUGH EDUCATIONThe creation of human knowledge capitalrequires interplay between many diversefactors. Foremost among these are the timedevoted to teaching and learning, the natureof the curricula and the competencieslearners are expected to acquire from thevarious types of educational programmes.Also critical are the expectations of thosein charge of education and instructiontowards learners in terms of learning andperformance, the opportunities availableto learners to increase their knowledge,the quality of the instruction providedby the human resources responsiblefor instruction, and the policies, plans,programmes, and practices founded onreliable pedagogical knowledge. Such arethe considerations that are brought to bearin the formulation, operation, revision,and development of the instructional/educational process.Ensuring the requirements of qualityknowledge capital creation and itsuniversalisation across the widest possiblecohorts of children, youths, and adultsthrough formal education and continuinglearning processes requires effectiveCapital creationacross the widestpossible cohorts ofchildren, youths,and adults, requireseffective governmentsupervision andenormous financialresources that aresometimes beyondthe means ofnations and canonly be ensured atappropriate levels incountries with a highnational incomeThe available datafor the Arab regionreveals considerabledisparity betweenArab countries in theirlevels of spendingon educationEDUCATION AND THE FORMATION OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL123
Statistical analysesshow a definite, ifvariable, correlationbetween per capitalevel of nationalwealth, and thevarious indicesof quantitativehuman knowledgecapital formationthrough educationgovernment supervision and enormousfinancial resources. Not infrequently thesesometimes lie beyond the means of nationsand can only be ensured at appropriatelevels in countries with a high nationalincome.Spending on educationThe available data for the Arab regionreveals considerable disparity betweenArab countries in their levels of spendingon education. 83 Whereas Djibouti, SaudiArabia, Tunisia, and Morocco allocatedhigh proportions of their national budgets(from 20.8 per cent to 27.6 per cent) andhigh ratios of GDP (between 6.5 per centand 8.7 per cent) to the different stages ofeducation over the last five years at least,other countries for which statistics areavailable (with the exception of Kuwait)have spent from the equivalent of 4.7per cent of GDP (Egypt) to as little as1.7 per cent (UAE). If the educationallocations in Qatar and the UAE aresufficient given these countries’ relativelyhigh gross domestic product, and Kuwaitis munificent in terms of what it spendson education, the outlays on education inEgypt and Mauritania appear insufficientto ensure an educational system capableof meeting the challenges of the twentyfirstcentury. Egypt has neverthelessscored tangible quantitative achievementsin education. And if the level of publicallocations for education in Lebanon ismodest by all recognised standards, onemust also bear in mind the contributionsmade by Lebanese civil society throughthe proliferation of private and parochialschooling at all educational stages.One justification for the relatively lowoutlays on education in countries such asEgypt and Mauritania is the need of thesecountries to spend large sums of money ondeveloping the infrastructure necessary tomeet the demands of their large populationincreases, on expanding the various socialand utility services to minimal levelsof availability and reliability, and othersuch essentials. Another factor that mayaccount for low educational outlays islimited government revenues with respectto gross national income and, hence, thelimited amounts of funds available forpublic expenditure. Still, one is struck bythe inversely proportional relationship, inthese countries, between public expenditureon education with respect to GDP and theoverall indicators of knowledge capitalformation through education. Nothingcould be more indicative of the intensivefiscal management efforts being exertedby the less wealthy nations to catch upwith and enhance their prospects forhuman capital formation, even if theresults are