‘Educational reform key to Arab youth employment’

AMMAN — To reduce unemployment among young Arabs, schools and universities should teach critical thinking, women should be encouraged to join the workforce, and governments should ease regulations for start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), panellists said at a World Economic Forum (WEF) session on Friday.

Speaking at the session, titled “Youth Imperative”, Aramex International Founder and Vice Chairman Fadi Ghandour said: “Youth is the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity in the region,” according to a WEF statement.

He emphasised that the main function of the educational system in the Arab world is “still to produce people who work in the public sector.

“In our region, we are so caught up with getting the degree but are not teaching youths how to think,” noted Omar K. Alghanim, CEO of Alghanim Industries. 

“Across the Gulf, there is no teacher proficiency. We have a lot of desks, a lot of school buildings and a lot of teachers, but we don’t have a lot of quality,” he said.

For Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, the need to overhaul the educational system is imperative and the collective responsibility of parents, governments, the private sector and civil society, the statement said. 

“We need to first invest in people, then in infrastructure,” Qasimi said.

Compounding the problem is that young women are not joining the workforce, with female unemployment at 44 per cent, almost double that of their male counterparts in the region, although more than half of university graduates are women, the statement said. 

“We need to change perceived gender roles in our society... We need to have more legislation that supports women, such as maternity leave and shared parental responsibility,” Qasimi added.