Map 12. Sociodemographic Domain Index Stratified by Rural-Urban Continuum Codes by County, 2000-2005*
1. Conceptual and measurement framework
Education is a human right and a vehicle to help individuals, and by extension societies, achieve better outcomes of well-being and human development. Education is also an effective driver of social change and a means for
reducing inequalities and providing people with opportunities for a better future. More
importantly, education enhances people’s autonomy and strengthens their freedoms and capabilities, thus allowing them to have more control over their lives and modes of self- expression and self-affirmation.
In the Arab region, compulsory education has had a marked impact in the last few decades and basic education is now widespread.11 In particular, literacy indicators have improved significantly among young people in the region.
When scratching below the surface, however, one finds that improved educational outcomes have had only a limited effect on upward mobility. Researchers have also noted that secondary education attainment in the Arab region remains far below global averages and that problems such as truancy and incomplete schooling are common.12
Although equality of terms of access to education among rich and poor members of society has improved dramatically in most Arab
11 ESCWA, Rethinking Inequality in Arab Countries (2019). Available at www.unescwa.org/publications/rethinking-inequality-arab- countries.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 ESCWA, Social Development Report 2: Inequality, Autonomy and Change in the Arab Region (2018). Available at archive.unescwa.org/sites/www.unescwa.org/files/publications/files/social-development-report-2-english_1.pdf.
15 Ibid.
countries in the past two decades,13 inequality in terms of opportunity remains high and is likely to have increased. This so-called Arab
educational inequality puzzle is compounded by inadequate progress in terms of improving the quality of education, which is crucial if we are to accelerate sociopolitical emancipation and ensure that people have the skills they need to find decent employment. In more than one report, the Economic and Social Council for Western Asia (ESCWA) has warned that, despite hard-earned improvements in terms of bridging gaps between rich and poor households in accessing basic education, educational quality has not improved. The reasons for that quality gap are varied but one root cause is that education systems in the Arab region are typically a form of indoctrination and focus on obedience to authority within a well-anchored patriarchal system.14 Conservatism and an emphasis on conformity characterize learning environments for most children and young people in the Arab region whereas rebellious and non-conformist behaviour is viewed extremely negatively and is liable to be punished.15
Inclusive and emancipatory high-quality education is strongly correlated with social justice and is a major impetus for ensuring that
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people are not left behind. The number of years of schooling is, however, no longer an adequate measure of people’s achievements in education, and attendance at school for many years no longer guarantees a secure future, as many students fail to learn the key foundational skills and knowledge need for success in the labour market. In fact, the number of years of schooling may have no impact on people’s autonomy and their employment options. The same holds true from a capability perspective, whereby
improvements in agency depend to a
considerable extent on an individual not feeling trapped and on enjoying basic freedoms so that he or she can make informed career choices and pursue their professional ambitions.
Assessing education from a capability approach shifts the focus onto individuals and their capacity to enhance their skills and job prospects. The overarching objective of education should be to empower individuals and strengthen those capacities. Being able to pursue and obtain an education and decide what to do with the skills learned is thus directly related to one’s agency. It follows that the sense of empowerment provided by education is a major factor that enhances people’s capacity to pursue their chosen careers.
Education, as a social good, is thus organically linked to the issue of quality; it is through better education – and not just education per se – that people are able to achieve their goals in life. As a human right, education enhances personal freedom and leads to social and political emancipation. It is therefore crucial to measure the outcomes and impact of education from a dynamic and proactive perspective, rather than to merely consider individuals’ years of
schooling.
Social policies must aim to establish and sustain the necessary conditions for people to exercise their freedom to achieve educational outcomes worthy of their capabilities and serving their desired goals. Choosing such a path for education requires transforming the way the Governments in the Arab region view the education system: instead of seeing the education system as a means of indoctrination and a way to instill obedience, they must see it as a means of emancipation that promotes creativity and innovation.
There are two ways to measure the quality of education. One is based on input indicators and looks at structural interventions aiming at increasing capacity within the education system.
The other focuses on educational outputs based on an evaluation of these interventions on learning achievements. Consistent with the approach adopted in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) human development index (HDI), we focus on outputs, which are inferred using countries’ relative performance as measured by the World Bank Human Capital Project harmonized test scores.
The advantage of those test scores is that they are standardized in the sense that they compare learning capabilities across countries using the same yardstick. The tests measure learning outcomes in one or more of the following three dimensions: (a) Reading and language
proficiency; (b) Mathematics and numeracy proficiency; and (c) Scientific knowledge and understanding.
