To Which Extent is the Educational Sector in the Gulf Countries Contributing to Social Change?

Abstract

The overall theme of this conference is social change. This paper focus on one, however important, factor behind social change in the Gulf countries, namely that of education. Each of the Gulf countries have embarked on a journey to transform from their oil-based economies into knowledge-based economies. Recognizing that creating a knowledge-based economy encompass far more than increasing the number of people in a society that have obtained a university degree, the magnitude of education each citizen receives and not least the quality of that education is an significant element in increasing the stock of knowledge in a country. Education is furthermore recognized as an important factor in social changes processes in that it fosters significant changes in people's insight, believes and perceptions and as such acts as an important factor behind the transformation of cultural and social institutions. A decade ago, education not least in the MENA region ranked high on the agenda of develop oriented international institutions which resulted in important reports. E.g. the World Banks 2008 report The Road not Traveled: Education reform in the Middle East and North Africa and the three Arab Knowledge Reports, published by UNDP in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Besides those, a number of country/city specific reports appeared e.g. Education in Dubai, from Quantity to Quality published by Dubai Economic Council in 2012. Generally, these reports revealed a dismal picture of the educational system in the Gulf and not least the research and innovative capacity in these countries. This paper aims to analyze the nexus between education and social change in the specific context of the Gulf countries. Furthermore, it aims to provide an updated status of the educational systems, by analyzing the changes that has been announced and implemented in the educational sector over the last decade in three selected Gulf countries namely Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Data for this will be collected from various data bases, e.g. the World Bank Knowledge Economy Index and not least the OECD TIMSS and PISA evaluations.