Queen Rania on Education

02/10/2009

The imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization.
Henry Ward Beecher

In the Economist's annual report, The World in 2009, Queen Rania discusses how the Arab world can close the "knowledge gap"...

"Across the states, almost 57m adults are illiterate, two thirds of them women. More than 6m children are not enrolled in primary school, the majority of them girls. Too many Arab school systems are based on rote learning, instead of encouraging our children to question, explore, and create. We've also failed to build strong bridges between schools and the private sector — with the paradox that even as we produce more graduates than ever, unemployment among the young is especially high, and many of our brightest students end up pursuing careers abroad.

"Clearly we cannot afford to keep squandering so much of our talent. With more than half our region's population under 25, the next 15 years give the region a promising demographic edge: we will have the highest ratio of potential workers to dependents of any region in the world. But in order to make the most of this, we must create real opportunity for our youth.

"That is why I believe the Arab world must embrace what I'll call 'the three Rs 2.0' — not simply ensuring the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but revamping our curricula, rewarding our best teachers, and reinforcing the link between our classrooms of today and the workplaces of tomorrow.

"It's a daunting agenda, but Jordan has shown that real change can take root in desert soil — and that innovative educational practices can be exported region-wide."

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