Literacy, Reading, and Numeracy Are the Primary Goals of Education

When I read or hear about the Ministry of Education’s plans to integrate artificial intelligence into the curriculum, I wonder: What is the level of our students in reading, writing, and arithmetic? These skills are the most important and essential for students. When students began their studies at “Al-Mubarakiya School” in 1911, these were the core competencies required, and they remain so for students who started the current academic year in September. I believe there is an escape from our responsibility to ensure students master reading, science, and mathematics, shifting the focus instead to their use of “artificial intelligence.” It must be remembered that any strategy for reforming healthcare, developing education, or improving transportation must be designed by an entity independent of the implementing body. Furthermore, an institution or authority must be established to monitor and measure the extent of achievements realized, in order to guide the implementing body to either correct its course or proceed effectively. Developing a strategy for a ministry is no different from developing one for a company or bank; in companies and banks, there is a board of directors whose daily responsibility is not the management of these entities, but rather focusing on strategy development and monitoring overall performance. Typically, there is an independent department that reports to the board to monitor the implementation of these strategies.

The step taken by the Public Authority for Investment in forming a new board of directors for Kuwait Airways, including three foreign experts, was a step in the right direction to revitalize the company. This new board’s primary responsibility will be to develop a new strategy for Kuwait Airways. They may hire consulting firms to prepare this strategy, but the development of these strategies will fall under the vision and plans set by the new board of directors. I believe education is akin to Kuwait Airways when predicting Kuwait’s future; thus, I envision it would be more beneficial to enlist expertise to develop a strategy for improving education in Kuwait. This strategy should not be formulated by education workers; just as Kuwait Airways’ strategy will be developed by a recently appointed board of directors, education requires an entity independent of the ministry to bear the responsibility of developing its strategy. The minister, meanwhile, is the leader responsible for executing this strategy, just as the General Manager or CEO of Kuwait Airways is the executive leader of the board’s strategy. However, there is no board of directors in the Ministry of Education. What is the solution? There used to be a “Supreme Council for Education” and a “National Agency for Education Development.” The Council was expected to formulate the strategy, and the National Agency was to monitor its performance, but both were dissolved or abolished by Minister Engineer Syed Jalal Al-Tabtabaei. They were dissolved at a time when stakeholders and observers of the educational process expected them to be upgraded—meaning the head of the Supreme Council for Education should hold a state rank higher than that of the minister, such as the Prime Minister, to ensure the continuity and comprehensiveness of the strategy and to remove obstacles to its implementation. Therefore, observers interested in educational development are shocked by the decision to abolish the Supreme Council for Education and the National Agency for Education Development.

Over the past ten years, I have published more than twenty articles addressing readers and officials at the Ministry of Education regarding educational reform. I recall some of their titles, but the most important one was titled: “Educational Reform is a National Strategy, Not a Ministry Strategy.” This is what Gulf countries have realized in recent years; they have established quasi-supreme councils for education, chaired either by the Prime Minister or reporting to the Crown Prince’s office. Bahrain has become a pioneer in this field, taking radical steps to develop teacher capabilities by establishing a Teachers College in collaboration with the Singaporean government, and appointing a foreign education expert as its president. I visited it with a team of education stakeholders from Kuwait, and we were impressed by the level of students in this college, which sets stringent admission criteria, competing with those required for medical school. Although the college graduates only 300 students annually, there is a continuous program to develop the capabilities of teachers who graduated before the college’s establishment. Development requires teachers to commit to attending training programs and passing exams to assess their qualification, with financial incentives offered to teachers who choose to develop themselves. It is worth noting that admission to the Teachers College qualifies the student for a relatively high annual financial award to encourage them until graduation. The establishment of the Teachers College in Bahrain is considered one of the most important steps taken by this state to reform its education.

For a state to accomplish a major task such as educational reform, this process must have a clear objective. Educational reform primarily aims to raise students’ academic achievement levels. Therefore, the Ministry of Education’s statement that it has completed 80% of the educational reform process is imprecise; this process must be accompanied by tools or mechanisms to measure the impact of this achievement on students’ academic levels, especially since the history of Kuwaiti students’ participation in international tests in reading, science, and mathematics is not promising. However, facing this reality is better than burying our heads in the sand and succumbing to the illusion that our education is fine. In the latest TIMSS exams, in which Kuwaiti students participated in science and mathematics in 2023, the results were embarrassing. We are a country that spends billions of dollars on education, yet our students’ results do not match what the state spends on them. We must acknowledge that most expenditures go toward an “administrative structure” within the ministry, which itself needs reform. Moreover, as the Minister himself admitted, there are more than 20,000 Kuwaiti teachers teaching religion and physical education, whom the ministry does not need. Meanwhile, facing a shortage of mathematics and Arabic language teachers, the ministry is relinquishing the services of many non-Kuwaiti teachers in these subjects!

When we discuss the performance of Kuwaiti students in TIMSS exams, we do not aspire for them to reach the level of students in Singapore or South Korea, whose scores approach 580 points. Rather, we aspire for them to reach the level of Bahraini students, whose average is close to 460 (which is near the international average of approximately 495). Kuwaiti students’ results in the 2023 exams were around 380 points in science and mathematics, which is about 100 points lower than Bahrain’s.

In conclusion, we appreciate the efforts made by those in charge of the Ministry of Education, but we must still be honest with them. Educational reform has an objective, and its goal is to raise students’ academic achievement levels. There must be a mechanism to measure the impact of educational reform achievements on students’ academic levels. The objective of education—since the establishment of “Al-Mubarakiya School” in 1911—has not changed: it is to ensure students are proficient in reading, writing, science, and arithmetic or mathematics. Let us postpone for a moment their empowerment in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity systems.

Dr. Hamed Al-Humoud