Kingdom inches closer to global knowledge average

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 62nd worldwide and 2nd in the Arab region at the Global Knowledge Index, released by United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) regional office at the Knowledge Forum held in Amman on Sunday. 

Highlighting the strategic role of knowledge and the importance of developing “objective and scientific tools” to evaluate it, the index analyses 131 countries in terms of the status of their pre-university education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), higher education, research, development and innovation (RDI), information and communication technology (ICT) and economy, in addition to a seventh pillar on the nation’s general enabling environment. 

Launched in partnership with Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF), the index concluded that the Kingdom is slightly beyond the global average level of knowledge, with improvements noticed in the sectors of higher education, economy and ICTs. 

“Jordan was able to improve its ranking over the past year to become the second leader in the region by enhancing many of the assessed criteria,” Higher Education Minister Adel Tweisi told The Jordan Times in a recent interview, attributing the Kingdom’s performance to the implementation of measures in the governance and accountability of universities.. 

In addition, Tweisi highlighted the “input criteria related to the number of students admitted per programme and the gradual decrease in admissions on unemployable specialisations”, noting that such measures have “led to the improvement of higher education across Jordan”.

However, Jordan’s performance was not as positive in the areas of pre-university education, RDI and TVET, ranking below the global average in these fields.

“The results achieved by Jordan reflect the Kingdom’s keenness to persevere in the achievement of advanced positions in all areas of the index,” Education Minister Omar Razzaz said in a speech during the recent Knowledge Forum, stressing that “the trained and qualified manpower is the real wealth of a nation”.

Meanwhile, Director of the Arab Knowledge Project at UNDP Hani Turki noted that “despite the achievements made on the way to progress, previous reports have shown that the Arab region is suffering from a double knowledge gap, one that separates our countries from the developed world, combined with a second internal gap between the Arab nations themselves”.

“The progress achieved by several Arab countries in the area of knowledge development is still lacking the required ambition,” Turki added, calling for more efforts for “the improvement of the position of the Arab region in the worldwide picture”.

The Global Knowledge Index was launched during the Knowledge Summit 2016 to highlight the strategic role of knowledge and the importance of developing objective and scientific tools to measure and evaluate knowledge.

The GKI aims at measuring knowledge as a broad concept that is intricately related to all aspects of modern human life in a systematic approach that builds on solid conceptual and methodological principles.