Job Discussion Forums

[Persuasion]

Although I no longer live and work in the ME, I reckon a few of you guys still out there will have something to say about this...

Laggards trying to catch up

A recent issue of Science, the weekly journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was devoted to research into �Ardi� or Ardipithecus ramidus, a 4.4m-year-old hominid species whose discovery deepens the understanding of human evolution. These latest studies suggest, among other things, that rather than descending from a closely related species such as the chimpanzee, the hominid branch parted earlier than previously thought from the common ancestral tree.

In much of the Arab world, coverage of the research took a different spin. �American Scientists Debunk Darwin�, exclaimed the headline in al-Masry al-Youm, Egypt�s leading independent daily. �Ardi Refutes Darwin�s Theory�, chimed the website of al-Jazeera, the region�s most-watched television channel. Scores of comments from readers celebrated this news as a blow to Western materialism and a triumph for Islam. Two or three lonely readers wrote in to complain that the report had inaccurately presented the findings of the research.

The response to Ardi�s unearthing was not surprising. According to surveys, barely a third of Egyptian adults have ever heard of Charles Darwin and just 8% think there is any evidence to back his famous theory. Teachers, who might be expected to know better, seem equally sceptical. In a survey of nine Egyptian state schools, where Darwin�s ideas do form part of the curriculum for 15-year-olds, not one of more than 30 science teachers interviewed believed them to be true. At a private university in the United Arab Emirates, only 15% of the faculty thought there was good evidence to support evolution.

The strength of religious belief among Arabs partly explains their reluctance to accept the facts of evolution. Until recent reforms, state primary schools in Saudi Arabia devoted 31% of classroom time to religion, compared with just 20% for mathematics and science. A quarter of the kingdom�s university students devote the main part of their degree course to Islamic studies, more than in engineering, medicine and science put together. And despite changes to Saudi curriculums, religious study remains obligatory every year from primary school through to university.

Such choices carry a cost that goes beyond ignorance of Darwin. Arab countries now spend as much or more on education, as a share of GDP, than the world average. They have made great strides in eradicating illiteracy, boosting university enrolment and reducing gaps in education between the sexes.

But the gap in the quality of education between Arabs and other people at a similar level of development is still frightening. It is one reason why Arab countries suffer unusually high rates of youth unemployment. According to a recent study by a team of Egyptian economists, the lack of skills in the workforce largely explains why a decade of fast economic growth has failed to lift more people out of poverty.

The most rigorous comparative study of education systems, a survey called Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) that comes out every four years, revealed in its latest report, in 2007, that out of 48 countries tested, all 12 participating Arab countries fell below the average. More disturbingly, less than 1% of students aged 12-13 in ten Arab countries reached an advanced benchmark in science, compared with 32% in Singapore and 10% in the United States. Only one Arab country, Jordan, scored above the international average, with 5% of its 13-year-olds reaching the advanced category.

Other comparative measures are equally alarming. A listing of the world�s top 500 universities, compiled annually by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, includes three South African and six Israeli universities, but not a single Arab one. The Swiss-based World Economic Forum ranks Egypt a modest 70th out of 133 countries in competitiveness, but in terms of the quality of its primary education system and its mathematics-and-science teaching, it slumps to 124th. Libya, despite an income of $16,000 a head, ranks an even more dismal 128th in the quality of its higher education, lower than dirt-poor Burkina Faso, with an average income of $577.

Well aware that their school systems are doing badly, Arab governments have been scrambling to improve. In an attempt to leapfrog the slow process of curriculum reform and teacher training, many have taken the easy route of encouraging private schools. In Qatar, for instance, the share of students in private education leapt from 30% to more than 60% between 1999 and 2006, according to the UN�s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Syria has licensed some 20 private universities since 2001; 14 are up and running. Yet their total enrolment is dwarfed by the 200,000 at state-run Damascus University alone. Oil-rich monarchies in the Gulf have spent lavishly to lure Western academies to their shores, but these branch universities are struggling to find qualified students to fill their splendidly equipped classrooms.

Not to be outdone, Saudi Arabia has launched King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a city-sized institution with an endowment of $20 billion. Intended as an oasis of academic excellence, it enjoys an independent board and is the kingdom�s only co-educational institution. This augurs well for the Saudi elite, but one fancy new university will do little to lift the overall standard of Saudi education. And it has been attacked by religious conservatives. A senior cleric who decried the mixing of sexes at KAUST, declaring that its textbooks should be reviewed by religious scholars, was forced to resign from government office.

Source: The Economist Print Edition

Web: http://mahmood.tv/2009/10/26/one-reason-that-too-many-arabs-are-poor-is-rotten-education/

[basiltherat]

Absolutely.

Not enough education in the sciences and 'more importantly, basic knowlege of life. For example, many Arabs and those who adopt similar traits as Arabs, such as provincial Indonesians and Iranians, know little about such things as .... what conducts and doesn't conduct electricity, that plastic takes centuries to decompose, that cutting down trees on hillsides can eventually cause landslides. I could go on and on. Important facts, such as these, are neither communicated to the children at home nor, it appears, taught in schools.

As a result, it is depressing that adults in such places as where I work (a Libyan gas field) are also unfamiliar with such general knowledge.

In short, too much time is spent working on political and financial conspiracy theories; many of which hold no water in reality but nevertheless, they spend immense amounts of time try to concoct some way of proposing that they do .... to the detriment of actually spending time learning something useful.

Best
Basil

[cassava]

There is absolutely no mystery about this state of affairs. Religious ideology discourages logical thinking. People who are fervently religious see the world in very narrow, circumscribed terms. Religious dogma dictates how life, in the widest possible sense, should be viewed. The result is intellectual chaos.

However, Islamic societies are not the only culprits here. Read the history of the Inquisition if you want to see the macabre results of excessive religiosity. The most bizarre gibberish was believed, and nightmarish cruelty was justified in the name of some "god".

[veiledsentiments]

Well... for the first half of the article, you could substitute US for KSA. The religious wackos are trying to take control here and are fighting all teaching of true science. (what with the earth being only 3000 years old and all).

What a stretch to try to turn this fascinating discovery into something that disproves evolution when it supports it. Pathetic really... As long as religion controls education, ignorance will reign.

VS

[Manuel Geere]

Take a look at this interview report

http://www.slate.com/id/2233122/

[15yearsinQ8]

I spent about a week with the Pennsylvania Amish who do a one room school house until maybe age 15 with NO science taught. None - no gravity, no photosynthesis, no table of elements - nothing.
They're highly functional, productive and tolerant.
Formal education isn't everything.

[basiltherat]

[basiltherat]

[Deicide]

[Deicide]

[veiledsentiments]

[johnslat]

Dear veiledsentiments,

OMG - the creation of the Earth was a TYPO? Well, I guess that proves that

even the Almighty can make mistakes.

Regards,
John

[Cleopatra]

[scot47]

Have a close look at the education system in the Yookay sometime. It produces illiterates ! Mind you I do believe that if you can pay for your offspring to go to Eton or Cheltenham they might end up knowing a thing or two.

[007]

Darwin is dead, our God is alive.