UN Report: Appalling Level of Education, Research and Innovation In Arab World

[JStone]

UN: Arab World Rife with Illiteracy & Lacks Innovation

U.N. report finds one third of Arabs illiterate and only $10 per person spent on scientific research. The level of education, research and innovation in the Arab world is appalling, a new United Nations report has claimed.

The report, produced as part of a partnership between the United Nations Development Program and the United Arab Emirates-based Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, found that despite the efforts of scientists and researchers throughout the region, the Arab world makes up only 1.1% of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.

Examining a number of aspects of "the current Arab knowledge landscape," the report expressed "grave concerns over the state of education in the Arab world," with over one third of the adult population unable to read or write and major educational discrepancies between males and females.

The report found that despite 20% of national budgets in the Arab world being spent on education over the past 40 years, the average Arab individual reads very little compared to other societies and around 60 million Arabs are illiterate, two thirds of them women.

With almost nine million primary school-aged children not attending school in the Arab world, it is predicted that only a few select Arab nations will meet the universal primary education goal of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.

The report's harshest criticism was reserved for the lack of investment in academic and scientific research, hampering the ability of Arab nations to meet global occupational, technical and higher education standards. The report found that spending on scientific research in the Arab world does not exceed 0.3% of most nations' GDP and is 97% dependent on government funding.

While nations like Finland were found to spend over $1000 per person on scientific research each year, less than $10 per person is spent annually on scientific research in the Arab world. As a result, the number of patents registered with Arab national institutions is minimal and Arab scientists and researchers account for 1.1% of global scientific publishing.

"Things are really bad," Dr Ghassan Khateeb, Vice President of Community Affairs at Birzeit University in the Palestinian Territories, told The Media Line. "There is a direct relation between the lack of investment and the problematic situation we find ourselves in relation to knowledge."

"This is all related to politics," he continued. "The lack of democracy and lack of knowledge reinforce each other: the lack of education contributes to the lack of democracy and the fact that rulers can remain rulers without the will of the people. In turn, the fact that there is no proper democracy in the Arab world means that there is less incentive among rulers to really invest in knowledge of the kinds of things that have a positive impact on the public which would elect them."
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