Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

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as the implementation of programmes tomonitor the development of e-governmentservices and the modernisation of theframeworks for government operationsthemselves according to the needs ofadministrative reform.Despite the importance of the ICTinfrastructure, cognitive and behaviouralfactors such as user skills, political will, andthe commitment of leaders in the relevantadministrations have more influence one-government initiatives than technologicalfactors. E-government is a means toreengineer the operation of government,and its initiatives are usually designed withthe purpose of integrating and managinginformation in the best fashion. For thisreason, they are resisted by parties thatoppose administrative reform. Factors thatought to strengthen the proper applicationof e-government programmes include(‘Abd al-Ilah al-Diwahji, 2006, in Arabic):• Responsiveness to citizens’ requirementsand readiness to utilise available servicesin the best possible way.• Adoption of stable strategies to solidifythe link between e-governmentprogrammes and initiatives to developthe working of government andadministrative reform.With regard to initiatives aiming to applymethods of e-government, the governmentshould play a facilitating rather thancontrolling role and sponsor partnershipbetween stakeholders–citizens, theprivate sector, and civil society–to spreade-government applications and improvethe offerings available. Improvementinitiatives usually come from users first.This requires the creation of channels toelicit public opinion via surveys, regularconsultations, and many other meanswhose deployment is facilitated by the newtechnology.ICT AND EDUCATIONICT provides many opportunities to raisethe quality of educational materials andprogrammes, as well as their means ofdelivery and development, in addition tobenefits in administering the educationalprocess. Technological inputs now availableinclude, in the first place, hardware andsoftware for word processing, spreadsheets,and the preparation of slideshows andvideo clips as explanatory aids. On a moreadvanced level, they include use of theinternet for direct communication betweenstudents and their teachers, and betweenschools and official bodies concerned withoverseeing educational activities. 22 On ayet more advanced level, it is possible touse smart programmes to produce studymaterials and to make use of virtual realitytechnology to raise the skills of students ata pace suitable to their capacity to absorband in conformity with other educationalprogrammes they are following.Forthcoming telecommunications deviceswill permit access to “asynchronous”educational content via mobile telephonesor personal digital organisers. Here studentswill be able to reach educational materialsat any time and in any place. Students willalso be able to follow in real time lecturesgiven in universities thousands of milesaway. Native language discussion withthe lecturer will become possible thanksto expected advances in the field ofautomated simultaneous translation.Even though there are no absoluteindicators of the success of ICT in theeducation sector, the results of a numberof studies 23 indicate that its use in curriculahas been of benefit in developing studentproblem-solving skills. Teachers’ use of thetools of information has also had positiveeffects on the outputs of the educationalprocess. The Organisation for EconomicCooperation and Development (OECD)countries have developed comprehensivepolicies for use of these technologiesin the education sector in the context ofthe transformation towards knowledgesocieties and the knowledge economy.These policies deal with the introductionof technology into the educationsector along main axes that include theeradication of information illiteracy 24 viacontinuing education for all members ofthe workforce on various levels, provisionE-government is ameans to reengineerthe operation ofgovernment, andits initiatives areusually designedwith the purposeof integratingand managinginformation in thebest fashion. Forthis reason, theyare resisted byparties that opposeadministrative reformINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES159
Some Arab stateshave taken initiativesto use ICT in thevarious stages ofeducation. Theseefforts, in spite oftheir importance,remain less thanwhat is requiredand possibleBOX 4-1Most open source software is availablefor use by anyone who can accessthe internet and has an acquaintancewith the software field. Open sourcesoftware comprises a range of productswhich are devised, developed, andpublicly deployed free of charge, oncondition that anyone who is able tomake improvements to the source codemakes them freely available. Among thesoftware systems belonging to the opensource array are content authoring anddeployment tools that have significant,direct applications in the various stagesof education. These include the OpenOffice package which contains mostof the applications found in MicrosoftOffice, 26 in addition to contentof ICT infrastructure, securing internetaccess by using broadband networksto make use of the net in classroomsand libraries, providing multimediasystems, and lowering the ratio of pupilsto computers in schools. Programmesdesigned to implement these policies try toprovide opportunities for internet accessto educational institutes in marginalisedurban and rural regions and communitiesand take effective advantage of sourcesavailable on educational websites inregions that enjoy better resources. As forless advanced countries, implementationpolicies are focused on improving pupilto-computerratios and securing contentby linking libraries at acceptable speedover the internet.Developing digital content related toeducational and training programmes isconsidered a high priority for the coming stagefor countries that have made some progressin laying infrastructure. These countriesshould encourage partnerships withpublishers, television