Improving the quality of primary education has become a priority of Middle East governments over the past decade. Between 1999 and 2009, the net enrolment rate for primary schools in Arab states has increased from 77 per cent to 86 per cent, according to Unesco. However, the number is still lower than the global average of 90 per cent.

If the standard of English is not high enough, students cannot get into higher education [or] the job market

Paul Wagstaff, Centre for British Teachers

In GCC countries, levels of enrolment are healthy. In the UAE, 98 per cent of primary-age pupils are enrolled. Bahrain stands at 99 per cent, Qatar at 98 per cent and Kuwait at 93 per cent. The only GCC countries below the global average are Saudi Arabia at 86 per cent and Oman at 81 per cent.

English in education

But for many countries in the Middle East, there are still several policy questions that need to be answered for the region to cope with the huge percentage of its population currently at, or approaching, school age.

An area of debate in the Middle East concerns the use of English as a day-to-day teaching language in public-sector primary schools.

On one side of the argument are parents, who believe their children will have the best job prospects if they are educated in English. However, this is contended by those who believe teaching Arab students in English will damage the Arabic language and endanger the cultural heritage of states in the Middle East.

You do have much greater choice in the private sector than … in the public sector with the national curriculum

Paul Wagstaff, Centre for British Teachers

“Some countries are looking now at bi-literacy, where English and Arabic are both taught from the outset. There is a huge understanding and pressure from society that English is required,” says Paul Wagstaff, Middle East and North Africa regional director of the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), an education trust operating globally. “If the standard of English is not high enough, then students cannot get into higher education and they cannot get into the job market.”

There is little debate over whether students should learn English, but what language pupils should be taught in has been hotly debated in the Arab press in GCC countries.

“We’re certainly seeing an increasing amount of curriculum delivery in English, and in Abu Dhabi there has been a significant investment made in increasing the language competence of the school leaders and, indeed, of Arabic-speaking teachers,” says Ian Hall, project director at Cognition Education, a consultancy that works with governments to provide strategies for educational reform.

That is not to say private schools are free to teach anything they want; they must still adhere to guidelines from the government education department. For example, it is mandatory for private schools to teach Arabic, Islamic studies and local culture in the UAE.

Emirati families value English skills highly and this is one of the major drivers behind the fact that 57 per cent of local children were enrolled in private schools as of last year in the UAE, according to a joint report by the UAE’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and CfBT.

Between 2003 and 2010, the number of Emirati children in private schools has increased 75 per cent to 28,983. Over that time, public schools have seen the number of Emirati pupils decline by 15 per cent.

Emirati parents told the report’s authors one of the main reasons for enrolling their children in private schools was because they cater for children from kindergarten through primary and secondary education. This is in contrast to public schools, which mostly require pupils to transfer to another institution when leaving primary education.

Knowledge society

As people increasingly access the internet, much of the material available will require English language competencies.

“There is a push for it,” says Wagstaff. “Some parents will honestly say they want their children to be taught English better and for longer.”

Across the Middle East, countries are keen to diversify their economies and move towards a ‘knowledge society’, where more importance is placed on human capital. Any young people unable to properly interact with this knowledge society will feel isolated, out of touch and unemployable. The fear of falling behind in an increasingly interactive and knowledge-driven economy means the calls for more English teaching services will grow louder.

In the Arab world, children under the age of 15 make up 45 per cent of the population, while the percentage of the population at primary school age increased by 5.4 per cent between 1999 and 2009. As this generation grows older, it will hit the employment market en masse in the next 10-20 years, which means getting education right is a matter of high importance for both the students and the economies of the Middle East.

It has long been acknowledged that changes need to be made to national curriculums across the Middle East. Authorities are focused on greatly improving the way learning is rated internationally. “The education authorities are mindful of international rankings and conscious that the systems in this part of the world don’t rank well on international indicators, and that changes need to be made,” says Hall.

Teaching methodology overhaul

Hall adds that those changes initially should focus on the way the curriculum is delivered rather than the content itself.

Wagstaff agrees. “The issue is not necessarily what the curriculum is, but the way it is taught,” he says. “Traditionally, it has been quite a didactic curriculum, but in many countries there has been a move towards opening up the [methodology] and the quality of teaching linked with that curriculum to try to improve children’s interaction, their language, their discussion and problem-solving skills.”

There are several templates authorities in the region could follow for their educational reforms, but instead of adopting one single curriculum from overseas, many draw on models sourced from around the world.

Abu Dhabi is currently taking advice on primary and secondary education from countries including Finland, which is near to the top of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development rankings of quality of education provision.

The private primary education sector has much greater freedom than public schools. The schools do not have to follow the national curriculum of the country within which they are based, so they can choose the best for their pupils and profits.

“You do have much greater choice in the private sector than you have in the public sector with the national curriculum,” says Wagstaff. “The national curriculum for primary education is [set by the ministry]. Expatriate children don’t have to follow the national curriculum. Therefore, expats moving [their children into] international private schools will choose depending on what they want their children to achieve.”

Middle East countries with sizeable expatriate populations attract larger numbers of private schools, and children of expatriates almost invariably attend them. Of the 215 schools inspected by the KHDA in Dubai last year, only 79 were public. Of the remainder, 51 followed a UK curriculum, 31 a US curriculum and 21 an Indian one.

“The most affluent expat families typically send their children to private schools. If they are British families, then they want schools that follow the UK curriculum and the UK exams system and so on,” says Hall. “So you do tend to get some differentiation in the private school sector, depending on the nationality of the student population.”

Public-private education divide

The Middle East has already identified the need to improve primary education standards in the region and policy changes have been made to do just that. The private sector is governed more by commercial demand. Public-sector education in the GCC is improving rapidly, with heavy investment by authorities in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar. But when statistics show local families prefer to choose private education, international schools for their children, there is clearly a problem with the system.

Quick, decisive moves are required, starting with the English and Arabic language debate. Time is running out to prepare the next generation of Arab youth for its entry into the knowledge economy.