In an editorial in this newspaper a couple of days ago, much was said about the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) report on education, a 399-page document aptly labeled “The Road Not Traveled”. The editorial focused on the findings in the report that stated what many of us have been saying for quite sometime now. We all know the system of education in this country has been failing the needs of the young.

With the Middle East and North African countries having a larger percentage of people under 18 than any other region on earth, World Bank officials stated that it was clear that education would play a critical role in preparing young people in the Middle East for the changing demands of the future.

While I do not have any particular issues with the editorial, it seemed to me it did not go far enough to ask what our Ministry of Education officials have been doing for the past two or three decades to warrant such a pathetic score card in an assessment by a world body.

While there were significant attempts by Arab countries in the 1960s and 1970s to improve education, more recent investment in quality education has failed. With the result that the economy has failed to generate enough jobs for new workers with few marketable skills.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Marwan Musher, a World Bank senior vice president stated, “There is a pressing need within the region to redirect educational approaches across all stages and all forms to educate students on how to think and not what to think.”

“Education systems do not support adequately the development by girls and boys of analytical skills, problem-solving skills, critical thinking and innovation,” he said.

And this is not something we have been saying or hearing for the first time.

It is no secret that our high school and college graduates possess very few marketable skills and are woefully short on basics such as composing a simple letter in Arabic or English.

Deprived of critical thinking processes, problem-solving skills, and complex communications styles necessary for competent performance in the global market, these kids just have no chance. And who deserves to take the accolades for that?

Not the children for they have no say in the matter. And not their parents either. For they have been expected to silently put up with whatever had been dished out all these years. It then remains for our Education Ministry officials to hold their hands high and own up to this sorry state of affairs.

We have been hearing of remarkable achievements over the past couple of decades in press releases put out by our officials of high numbers of schools opened, and an even higher number of graduates. But somewhere along the line, they have failed to notice that it is not numbers but quality that makes or breaks young minds.

What now that our failures have been identified? Do our officials continue pretending that such reports do not exist? Or that such findings are a conspiracy by the Western media to humiliate our “special” society with its “special” style of teaching? Or do our Education Ministry officials own up to past failures and begin the right motivation to change the behavior of teachers and school principals that participate in educational activities, including an overhaul of their current curriculum which has failed to produce significant results other than passing grades.

As the report states, schools need to become more flexible and able to respond to the rapidly changing needs of the job market.

For this to happen, accountability and review of performance of officials at the Education Ministry should take place to ensure positive changes without confounding us with more statistics. And not after 20 more years either! Schools should be allowed the freedom to implement the means and pursue education the way it was meant to be — in an institution of learning, and not one of memorization.