Development Paradoxes and Education 2030 in the Arab World

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Monday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Shifting paradigms on sustainable development: complexities of teaching and youth education

Proposal

While the Arab world is all too often at often at the center of international media focus because of conflict and political turmoil, there is little attention to educational development within the region beyond the traditional focus on low average levels of learning outcomes and the more recent focus on education in emergencies. This paper examines the tensions and paradoxes associated with development patterns in the Arab world and examines the way in which they relate to education.

Characterized by one of the most rapid rates of population growth, the population of the Arab region has the largest share of youth (15-29 years of age) in the world. Yet, the participation rate of Arab youth in the labor market is the lowest in the world, and the rate of youth unemployment the highest. Far from being a development asset, the youth bulge is fueling the emigration of skilled labor, youth exclusion and continues to be a potential source of social unrest. Moreover, while home to some of the highest income countries in the world, the region is also home to low income countries and is the most unequal in the world with under 10 percent of the population controlling over 60 percent of regional income while half the population shares only 10 percent. These contradictions largely explain the breakdown of the “authoritarian bargain” (Youssef 2004) as a model of social contract and as a mode of governance that characterized the Arab region over the past few decades. Indeed, the uprisings of 2011 were the expression of popular demand to end corruption, for economic betterment, for greater social and economic justice and for political freedoms. The tragic unfolding of these uprisings in many instances has only further exacerbated the destructive and disruptive impact of violent conflict on the lives of too many people across the region. The region is home to almost half of the world’s refugees and displaced and almost 56 million persons are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Despite this bleak picture, youth demand for education appears to have remained high (UN 2014). While there had been significant expansion of access to education, and the closing of the gender gap since 2000, there has also been a perpetuation of the crisis of Arab education in terms of both access and quality. This is most evident in the rising numbers of out-of-school children and youth, as well as with in low average levels of learning achievement and the consistently high graduate unemployment. The paper explores these educational trends more closely in the context of the wider social, political and economic development context. It argues that the shared global education commitments expressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is an opportunity to strengthen public education systems by reframing national policies on the key focus areas of equity/inclusion in education and on effective/relevant learning.

Author

• Sobhi Tawil, UNESCO