Educational Reforms: An Islamic Paradox

THEORY TO PRACTICE, ISSUE NO. 2, FALL '10
Gender segregation is an accepted way of life in the countries bordering the Persian Gulf in the Middle East.

In a corner of the world where tradition and the Islamic faith wield far-reaching influence, can Persian Gulf countries reform their educational systems to keep pace with the world’s shifting social and economic demands?

Alexander WisemanAssociate Professor of Comparative and International Education at Lehigh University

Schools throughout the Gulf Cooperative Council, or GCC, are economically and politically constructed institutions as much as they are socially and culturally constructed. Saudi Arabia’s new Public Education Development Project, which is worth billions of riyals, is an example of this. But while some GCC member states post large economic growth and development potential, their domestic investments in education and educational infrastructure remain at levels comparable to those of developing nations.

The institutional context of schooling in GCC member states poses a challenge to conventional approaches to schooling because of the dynamic intersection of religious ideology, economic development and educational infrastructure. 

Although GCC member states are steeped in Islamic ideology that both prescribes and proscribes certain social and educational activities, these nations also seek political and economic legitimacy in the international community beyond the boundaries of their geographic region and even the broader Islamic community. Thus, GCC member states borrow from other nations’ educational structures and ideologies either in part or in whole in order to achieve international legitimacy and achieve internationally recognized standards of performance in education.

Often these models from which GCC nations borrow are Western in origin and centered in the rhetoric of universal equality of access and opportunity. As a result, schooling structures and processes are institutionalized across GCC member states to fit models for education that have legitimacy among the international community and influential international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. 

For better or for worse, this dichotomy of globally borrowed models adapted to local context is the process by which educational (as well as economic, political,social and cultural) change has, is and will come to the Gulf for the predictable future.

Naif H. Alromi, Deputy Minister for Educational Development and Planning, Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is at a crossroads in the development of education, society and the economy, which is influenced and, in some ways, pushed back and forth by international trends and ideas. While global trends are important for national policymakers in the Ministry of Education to be aware of and track, the most fundamental element of any educational transition is the sharing of information. 

Information is the gateway to understanding, strategy and educational effectiveness. Information can be shared in many ways, ranging from one-on-one meetings among ministry-level educational decision-makers to mass-market awareness programs that use the Internet and electronic communication tools to disseminate information. 

Of course, the most important kind of information-sharing is two way, meaning that while the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia knows about the specific reform programs, curricular development and other educational improvement projects, the ministry is also responsible for sharing that information with the public-at-large. But it is not a one-way flow of information. The public also has information to share about what works, the characteristics or demographics of a particular school or educational region, personnel specifics and the benefits and pitfalls of a large educational infrastructure. 

It is this reciprocal sharing of information that is the key to 21st-century educational reform throughout the Gulf, and in Saudi Arabia specifically, more than any specific global trend or model that a country adopts or adapts to local conditions.

Daphne Hobson, Director, Office of International Programs at Lehigh University 

The educational challenge facing the Arab world in general—and Arabian Gulf countries in particular—is at once clear and stark. 

Most recently, a study by Korn/Ferry International, the executive search firm, highlighted deep concern by business leaders in the Gulf countries. “If only it were one lost generation,”Metin Mitchell, the firm’s regional managing director, told Arabian Business in July. “Unless we fix the education system, we’re looking at two or three generations that could be lost.” 

The good news is that Gulf countries have lots of capital, which they are investing in expensive new showcase universities and branch campuses of elite Western institutions. But the best, brightest and most economically advantaged already have ample educational opportunities. The vast majority remain trapped in a substandard system that cannot prepare them for jobs in the global economy.

True and lasting reform will be both challenging and delicate. 

It will require a sustained commitment by national and local leadership, a significant investment in public educational infrastructure and a massive, long-term training effort against national accreditation standards. Only that sort of commitment will produce the type of sea change necessary to neutralize the threat of lost generations. In a region where change is not so easily embraced, this is bound to be a very long-term project.