not necessarily commensurateto the efforts expended due to the paucityof available public financial resources aswell as to other educational and socialfactors.National income and the formationof quantitative knowledge capitalStatistical analyses show a definite, ifvariable, correlation between per capitaincome (which is to say the level ofnational wealth), and the various indicesof quantitative human knowledge capitalformation through education. The figureswe have included above illustrate thecorrelations between some of these indicesand per capita GDP in Arab states.From more detailed analyses we findthat the loosest relationship is betweenper capita national income and primaryand higher educational enrolment. Theuniversalisation or partial universalisationof primary education in Arab countrieshas reached such a degree as to havedivorced enrolment rates at this level fromnational wealth. Exceptions are Djibouti,which suffers acute shortfall in enrolment,and Oman and Saudi Arabia, in whichenrolment rates are not commensuratewith per capita GDP. Tertiary educationenrolment rates follow a polynomialtrendline that peaks away from per capitaGDP in numerous places, showingvarious inversely proportionate relations.Consider, for example, that middle-income124 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009
Page 1 and 2:
United Nations Development Programm
Page 3 and 4:
This Report has been produced throu
Page 5 and 6:
This year’s report may perhapsbes
Page 7 and 8:
ICT in the Arab countries and reinf
Page 9 and 10:
CONTENTSPREAMBLEIntroductionPrelimi
Page 11 and 12:
Quantitative indicatorsTertiary edu
Page 13 and 14:
LIST OF BOXESBox 1 The Effect of th
Page 15 and 16:
Figure 5-7 Published scientific art
Page 17 and 18:
Table 21 Time devoted to secondary
Page 19 and 20:
The knowledgefield and revolutionto
Page 21 and 22:
The literature onhuman rights place
Page 23 and 24:
Arabic istechnologicallypoor in com
Page 25 and 26:
Intercommunicationwith the self mea
Page 27 and 28:
Table 2CountryGroupGroup 1: Oilecon
Page 29 and 30:
Figure 2504540353025201510508070605
Page 31 and 32:
In the period2003-2007, morethan 83
Page 34 and 35:
eversion, in many cases, is not ass
Page 36 and 37:
Thus the Arab region in general, an
Page 38 and 39:
knowledge over recent years. This w
Page 40 and 41:
However, this progress remains limi
Page 42:
CHAPTER ONETHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWOR
Page 45 and 46:
The successfuldeployment ofthe know
Page 47 and 48:
The knowledgerevolution atthe end o
Page 49 and 50:
Technology, theeconomy, andsociety,
Page 51 and 52:
No one pursuesknowledge forits own
Page 53 and 54:
The Report adoptsa concept ofknowle
Page 55 and 56:
The goal of thiscritical review isn
Page 57 and 58:
In our bidfor economicand humandeve
Page 59 and 60:
The political reformproject remains
Page 61 and 62:
Globalisation isdependent oninforma
Page 63 and 64:
The battle overknowledge in oursoci
Page 65 and 66:
The most obviousexample of the gapb
Page 67 and 68:
BOX 1-9The Virtual as an Interrogat
Page 69 and 70:
The upsurge intechnologicalprowess
Page 71 and 72:
Collective humaneffort must bedirec
Page 73 and 74:
End Notes1Epistemic saturation refe
Page 76 and 77:
CHAPTER TWOARAB KNOWLEDGE PERFORMAN
Page 78 and 79:
current economic crisis in the autu
Page 80 and 81:
FIGURE 2-3Perceptions of corruption
Page 82 and 83:
technology infrastructure, blogs ar
Page 84 and 85:
nations continue to occupy their pr
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
Page 98 and 99: while some of these nine countries
Page 100 and 101: and political participation. All of
Page 102 and 103: first INTEL computer club; INTELis
Page 104 and 105: from the ages of thirteen to twenty
Page 106 and 107: solutions that allow use of the ava
Page 108 and 109: to this trajectory, a consumer, not
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 134 and 135: TABLE 3-3Comparison of overall resu
Page 136 and 137: females. According to this data, to
Page 138 and 139: show educational accomplishments am
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
Page 154 and 155: information systems. The available
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
