Some Examples Of Under- Or Over-Emphasis On Education (Essay Sample)

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Introduction
Education is a very essential factor that determines individual’s income, health as well as their capacity to interact with others regardless of the zone they come from. The overall policy of many Nations in the world is to provide every Child the right to education and training no matter their socio-economic status. But what is education?
The word education has no fixed essential meaning. According to Peters it is a complex, evolving concept that is shaped by the norms prevailing at a given time and a given place. For administrative reasons, education is often described according to the institutions or organizations that do provide it (Peters, 2010’ p2). This paper therefore looks at education in these dimensions, focusing on the Middles East and North Africa Countries (MENA) who shares a common identity formulation features; Islam as their main region and Arabic as the common language but differ in ethnicity, history and tradition. In particular, the paper aims at outlining some of the examples of under or over emphasis on education as it relates to developmental goals in MENA region.
Why emphasize education
Education plays a crucial role in promoting poverty alleviation and economic growth, both at national and at household levels Peters says (Peters, 2010, p3). It reflects the aspirations of the people for a successful integration into the global economy in an ever changing world. As a result therefore, human capital creation has been receiving increased attention from policy makers and scholars as the look forward to promote economic development in the region. Models of endogenous economic growth stress the importance of investment in knowledge, including basic education, as a critical factor in economic expansion. As a result specialists in the region have long argued that education should form a principal component in any development strategy of the countries.
Under or over emphasis on education in MENA
It is true to say there is a gap between the regions’ needs to achieve its developmental objectives and the output of the education process/system (World Bank, 2013, p55). For instance, the education system has been producing more graduates in humanities than in sciences. As a result therefore, the region have over emphasized reforms that focus on too much in engineering education and too little on motivating the actors involved. This therefore is a threat to the region’s future competitiveness among the other nations.
Secondly, the under emphasis on the quality of education in many of the countries in this region has affected the quality of the graduates from the area. According to the World Bank (World Bank, 2013, p66) students from these regions scores lower compared to other regions of the world on international standards. For instance, in 2007 the trends in International Mathematics and Science study students from this region scored poorly compared to other regions with similar per capita levels. Malaysian student’s scores on average in Mathematics and science were 474 and 471 while the Egyptians were 391 and 408 respectively. This element is mainly caused by the policies the political wing have put in place. For instance, Melani and others are of the view that much of the money spend on education goes to the salaries of the administrators and teachers while little or none is left to invest in books, equipments, and any other required educational material (Melani Cammett, 2015). In addition, Akkari acknowledges that the desire for formal education has been increasing and imposing pressure on the existing school facilities. Sometimes double and triple shifts are used to try to ease the pressure. This has affected the quality of education as the teachers are overworked (Akkari, 2004).
Thirdly, equity in education has been under emphasized (Gender, class and rural/urban biases) thus widening the gap between the rich and the poor, the rural/Urban children enrollment in schools, and the boys verses girls enrollment. This has been caused by poor educational allocation decisions made by the leaders. For instance, in Morocco children from high income families are two times likely to be enrolled in school as children from low income families. Again, in Egypt and Yemen enrollment in rural areas are still low compared to urban centers. However, according to Zaimeche some countries like Tunisia have achieved a big milestone in decreasing the gap of gender disparity. He says the Tunisian government adopted at a early stage, 1956, the most progressive polices in the Arab world towards women and as a result it has gained/achieved a lot regarding gender inequalities (Zaimeche, 1994, vol 33(4)).
Fourth, reluctance to ensure laid down strategies/polices in education are adheres to. For instance, the Egyptian government goal in 1985 was to provide p...