Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

This can only come about through theallocation of the necessary financial,human, and institutional resources, plusthe development of a convincing vision ofthe role of knowledge today in achievingcomprehensive development. Appropriateenvironments, institutions, laws, policies,and manpower are all requisites for theproduction of knowledge that contributesto human welfare.• An attempt was made throughoutthe following chapters of the reportto survey and synthesise the evidenceof the most important indices andindicators of the knowledge society inthe Arab world in relation to education,the condition of ICT, and innovation.Taken together, these chapters seek toaddress two issues. The first concernsthe synthesis of the reality of Arabknowledge performance in these fieldsand the question of how to approachthe large gaps that exist between what ishappening there in our own region versusthe accumulated experience of societiesthat have entered the knowledge societybefore us. The second is comprised ofthe need to understand the deficits andformulate the proposals that will help usto enter that same society, with all thebaggage we have gathered during thesecond half of the twentieth century andthe beginning of the third millennium,and with all the aspirations that motivateus today to improve our position on thenew world maps of knowledge.Chapter 3, which is devoted toeducation, reviews the knowledge capitalaccumulated by educational institutions inthe Arab countries today in an attempt tocomprehend its quantitative and qualitativedimensions at the various levels and stagesof education. This capital is organised bygeneration (children, youth, and adults)and an analysis is offered of the structureof Arab knowledge capital and the gapsthat differentiate it from modernknowledge capital, which has integratedthe educational innovations that the newmechanisms, laboratories, and technologyare starting to provide. The same chapteralso ponders the defects that typicallyaccompany educational reform projectsin the Arab countries and highlights someof the limitations and uncertainties of theArab educational scene.Chapter 3 also puts forward an analysisof the formation of knowledge capitalthrough education. While most Arabsocieties have recorded a number oftangible achievements on the quantitativelevel in terms of educational opportunitiesfor children and of gender parity, thequalitative performance of the childrenof the Arab countries as a whole is rarelycomparable to that of their peers in therest of the world. Large portions of theyouth generation–more than 35 percent in nine Arab countries–have notprogressed beyond basic education. It istherefore difficult for them to engage withthe knowledge-based economy, whichdemands theoretical and technologicalknowledge that can only be acquired atpost-basic educational stages. Nor doesthe knowledge makeup acquired by manyyoung people during secondary andhigher education necessarily conformto the demands of the transition to aknowledge economy that is essentiallydependent on the specialised sciences,modern technologies, communicationsrevolutions, and openness to the advancesmade by knowledge. This situation formsan obstacle to the formation of even thelowest estimated critical mass of highperformance human capital capable ofdiscovering, creating, and innovating,and of leading the processes of ongoingdevelopment needed by Arab societies.The Report confirms that the lightof knowledge does not fall on all adultsequally. Rather, it remains in all theArab countries the prerogative of anelite, broader at times and narrower atmany others. Today, the large variationin knowledge capital acquired througheducation appears not only amongcountries themselves, but also within eachArab country individually, between menand women, and between younger andolder adults. Such divisions are also to beMost Arab societieshave recorded anumber of tangibleachievements on thequantitative level interms of educationalopportunities forchildren and ofgender parity, butthe qualitativeperformance of thechildren of the Arabstates as a whole israrely comparable tothat of their peers inthe rest of the worldThe light ofknowledge doesnot fall on all adultsequally. Rather, itremains in all theArab states theprerogative of anelite, broader attimes and narrowerat many othersBUILDING THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY IN THE ARAB WORLD: A VISION AND A PLAN221