channels, museums,and national libraries to develop digitaleducational content. Among modernmethods used in developing content are“learning objects” based on modules andeducational content units that contain aspecific portion of content in the formof texts, pictures, audio recordings, orOpen Source Software and Educational Contentauthoring and deployment tools andblogging software which can be veryeasily utilised in educational activitiesthat require interaction betweenstudents and teacher, and systems todesign study curricula that are of usein building educational content. Opensource systems also include Arabicspellcheckers and whiteboards that areof use in giving ideas visual form withintexts. There are also programmes toarabize software and translateoperating manuals and others to designacademic tests that help the teacher tocome up with questions and exams andpermit the design of mental exerciseswith educational applications.video clips; the time required to presenta unit does not go beyond a few minutes.Modules can be linked together to form anintegrated part of the desired curriculum. 25In all of this, reliance on the open sourcemethod leads to tangible developmentin interactive educational materials (seeBox 4-1).Despite the advances achieved throughexpenditure in many of the world’scountries, current levels in the area ofinformation tools in the education sector arenot sufficient to achieve the ends promisedby available technology. Technology is stillused simply to digitise school textbooks,while computerised curricula comprisingdynamic and interactive methods do notfind the support they deserve.As is the case in other areas, technologyis not sufficient to develop the educationalprocess. It must be combined with otherbehavioural, structural, and organisationalfactors to achieve ideal results. Relying onlyon digital indices to measure performanceis also not of value in isolation from aconcern for qualitative effects, despite thedifficulty of coming to grips with these.Some Arab states have taken initiativesto use ICT in the various stages ofeducation. However these efforts, in spiteof their importance, remain less than whatis required and possible. Computer-perpupilratios in pre-university educationare still low, and schools generally lackthe ability to access the internet. Bycomparing school access to the internetin the Arab countries with that of all thecountries of the world for which dataare available, we find that some Arabcountries (UAE, Qatar, and Tunisia)placed (at 5, 4.8, and 4.9 respectively)higher than the global score of 3.74, 27while some other countries, such as Egyptand Jordan placed close to the latter (at 3.1and 3.9 respectively), and yet others, suchas Mauritania (at 1.9) , placed in the lowerranks and far below the global averagein this field. However, the internationalcommunity has not made great strideseither to date in securing internet accessfor their schools. The corresponding score160 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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nations continue to occupy their pr
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to the third oil boom, which reache
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have realised a degree of progress
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FIGURE 2-8Index of global competiti
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FIGURE 2-10Net exports of manufactu
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namely the spread of poverty, socia
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TABLE 2-2Arab Countries according t
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while some of these nine countries
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and political participation. All of
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first INTEL computer club; INTELis
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from the ages of thirteen to twenty
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solutions that allow use of the ava
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to this trajectory, a consumer, not
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specific cases.These flexibilities
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CHAPTER THREEEDUCATION AND THE FORM
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FIGURE 3-1Education and human resou
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of the qualitative knowledge capita
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TABLE 3-1CountryOpportunities for b
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Virtually the only area in which Ar
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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
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Page 132 and 133: Available data shows large discrepa
Page 134 and 135: TABLE 3-3Comparison of overall resu
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Page 142 and 143: FIGURE 3-6aMaths performance of eig
Page 144 and 145: BOX 3-8The Contribution of Non-Publ
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Page 148 and 149: emained encumbered by the prevailin
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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 178 and 179: BOX 4-2Evaluating the Performance o
Page 180 and 181: of common principles that guarantee
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Page 184 and 185: FIGURE 4-11Paper consumption and in
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Page 188 and 189: TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEAND FUTURE INI
Page 190 and 191: within bounds that do not hinder bu
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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
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Page 225 and 226: 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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