Page 168 and 169: of Arabic content and its low rate
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
Page 176 and 177: as the implementation of programmes
Page 178 and 179: BOX 4-2Evaluating the Performance o
Page 180 and 181: of common principles that guarantee
Page 182 and 183: data from various sources and then
Page 184 and 185: FIGURE 4-11Paper consumption and in
Page 186 and 187: processing and the methods and tool
Page 188 and 189: TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEAND FUTURE INI
Page 190 and 191:
within bounds that do not hinder bu
Page 192 and 193:
preservation and the consolidation
Page 194 and 195:
21As a result of the nature of comp
Page 196:
CHAPTER FIVEARAB PERFORMANCE IN RES
Page 199 and 200:
FIGURE 5-1Innovation system index f
Page 201 and 202:
The extremely lowamounts spentby Ar
Page 203 and 204:
It has become clearthat the wager o
Page 205 and 206:
Joint researchprojects among Arabsc
Page 207 and 208:
Theoretically, themore researcherst
Page 209 and 210:
Average expenditureon scientific re
Page 211 and 212:
BOX 5-6Jordan’s “A Professor in
Page 213 and 214:
BOX 5-8For the last three decades,
Page 215 and 216:
FIGURE 5-7Published scientific arti
Page 217 and 218:
A review of theperiod from 2002to 2
Page 219 and 220:
Social scienceresearch holds aspeci
Page 221 and 222:
Most Arabic-languageperiodicals in
Page 223 and 224:
Arab societies arefilled with examp
Page 225 and 226:
Human capitalis among Arabcountries
Page 227 and 228:
TABLE 5-12Trade in technological pr
Page 229 and 230:
It is ironic thatalthough the Arabw
Page 231 and 232:
End Notes1UNESCO Institute for Stat
Page 234:
CHAPTER SIXBUILDING THE KNOWLEDGE S
Page 237 and 238:
The most conspicuousfeature of thek
Page 239 and 240:
A review of nationalplans in the Ar
Page 241 and 242:
The positiveachievements inthe Arab
Page 243 and 244:
One of the keyfoundations of thevis
Page 245 and 246:
Freedom andinstitutionalisationare
Page 247 and 248:
Priorities are subjectto a great de
Page 249 and 250:
If we admit thatlanguage is avehicl
Page 251 and 252:
The major challengelies in changing
Page 253 and 254:
Deployment is linkedto the creation
Page 255 and 256:
The variousproposals includedin thi
Page 258 and 259:
ReferencesReferences in Arabic‘Ab
Page 260 and 261:
the President of the ICRC Expresses
Page 262 and 263:
al-Duwal al-‘Arabiyya, UNESCO’s
Page 264 and 265:
Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development asF
Page 266:
Castells, Manuel. (1998/2001). LaSo
Page 269 and 270:
the Age of Technology).• Binsa‘
Page 271 and 272:
egional and international levels an
Page 274 and 275:
ANNEX 3. MEASUREMENT OF THE ARABCOU
Page 276 and 277:
indicators that make up the pillar.
Page 278 and 279:
countries’ rankings among the cou
Page 280 and 281:
of the Arab countries and suffer fr
Page 282 and 283:
Freedom House and Heritage Institut
Page 284:
Endnotes* This annex was prepared b
Page 288 and 289:
STATISTICAL ANNEXGENERAL INDICATORS
Page 290 and 291:
Table 3: Economic IndicatorsCountry
Page 292 and 293:
KNOWLEDGE PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTST
Page 294 and 295:
Table 7: Press Freedom Index in the
Page 296 and 297:
EDUCATIONTable 9: Adult literacy ra
Page 298 and 299:
Table 11: Gross enrolment ratios in
Page 300 and 301:
Table 13: Adult illiterate populati
Page 302 and 303:
Table 16: Net and gross enrolment i
Page 304 and 305:
Table 18: Lessons in basic educatio
Page 306 and 307:
Table 20: Literacy rates among youn
Page 308 and 309:
Table 22: Evolution of enrolment ra
Page 310 and 311:
Table 24: Student enrolment rates i
Page 312 and 313:
Table 26: Distribution of graduates
Page 314 and 315:
Table 28: Estimated educational lev
Page 316 and 317:
Table 30: Enrolment rates in non-go
Page 318 and 319:
RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONTable 32: Nu
Page 320 and 321:
Table 34: Indicators on research an
Page 322 and 323:
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHN
Page 324 and 325:
FIGURE b-2Growth in average number
Page 326 and 327:
competition between the internet se
Page 328 and 329:
Table c-4: Ranking of a group of Ar
Page 332:
United Nations Development Programm
show all

Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?