Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Clearly, the “lightsof knowledge” havenot reached all in theArab region duringthe last quarterof the twentiethcentury. Ratherthey have remainedthe preserve of anelite – a relativelyextensive one insome countries and aconsiderably narrowerone in otherseffectively in the knowledge economy.What improvement has been achieved inschool life rates between 1970 and 2000 hasbeen sluggish. In addition, with only a fewexceptions, female school life expectancycontinues to lag behind that of males,albeit in varying degrees from one countryto the next. The overall portrait of adultknowledge capital in each Arab countrytoday gives the impression of “a homespread across many houses”: some of theyounger adults possess a solid knowledgecapital, others do not; the older adults, onthe whole, are poorer in their knowledgeassets than younger ones; female adults,both young and old, have less knowledgecapital than males, at levels, moreover, thatoften plunge to zero or next to zero due tothe rampant illiteracy among elder femaleadults. Clearly, the “lights of knowledge”have not reached all in the Arab regionduring the last quarter of the twentiethcentury. Rather they have remained thepreserve of an elite–a relatively extensiveone in some countries and a considerablynarrower one in others.The mediocre situation regardingknowledge capital among adults in mostArab countries and the worrying situationregarding availability of opportunitiesfor the formation of knowledge capitalin children and youth in around half theArab countries may have their roots in thelimited financial resources at the disposalof these countries. Yet, painstakingstudy of the circumstances surroundingknowledge capital formation througheducation shows that Arab countries, ingeneral, have not been tight-fisted in theirspending on education, but rather havebeen clearly deficient in their attention tothe factors conducive to the better qualityand efficacy of education. Progress towardsthis end begins when educators and thegeneral public reach the conviction thatit is impossible to form solid knowledgecapital without dedicating sufficient timeto the instruction and learning processes.Thereafter curricula based on a wellgroundededucational philosophy must bedesigned, as well as a clearly defined visionof the type of citizen that should be formedand the requirements for their formation,inclusive of the properties of the humanresources involved in this process. Theformative process, in turn, will requirepromoting among all concerned with theeducational process, including learners,a culture conductive to productivity,achievement and quality; a culture ofresponsibility and accountability, and aculture based on information acquisitionand exchange and the taking of decisionsbased on reliable knowledge.To compound the grimness of thesituation, all major education and trainingreform projects have failed to accomplishtheir objectives and overcome the flawsexisting in the various structures andinstitutions of the education systems.Moreover, a closer look at individualArab countries reveals their isolation andgreat variation in terms of performanceand on the ground reality, these hugedifferences being well recorded on allthe human development indices. Whathappens in Morocco, Oman, Libya, orBahrain in human resources creationhas nothing whatsoever to do with whathappens in any other country. If someArab governments are allowed even aglimpse at the experiments undertaken inother Arab countries, it is via internationaland regional organisations and thenthey rarely attempt to benefit fromthese experiments. Equally rare are theirattempts to coordinate with each other,even minimally, on the formulation ofeducational policies and plans. The sameapplies to the academic communitiesinvolved with education in these countries,who have failed–except for rare occasionstoset up networks to promote interactionand the exchange of expertise in spite ofthe perpetual calls for such action in viewof the demands of globalisation, one ofthe most important components of whichis effective networking between individualsand institutions.The problems that this chapter hasbrought to the fore in the course of itsexamination of Arab knowledge capital132 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009