The bottom line for educational reform in these countries is that it will not trickle down from the top. It must begin at the bottom—actually below the bottom, with preschool, which is virtually nonexistent in the public sector of most Gulf countries. You have to create a highly motivated, well-trained class of preschool, primary and secondary teachers who are indigenous, not third-country nationals. And you have to train the trainers.

Roger Hove, President, International Schools Services, Inc. 

In a February 2008 interview, the World Bank’s Marwan Muasher told BBC reporter Dale Gavlak “that educational reform must take top priority if the region’s youth were to be better equipped in a fast-changing world and high unemployment combated.”

It’s a very sobering statement, made even more so by the Brookings Institute’s estimate that between 50 and 65 percent of the population of this region is younger than 24 years of age. Without a robust educational system supporting this generation, the Gulf Region countries can’t improve the quality of life for the majority of the native population.

Change must start by providing a meaningful and culturally appropriate education through the primary and secondary years,from ages 4 to 18. Any proposed program would help advance skills in literacy and communication (both Arabic and English, with other languages to follow), working math, problem solving and critical thinking skills. The implementation and development of such a program should include:

  • the accepted concept of a universal free education for all children 
  • equivalent education opportunities for both genders 
  • the promotion of the teaching profession for host country nationals
  • teacher-training programs to provide host country nationals with the necessary teaching skills 
  • centers of excellence to provide for and demonstrate such training programs 
  • financial support to sustain the establishment and ongoing development of such a program

This list may seem daunting, but countries within the region have already achieved such remarkable development in areas outside of the educational arena. The creation of such an educational system will bring about the desired renaissance to the great and lasting benefit of the citizens of each country

Robert Rozehnal, Director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies at Lehigh University 

The only barrier to transforming education in today’s Middle East is political will. The modern nation states of the Gulf are certainly not lacking in financial capital or local expertise. More importantly, there are ample cultural resources to draw on in the Muslim world: a rich, thousand-year history of intellectual openness and academic excellence, as well as contemporary models for educational reform.

The search for knowledge and a pervasive cosmopolitanism have been the hallmarks of Islamic civilization from its beginnings in seventh-century Arabia. The modern Western university is itself the heir to the traditional Muslim madrasa—a diverse and dynamic institution that combined rigorous training in the Qur’an, hadith (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) and sources of Islamic law with a full engagement with Greek philosophy and scientific inquiry.

With this past as prologue, educational reform is already underway in numerous Islamic countries, especially in Southeast Asia where both Malaysia and Indonesia (the largest country in the global Muslim world) offer a workable blueprint that bridges East and West. The recent opening of NYU Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates offers another salient example. This four-year liberal arts research university will be financed entirely by the Abu Dhabi government, with a thoroughly modern campus and curriculum, adjacent to the future outposts of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums.

When it comes to education, Islam is not the problem and 21st century Muslims are fully capable of accommodating local traditions to the changes and challenges of global modernity.

Emily Anderson ’12G, Graduate Student, Comparative and International Education Program at Lehigh University 

Education systems in Gulf Cooperative Council nations (GCC) are tightly linked with traditional Islamic religious and cultural values which are articulated in national curricula and school processes. However, to promote global economic participation and competitiveness, countries across the region have begun to reform national curricula to reflect international trends related to the incorporation of information and communication technology (ICT).

This is uniquely national curricula alters teachers’ pedagogical practice and changes the expectation for student learning outcomes. In this paradigm teachers are expected to facilitate greater student autonomy in the learning process through ICT-enabled instruction. If ICT use is contested by students’ families and communities, their abilities to effectively transfer these skills in their daily lives, and eventually the labor market, is marginalized.

In order to realize the perceived economic benefits associated with the incorporation of ICT in education, teachers will require dedicated training to use ICT in instruction throughout their professional development, beginning at the pre-service level. This process involves greater collaboration among education policymakers with teacher educators to train teachers to appropriately utilize ICT in classroom instruction while respecting the cultural values represented in their communities.

Greater capacity building among community-level stakeholders is also needed to mediate cultural resistance concerning the use of ICT in curriculum and instruction to promote effective transfer of ICT-related skills.