The condescending attitude and tone of some self-described
“elites” toward youth is inexcusable and, at times, morally repugnant. It
reflects an inadequate understanding – there is plenty of superficial
understanding – of the problems our youth are going through, especially of the
poorly performing education system at all levels.
اضافة اعلان
The role of the state in education is supposed to be
“enabling” and “skilling”. Sadly, the mismatch between education outcome and
market needs testifies to a growing problem that has not been addressed
properly yet.
The education system – lower and higher – releases nearly
200,000 people into the labor market every year (2021 base year), and this
number is expected to grow on yearly basis. The overwhelming majority is going
to join the ranks of the unemployed. Together they will drive youth frustration
to new heights. Yet, major reforms of the school and university education
systems have not been contemplated.
Today, we are still seeing a weak response of the education
system to the market needs. Some pundits are heard blaming the youth for the
problems of unemployment, poverty, and drugs. The blame should rest largely
with education policy planners, makers and executors over the past two decades.
The outcome of their planning and execution is 50 percent youth unemployment
and a similar percentage considering migrating.
When policy is driven by trivial political calculations and
shortsightedness, it is inevitable to fail. That failure cannot be clearer than
it is in the education sector, which needs a radical “choice-based education”
reform.
The basic pillar of this reform should be to enable parents
to choose whatever schools they want to send their children to with a
government-paid voucher system that gives parents the ultimate power over
schools, and this should include public and private schools alike.
School administration ought to be decentralized, too. School
management ought to be led by the head master with a school council. The school
council should consist of parents who have children attending the respective
schools. The school and its elected council must have the power to reward and
punish teachers and administrators, fire and hire teachers and administrative
staff based on clearly agreed upon key performance indicators. This incentive-
and performance-based system should provide the foundation for a competitive
result-oriented, rather than a process-oriented, system.
The prevalence of private tutoring is a statement about the
quality of education students get in schools. Parents are not supposed to be teachers
at home and they should not be overburdened with extra financial expenses for
private tutoring to support their children education. This practice must stop
and the only way to stop it is to create a properly accountable education
system.
The layers of administrative staff can be reskilled and
repurposed to serve the education in classrooms instead of accumulating reports
that are not improving the education.
It is unfortunate that Jordan’s ranking in the international
standards tests is not improving much. Without a major overhaul of the
education system, our economy is not going to be able to compete in an
increasingly science-based global digital economy, and we will have to deal
with the consequences of angry, frustrated, weakly skilled – yet educated –
youth.
The writer is chairman of NAMA Strategic Intelligence
Solutions
[email protected].
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