World Bank report: education progress needed in Maghreb

11/02/2008

A new World Bank study of education in 14 Middle East and North African countries commends Tunisia for significant progress, but says other countries, including Morocco and Algeria, still adhere to an "outdated method of teaching".

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 11/02/08

worldbank.org] In a report entitled: "The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa", the World Bank said that with the exception of Tunisia, Maghreb countries are using outdated teaching methods and risk falling behind in a globalised world.

A World Bank study issued last week says Arab countries must improve education to combat unemployment and close what it calls the "education gap" with other regions.

Under the title, "The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa", the report called on countries in the Maghreb region to "reform their educational systems so as to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive world, and to benefit from the potentials and capabilities of the already big, and still growing" youth population.

The region "now has one of the largest cohorts of young people in the world, in proportion to its population," the World Bank noted, adding that "As this cohort works its way through the education system, it will generate unprecedented demands for new learning opportunities and even stronger expectations of better results."

Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco were among 14 countries evaluated on four issues: access to education, equality, quality and efficiency. Jordan ranked first overall, followed by Kuwait and Tunisia. Algeria placed 8th and Morocco 11th in the World Bank education assessment.

According to the report, only Jordan, Tunisia and Lebanon have made significant progress in student-focused teaching, while the other countries, including Morocco and Algeria, continue to adhere to an "outdated method of teaching".

The report also noted that success in achieving the educational goals is not always linked to average income. "The performance of Algeria and Saudi Arabia, which have a relatively high per capita income, was weaker than the performance of Tunisia and Jordan, which have lower per capita income."

According to the World Bank, only Tunisia and Jordan integrated systems for evaluating education sector planning and accountability.

Tunisia's strong results came as no surprise to a senior teaching inspector in the Tunisian Ministry of Education. Belgacem Hacen told Magharebia that Tunisia is carrying out ongoing reforms of educational curricula. "We have several evaluations which we conduct on a regular basis both internally and externally before adjusting our programs," Hacen said. The teaching inspector added that as part of its effort to "achieve distinction," Tunisia has established "quality and inspection indicators in order to draw a clear path".