Towards Educational Reform in Yemen: Back to Basics with a Focus on the Future [Archives:2000/52/Focus]

Part 2 of 2 
Dr. Mohamed A. Qubaty
Professor of Surgery, 
Sana’a University, 
Advisor for the Presidium of the Yemeni Parliament
Funding education is a problem faced by all societies, but Yemen is not only a poor country, it is also the first in the world as regards the rate of increase in population. It is a fact that the population explosion in Yemen is the main cause of the problem of funding education in our country. If the situation remains as it is, education, health and housing will not be the only victims but the whole Yemeni people will suffer from more poverty year after year.
The work for reforming and developing education in all its aspects, branches and dimensions must be the first item on the agenda of decision-makers in Yemen. Future education systems in Yemen must include the following:
¥ Getting rid of the existing means of education, which are based on rote learning, and replacing them with methods aiming at developing analytical, creative and research capabilities among students.
¥ Paying special attention to teaching students how to exercise self-education and using the basic resources available to obtain knowledge, including the multi-dimensional media of information and the internet.
¥ There must be an emphasis on the concept of comprehensive education as it includes intermarriage of specialties and reorganization of universities and research centers in a manner allowing such intermarriage in a short time.
¥ Benefiting from modern technology in education process and interacting with the intellectual outcomes which they yield.
¥ Re-consideration of the relationship between the institutions of public education (universities and schools) and other education institutions, because in the technological revolution, information and the multi-media technology have become a parallel school with an ever-increasing role in the education process.
¥ Reconsideration of the concept of illiteracy eradication so that it would not be confined to reading and writing but also to cover the idea of eradicating computer illiteracy and teaching the basics of information literacy.
¥ Establishing Centers of Excellence, i.e. research units of a high level capable of following up the technological developments and comprehending their results.
¥ Adoption of a policy of continuous education which necessitates flexibility in all institutions of public education.
¥ Helping students to form their own viewpoints concerning various issues and problems and to develop the skills of criticizing thinking.
¥ Giving particular attention to the resources of education, especially regarding quality, modernization and variety and facilitating their acquisition.
¥ Giving broad opportunity for optional studies and diversification of educational activities, taking them as a basis for developing students’ tendencies.
¥ Re-training and rehabilitation of teachers and maintaining training during service to update their knowledge and abilities.
¥ More linkage between education and the local community and encouragement of education decentralization.
¥ Rendering due care to Yemenis living abroad and those coming back home, and benefitting from them and effecting essential changes in teaching live foreign languages, in addition to increasing scholarships for studying abroad in fields of applied sciences.
¥ Revising some existing educational concepts in the light of scientific and technological developments.
Coming out with a comprehensive strategy aimed at reforming and developing education could not be achieved except by assigning a higher supervising commission to set up a committee of experts to undertake preparation of studies and researches required for rescuing education from its present dilemma. It would also have to explore the real dimensions of the tasks that must be fulfilled in order to find a remedy to all the defects that are threatening the educational system in Yemen, in order to keep in pace with developmental requirements and the rapid changes of the world of the 21st century.
Some of the proposed outlines may be:
¥ Regarding objectives: Education in Yemen must work for upgrading the level of capabilities (i.e. developing human intelligence abilities)
¥ Regarding curriculum: Concepts of dialogue education should be adopted and the student participation in acquiring knowledge.
¥ Regarding content: The education process should be characterized by flexibility, renewal and ability to comprehend new knowledge.
¥ Regarding scope: education should be spacious enough to include adult education in a direct and intensified form, and to stress the importance of tackling the problem of girls’ leakage from the education system, a matter having a considerable negative impact on the aspects and potentials of sustainable development in Yemen in general.
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