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| INVEST IN THE
MEDITERRANEAN -
SELLING POINTS |
| Positive on-going changes |
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| The MEDA region harbours 130 million children who represent 50% of the population. But there are profound differences among the countries themselves. For example, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia have almost managed schooling for everyone. Tunisia has an especially solid reputation in educational terms. |
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| Photo : Positive on-going changes |
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Positive on-going changes
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Introduction |
The MEDA region harbours 130 million children who represent 50% of the population. But there are profound differences among the countries themselves. For example, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia have almost managed schooling for everyone. Tunisia has an especially solid reputation in educational terms; the enrolment rates are high at all levels of the system, with nearly 100% enrolment in preparatory classes and a net scholarity rate of 98% for children of primary school age in 2002/03; the equity between the sexes is good at all levels, in fact girl students are nowadays slightly more numerous than their male counterparts at higher education level.
In Morocco, the Net Scholarity Rate for children of primary school age has considerably increased from 65% in 1997/98 to 91% in 2001/02. In the same way, access to education continues to be inequitable over the whole population: while 85% of all children aged from 6 to 11 were enrolled at school in 2000/01, the rate was 70% for girls living in rural areas. |
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Education with the knowledge economy in sight |
The countries of the MEDA region increasingly integrate the world markets and the governments recognise that it is the quality of human capital that will determine their capacity to be competitive. Tunisia, which has taken advantage of projects financed by the World Bank to back its reforms, is the country whose approach is the most advanced in the Region. Jordan has also thought long and hard about this question. The World Bank has assisted Jordan to develop an educational project involving a detailed strategy of the reform of the sector including a reform of the governance, changes in the study programmes and teacher training.
Jordan: project for educational reform in favour of the Knowledge Economy. |
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Country focus on training |
The training structures in the MEDA countries are very heterogeneous. The level of qualification of the teaching staff, the integration of the offer and the involvement of the enterprises and the professional organisations in the training centres are very different from one country to another.
• Lebanon - There are 40 institutions of professional and technical education in the Lebanon which train to the level of senior practical qualifications. There were 18,448 students in 2000 63 % of which were men.
• Turkey - Training in Turkey is highly specialised, there is a multiplication of sectors, a high level of privatisation and a de-concentration. The public expenses for education here are 3.3 % of GDP and the illiteracy rate was17.7 % in 1995. Secondary education in Turkey is divided into two blocks: « technical and professional » or « general » (DGSPW). The technical and professional schools train for the professions of commerce, tourism, hairdressing, ceramics, electronics, mining, foundry, construction or manufacturing production.
• Syria - Industrial technical training has numerous sectors including mechanical fabrication, metallic construction, automobile mechanics and textiles (spinning, weaving, dyeing and printing, clothing manufacturing).
• Algeria - There exist 25 university towns in Algeria and tens of institutes of technology attended by more than 100,000 students. The success rate at the Baccalaureate in 2002 was 28.6 % in general education and 38.9 % in technical education. Further, the number of girls admitted (65,625) is much higher than that of the boys (49,039), which led a representative of the Ministry to say that the democratisation of education and the emancipation of women is increasingly confirming itself within the society.
• Egypt - The World Bank has just granted a loan of 50 million dollars to Egypt for the modernisation of its educational system.. The Arab Academy trains in the professions of the sciences, technology and maritime transport. The French University Egypt, created in 2003, proposes training in languages applied to the business world, information technology and integrated management and engineering in the advanced technologies (ICT, production engineering, energy sciences, automation systems).
• Israel - The budget devoted to education reached 10 % of GNP in 2000, there are 135 scientists and engineers for 100,000 workers, which is the highest proportion anywhere in the world for higher qualifications. There exist in the country several Franco-Israeli research programmes on nanotechnology, biotechnology for agriculture, the factory of the future and immunology.
• Tunisia - The World Bank has granted a loan of 99 million dollars to Tunisia for the modernisation of its educational system. The country devotes 4.7 % of its GDP and 19.9 % of its budget to education. The literacy rate for the 15-24 year olds was 91.5 % in 2001. So as to respond to the needs of the world of industry and business a network of Higher Institutes of Technological Education (ISET) has been developed. Its role is to train senior technicians in the different technical specialities and management. The number of young people succeeding in the Baccalaureate was 55,238 in 1999/2000.
• Morocco - Professional education provides DTS training for management assistants in SMEs, management computing, international business, computer maintenance, director's secretaries. In 2002, 25,600 students obtained a higher studies diploma, 1,054 of which in technology, 3,255 in science, 524 in engineering sciences and 374 in commerce and management.
• Malta - The professional and technical institutes of Malta provide training in information and communications technology, electronics, maritime affairs, the construction professions, those of art and design and business and trade.
• Cyprus - The technical schools offer technical and professional courses of a three year duration. The branches offered are mechanics, electricity, construction and the graphic arts, building, hotels and catering, dressmaking, industrial design, furniture manufacturing, footwear and jewellery. |
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