Is education more important than teaching?
There is a fundamental difference between education and schooling. Schooling is typically associated with textbooks, curricula, examinations, and certificates, whereas education is a continuous process aimed at building the individual, expanding their awareness, and developing their capacity for critical thinking, analysis, decision-making, and engagement with life. Students may succeed in schooling and achieve the highest grades, yet they do not become true learners if they lack scientific curiosity, general cultural knowledge, the ability to engage in dialogue, and problem-solving skills.
This distinction also highlights the difference between education and teaching. Teaching is the organized transmission of information and skills within classrooms, lecture halls, or educational institutions. Education, on the other hand, is the lasting impact that remains after the lecture ends; it is the transformation in a student’s way of thinking, their perception of themselves, their community, and the world. The modern university should not merely be a place for receiving information, but a space for research, discussion, experimentation, and creativity. It is an institution that prepares citizens to participate in development, contribute to decision-making, and engage consciously with economic, technological, and social transformations.
Systematic education in the State of Kuwait began from a popular will that recognized early on that knowledge is the foundation of progress. The establishment of Al-Mubarakiya School in the early twentieth century marked a pivotal transition from traditional modes of learning to organized education. Subsequently, schools, scholarships, and academic institutions expanded, making education a cornerstone in building the modern state. However, honoring these beginnings does not mean resting on past achievements, but rather continuing development and maintaining continuous channels with the modern world. Today, knowledge transcends borders, and prestigious universities no longer operate as isolated islands; they are connected to global research networks, laboratories, companies, professional institutions, and innovation centers.
Therefore, the State of Kuwait is keen on expanding international academic partnerships, exchanging students and faculty, hosting joint programs, and aligning curricula with artificial intelligence, the digital economy, and creative industries, while preserving national identity, the Arabic language, and social values. Conscious openness does not mean imitation; it means selecting the best global experiences and adapting them to suit the state’s needs and the aspirations of its people.
Global experiences demonstrate that true education has the power to change a nation’s future. South Korea offers a successful example: it made education, scientific research, and technical training fundamental pillars of its development project, linking universities with industrial institutions and innovation centers. Within decades, it transformed from a resource-limited country into a global powerhouse in technology, industry, and the knowledge economy. This was not achieved through the proliferation of certificates or rote learning, but by building an educational system that respects knowledge, supports creativity, and assigns genuine value to competence.
Kuwait can develop its own model by transforming universities into engines of development, encouraging research linked to national challenges, involving the private sector in designing academic and training programs, and measuring educational quality by graduates’ ability to think, produce, and innovate, rather than merely by their capacity to memorize course material. Prestigious educational institutions should become partners in shaping the future, not just entities that award degrees. The shift from the concept of schooling to that of education is a transition from waiting for a job to creating opportunities, and from consuming knowledge to producing it.
The State of Kuwait possesses the human, financial, and cultural-historical capacities to achieve this transition. With a clear vision, courageous educational leadership, and balanced openness to the world, its classrooms can become the starting point for a generation that is more confident and innovative—a generation that builds a diversified economy, a cohesive society, and a future worthy of the aspirations of the State of Kuwait and its people, who love progress and achievement.
Stay well,
Dr. Ghadeer Mohammed Al-Asiri
