Education is at the heart of both personal and community development; its mission is to enable each of us, without exception, to develop all our talents to the full and to realize our creative potential, including responsibility for our own lives and achievement of our personal aims.
-Jaques Delors
When it comes to education, according to the World Bank, the Arab world comes at the bottom of the list for the rate of literacy (87%). Such an astounding percentage, when compared with that following us, we will find we are superseded by Latin America, coming at (97%). That is for literacy. Coming to school enrollment for the primary stage, the Arab world also comes at the bottom of the list (96%) whereas in Europe and Central Asia it is (100%). Percentages speak of quantitative analysis, what about the qualitative one? What about the quality of education? Are there any indicators of that? These questions are better answered after taking into consideration the challenges that must be met before Arab countries, and especially Egypt, can catch up with the requirements of 21st-century learning.
In the Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century, there are a number of challenges (14-16) that must be met before countries can reach a level of education, both in quality and quantity that meets up with contemporary requirements. The first of these tensions or challenges is “the tension between the global and the local.” There is a thin line between becoming a global citizen and losing one’s local and cultural roots. This is not only applied in questions of cultural hegemony or national security. It is also an integral part of education reform in Egypt. In the public form of education, there is the leaning toward the local as opposed to the global in terms of content and methods of education. In the private system of education, the leaning is more the global as opposed to the language. The system of education, in particular the ones adopting International systems (American Diploma, IGCSE…etc), not only take the same syllabus as that of England or the States, but there is also a certain neglect of Arab heritage and the Arabic language. Both the private and the public system of education do not cater to the needs of a balanced, global education that does not forsake the Egyptian cultural roots.
The second tension is that between “the universal and the individual.” Having global standards should not take away one’s individuality, since it is this aspect of our personality that makes us unique. The report stresses that “it is for them [humans] to choose their own future and achieve their full potential within the carefully tended wealth of their traditions and their own cultures which, unless we are careful, can be endangered by contemporary developments” (15). When it comes to education, this brings to mind the analogy Charles Leadbeater comes up with in his TED talk entitled “Education Innovation in the Slums”. He prefers education to follow the pattern of Chinese restaurants in the world, each one owned by a different proprietor and each one is a statement of its owner. McDonalds, however, is the same all over the world, it is a representative of the global touch. It has the same menu, the same interior design anywhere. This analogy serves to explain the next tension mentioned in the report: “the tension between tradition and modernity”, which includes preserving autonomy and maintaining individuality.
After that comes the tension between short-term and long-term goals. In the ever going dilemma of the crisis of education, what should consume our resources first, and what should take some long-term planning. In Egypt, there are problems of in-class facilities, unqualified teachers, low salaries for teachers, lack of professional development, poor syllabi, to mention but a few. With a low budget and few resources, what should take priority to make a concrete form of impact on education? A few years ago, the ministry of education attempted to solve the issue of teachers by forcing them to take some sort of exam in order for them to take their annual raise or bonus. Was this the proper time and proper method to introduce educational reform for teachers already working in inappropriate conditions? Is an exam the only way to evaluate the teacher in the classroom?
Moving on to the next tension, this one is the one between “the need for competition, and…the concern for equality of opportunity”. This lends itself to the argument for the need to compete and come out the winner, and the need to stand in solidarity with others. This problem is particularly persistent in Egypt and it is quite tangible in education, since the entry to college is based on grades. The higher the grades, the higher the competition will be. It is not based on the merits of intellectual skills and team work. This breaks down the values of team work, and invites the students to focus on their own direct benefits and forget about the long term goals not only of their future, but of the future of the country as well. At the same time, the sense of competitiveness can lead to another tension mentioned in the report: that between “the extraordinary expansion of knowledge and human beings’ capacity to assimilate it.” The need to rise upon everyone else is sometimes a force to the over consumption of knowledge at the expense of correct selection of knowledge.
The last tension discussed in the report is the tension between the “spiritual and the material”. The report stresses on the importance of tolerance and pluralism in any society. This could be the most difficult tension to resolve since the spirit of intolerance based on religious beliefs, or lack thereof, can be the defining spirit of contemporary life. Perhaps this can be solved by introducing a new subject of study to schools in the secondary stage for instance, which is World Religions. This way, the students can know about other beliefs in other nations, and would be open enough to deal with others without taking another religion lightly.
Putting these different types of tensions into consideration might be of great benefit into making headway into an education more fit for the requirements of the 21st century. Unlike the common misconception that it is all about increasing the budget for education, this is not the only issue. Statistics prove that some countries can actually get a good quality of education without spending over much on it, as mentioned in the OCED Program for International School Assessment 2006. Such examples include Finland, Korea, and Ireland.
The figure below shows the four pillars of education reform that will be a catalyst in taking care of the tensions mentioned above. The four pillars were introduced in the CISCO report entitled “Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century” and they comprise the following: teachers, curriculum, leadership, and accountability.
Drawing conclusions from the two reports discussed in this post, proves that Egypt is in no way in the right direction for the correct educational reform. In a new era after the 2011 revolution, Egypt and Egyptian educators should start a new plan to oversee the educational reform based on such reports as the ones mentioned above. The first step is to equip the teacher and then move on to the various curricula bearing in mind the tensions mentioned by the UNESCO report. This can only take place if the right people are put in the right positions. It is not about the number of years, but the right qualifications and leadership skills. The last step is to hold the educational institutions accountable for the outcomes.
Works Cited
CISCO. “Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century.” 2008.
Delors, Jaques. Learning: The Treasure Within. Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. UNESCO, 1996.
Education. World Bank. 23 Feb. 2013. < http://data.worldbank.org/topic/education>
Leadbeater, Charles. “Education Innovation in the Slums.” TED Talk. June 2010. 22 Feb. 2013. < http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_leadbeater_on_education.html>
OCED. Program for International School Assessment 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World. 2007.
