UAE’s focus on quality education is a game changer

The world is changing fast and not only in geopolitical terms. The meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ethical issues it raises as well as the fast adoption of robotics in industries are posing new questions never before confronted by mankind: Will AI replace specific jobs, especially those requiring human ingenuity such as creative writing, painting, architectural and industrial designs, among others?

And will the takeover of robots replace millions of jobs, especially semi-skilled labour, on assembly lines, in agriculture, malls and supermarkets, in classrooms and in public transport modes?

While the advanced economies begin to grapple with and adapt to such challenges, developing and less developed countries are yet to address them or put them on their national agendas. The MENA countries stand out in a particularly challenged region.

The region comprises a complex group of countries that include states mired in civil strife (Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Iraq) as well as countries facing political and economic challenges (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco). On the other hand, the GCC countries enjoy economic growth, political stability and record per capita indicators.

Challenges of AI and robotics

But the looming challenges of AI and robotics will, at some stage, be added to the long list of obstacles that most countries in the MENA region are facing.

One of the interesting shifts in analysing economic growth, also known as GDP, has to do with introducing new elements to the concept.

Aside from the more traditional indicators making up the GDP such as consumption, investment, and international trade and stability (government budgets, prices, the money supply, and the balance of payments), today macroeconomic performance is measured by a country’s carbon footprint, how much it spends to address climate change, and its investment in research and development (R&D) and on quality education.

With millions of jobs at stake as a result of AI and robotics, quality education emerges as a central component in future economic planning. Quality education is no longer being measured by the number of schools, university colleges and number of graduates.

The US, for example, has the most highly ranked universities than any other country in the world and for decades its education system has been considered superior in the world.

Yet according to the Hoover Institution low performance of American students is not limited to math and science. Americans barely reach the international literacy average set by advanced democracies, according to a report issued by the Educational Testing Service after looking at the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). Despite the high expenditures on education in the United States — and the large numbers of students enrolled in colleges and universities — the United States ranked 12th on the test.

UAE leads the rankings

For the MENA region literacy statistics remain an obstacle. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) identified that only 75 per cent of the population in Arabic regions can read and write.

However, when considering elderly individuals above the age of 65, Unesco found that the global average literacy rate is 78 per cent, but a mere 38 per cent in Arabic regions.

The region’s labour restructure and future needs will be changing fast as the global arena witnesses the tsunami-like effects of AI and robotics in the coming years. Investment in quality education is the only way that MENA markets can ready themselves for this major and inevitable shift.

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There is no doubt that political and economic problems cast a shadow over the ability of educational institutions to cope with a changing global landscape. Jordan, which has a high literacy rate of 97.9 per cent, ranked sixth in the Arab world and 58th in the world in the quality of education in a recent survey by US News and World Report.

Meanwhile, the UAE ranked 27th in the world; Saudi Arabia 35th; Egypt 39th; Qatar 41st; Morocco 57th, Oman 62nd; Tunisia 67th; Lebanon 70th; Iraq 77th.

The UAE’s experience in focusing on the quality of education is worth studying by other MENA countries as the world sees a shift in defining economic growth and linking it to future labour needs in a fast changing work environment.

Big leaps in gender equality, education and work opportunities

One main area where the UAE has made enormous leaps has to do with gender equality, especially in education and work opportunities. According to official government releases, the UAE is ranked as a leading country in gender equality in the region, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap report.

According to PwC Middle East the quality of the UAE’s primary and higher education systems rank among the top 20 globally. The UAE continues to be the most competitive country in the Arab World according to the Global Competitiveness Index.

Education represented 15.5 per cent of the country’s $17.1 billion federal budget for 2023. The UAE has also devised a “National Strategy for Higher Education 2030” that seeks to equip future generations of students with technical and practical skills to strengthen the labour market.

Already the UAE has 33 internationally recognised universities with at least 20 ranked among the top 200 in the world. This is an amazing achievement by any standard.

The UAE’s spending on education should be compared to Egypt, for example, which spent 2.48 per cent on education in 2020, 9.66 per cent for Jordan in 2021, 1.69 per cent for Lebanon in 2020, and 6.75 per cent for Morocco in 2020.

The region’s labour restructure and future needs will be changing fast as the global arena witnesses the tsunami-like effects of AI and robotics in the coming years. Investment in quality education is the only way that MENA markets can ready themselves for this major and inevitable shift.

The UAE is in a position to lead MENA countries in offering a road map for achieving quality education and preparing for such a change.

Osama Al Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.