ARAB EDUCATION POLICIES - WHAT THIS MEANS FOR EXPAT TEACHERS

Saturday, 23 February, 2008

In 2000, UNESCO spearheaded an international education initiative known as "Education for All".

The article points out: "...enrolment in primary schools increased by 11 per cent between 2005 and 1999. Opportunities for education beyond the primary level also expanded notably as well as gender equality, with more girls enrolled in secondary schools and universities." At the moment, Arab education ministers are meeting in Doha, Qatar, to discuss and evaluate progress in Arab education and to review Mid-Term achievements in this regard.

An article in the Gulf News (http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/02/22/10191588.html) remarks in its introduction: "Arab countries have improved their educational policies but not enough to meet the Education for All goals by 2015". It points out further: "...the Arab region is far from achieving its goals".

Some of the key education challenges facing the Arab region include: adult illiteracy rates (around 30% or 57 million adults); around 6 million children are not in school; grade repetition; irregular school attendance; high drop-out rates; the rapid growth of primary school age children (estimated at around 13% in the next decade); insufficient numbers of teachers (the number should increase by about 26% to meet education demand needs).

On a positive note, some of the improvements in the Arab region include: most Arab countries spent around one-fifth of their total Government expenditure on education in 2005; primary school enrolments increased by 12% between 1999 to 2004; and, secondary school enrolments increased by 25% since 1999 (currently around 28 million students).

It is perfectly reasonable, therefore, for Arab countries to be selective in the quality of teachers that are employed in the region, especially the expat teachers that contribute to the improvement of education with the view to reaching the objectives of the Education for All programme of UNESCO. All in all, my point is that expat teachers in the Arab region play an important role in this regard, and that their work is highly significant in the broader context of developments in Arab education. I suggest that expat teachers sensitise themselves to these educational issues and remind themselves that their individual contributions are, indeed, important.