The tests are designed and implemented in ways that reflect educational achievements at the national level. That is not always the case however. For example, the tests could be taken by a non-random sample of students, typically
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from capital cities and private schools. That would result in an upward bias in the test scores and a false reflection of the quality of schooling and/or the stock of accumulated knowledge at the national level.
Another limitation of these tests is that they do not capture all aspects of the quality of education. More precisely, good quality
education should provide students with the key attributes that they will need in their lives and in the labour market, rather than focusing on the “usual academic goals”. Such attributes, including creativity, leadership and courage, are not measured by standardized tests.16 Furthermore, educational disparities may be exacerbated if the tests do not meet the needs of particular groups. For example, many people consider certain academic tests to be
discriminatory for several reasons, including:
the ability of wealthier people to afford private tutors, the fact that wealthier children may be able to take the tests multiple times,17 and the racial bias represented by the black-white score gap.18 For these reasons, it could be argued that another (more comprehensive) measure could provide a more accurate overview of the quality of education. However, the comparability of test scores across countries and good country coverage makes it difficult to find a better indicator.
16 Philip Harris, Joan Harris, and Bruce Smith, “Standardized Tests Do Not Effectively Measure Student Achievement”, Standardized Testing, Dedria Bryfonski, ed. (Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012).
17 Varun Saraswathula, “Racial discrimination in the standardized testing system”, The Daily Pennsylvanian, 3 June 2020. Available at www.thedp.com/article/2020/06/sat-act-racial-discrimination-testing-college-admissions-black-white-education.
18 The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, “What Explains White-Black Differences in Average Test Scores?
Using fine-grained data to understand a stubborn problem”. Available at edopportunity.org/discoveries/white-black-differences- scores/.
19 For further information on the construction of a citation index, see Jonathan Adams and others, Global Research Report: Middle East, Exploring the Change Landscape of Arabian, Persian and Turkish Research (Thomson Reuters, February 2011). Available at www.knowledge4all.com/Temp/Files/2c64f2c2-7ab6-4355-8ad5-147d1fb3b981.pdf.
20 For further information on harmonized test scores, please refer to annex 1 of the present report.
As a correlation variable, we use another measure for the quality of higher education, namely the number of scientific articles published annually. This quantifies how knowledge is used in the generation of new ideas. The downside of that measure is that it is quantity oriented, and does not perfectly capture the quality of the articles published or their scientific value. One way to address that drawback is to supplement the number of publications with an indicator of the number of citations. The latter can be derived from information contained in scientific journal databases and provides a citation score for each country that can then be compared with a global benchmark.19
Finally, we also examine input factors that are directly under the influence of policymakers and which influence education quality. One such factor is the ratio of the number of students to the total number of teachers (inverted). A higher ratio indicates that the education system is better able to deliver a high-quality education to students.
The quality-adjusted education index is formulated in two steps. Firstly, a quality of education adjustment ratio is calculated by dividing country scores on harmonized international student achievement tests designed as part of multi-country testing
programmes20 by the maximum observed score.
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Secondly, the education index, as calculated within the context of the human development index (HDI), is multiplied by that adjustment ratio:
Quality-adjusted education index = education index x Quality of education adjustment ratio As mentioned above, to interpret the results, we look at input measures that are known to affect quality of education, including the pupil-teacher ratio in primary education. We also correlate the results with another indicator of the quality of knowledge, namely the number of articles
published in the following fields: physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, clinical medicine,
biomedical research, engineering and technology, and earth and space sciences (per 1,000 people).
Both measures are transformed into indices using the standard min-max formula.
Test score data is taken from the dataset contained in Patrinos and Angrist (2018),21
which harmonizes test scores from a number of testing programmes, including: Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ), Program of Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC), Latin American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE) and the Early Grade Reading
Assessment (EGRA). Additionally, scores from the Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA) and non-nationally- representative Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRANR) are taken into consideration. The number of publications per 1,000 people is obtained from World Development Indicators database for the years 2010 and 2016. The education index is compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) within the context of the human
development index (HDI).22
21 Harry Patrinos and Noam Angrist, “Global Dataset on Education Quality: A Review and Update (2000–2017)”, Policy Research Working Paper, No. 8592 (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2018). Available at
documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/390321538076747773/pdf/WPS8592.pdf.
22 UNDP, Human Development Report 2020.
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