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What makes up good educational policy, and how should policy makers relate it to their development project? Assess education and professional training’s crucial in the creation of stable and prosperous societies was one of the central ambitions of the MEDays’ final panel on development.

 

Eric Besson, Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Development of France

“All economists agree that the acceleration of globalization is making education and training even more crucial. There is a necessity for investment in both education and training, and this throughout an individual’s life.”

 

Rasha Al Sabah, Diwan to his Excellency the Prime Minister of Kuwait, Former Under-Secretary for Education

“Education is not just a turn out robot. It has to cater for the personal individual.”

 

Jamal Rhmani, Minister of Education and Professional Training of the Kingdom of Morocco

“Today’s jobs are not tomorrow’s jobs. Hence the topical importance of coordinating initial and continuous education.”

 

 

Najat Rochdi, Deputy Director, UNDP Head Office in Geneva

“Development is not solely about economics. It is also about a number of values, a certain attitude, a culture and a sense of citizenship. Without these elements, we cannot talk of development. “

“People have a lot of knowledge, but very little know-how.”

 

Joseph Mifsud, Managing Director, Euro-Mediterranean Business School (EMUNI)

“The challenge will be to move from “just in case education” to “just in time education”.”

 

 

Torek Fahradi, Director of the Middle East and North-Africa programs at the International Trade Center

“Productivity is going to keep changing in the next 40 years. We should not be demanding from the educational system to prepare someone for his entire career. We should be realistic; People will have to go back to school and/or education will have to happen at the workplace.”

 

 

A painful irony seems to be plaguing a lot of Southern countries. Although they are experiencing rapid growth, unemployment remains endemic; In the MENA region, 25% of 15 to 24 year olds – that represent no less than 60% of the global regional population - are unemployed, compared to the 14% worldwide rate.

Even young graduates have difficulties entering the labour market. Clearly, there is an inadequacy between education and employment opportunities that are being created. Even so, just to absorb the population growth, no less than 50 million additional jobs will need to be created in the MENA region in the next decade.

Education and development: a clear consensus

A completed primary education is not only a basic human right; It is transformative and empowering, and a means for accessing broad economic, social, political and cultural benefits.

A decent, fulfilling work opportunity is the necessary balance to education. It is a guarantee of social peace, and a means to a dignified and meaningful life. Even more, it allows the immediate application of educational benefits for a productive purpose.

Any development indicator seems to be related to education. Be it life expectancy or economic growth, all improve with the quality of education.

Quality at the heart: Private vs. Public Education

UN education experts underlined that the public education system is failing to respond to market requirements. Private schools on the other hand, which have the flexibility to respond to the requirements of the market, are leaving behind millions of people in poverty, going against the very spirit of the MDG.

H.E. Rasha Al Sabah stressed that the educational sector demands huge fiscal allocations, which explains why governments turned to the private sector to help them share the burden of maintaining quality education standards.

Yet, she insisted that private education would never be able to take over the role of the state. At the centre of the schooling system is the imperative to “cater for the personal individuals”, and not just to turn out a chain of middle level managers.

The perpetual movement of training needs

Matching education and training with employment opportunities has been clearly recognised as the second important challenge. The South remains a recipient of knowledge in essential areas, and is too rarely a pathfinder. On a more positive note, all panellists concurred that more and more excellence centres are to be found in the South, and that knowledge exchanges are starting to work both ways.

The old model of “just in case education” is no longer part of us. Instead, we need to find ways to make “just in time education”. Changes in technology and productivity have brought about dramatic changes to work patterns. Statistics show that individuals will have 7 to 12 jobs over their life time. Realistically, it can no longer be expected from an educational system to prepare someone for the next 40 years. Instead, emphasis should be put on better synergies between initial education and lifelong training.

Better strategies

Globalised markets need necessarily be accompanied by a globalisation of individuals, at least at the regional level. Better educational initiatives must accompany this movement. The Mediterranean Office for Youth, an initiative launched at the 2008 MEDays Forum to facilitate student exchanges throughout the Mediterranean, reflects this ambition. The European Union’s “innovation union”, which publishes forecasts of country needs in terms of labour qualifications, also goes in the right direction, and could be extremely beneficial to neighbouring countries.

Concerning education and training reform, Minister Rhmani presented Morocco’s new initiatives that include state created and funded training programs run by industry professionals. They are allowing better skilled individuals to be trained according to private sector requirements, in identified priority areas: industry (with a focus in automobile and aeronautics), tourism and logistics. Although created by the state, these courses are dedicated to specifically address private sector needs.