In Kuwait, Higher Education Returns Are Lower

Even if they are not easily noticeable, the practical and intangible benefits that a good quality education provides to people and the state in the form of expanded human capital are countless. The lack of excellent education, on the other hand, is more obvious; all one needs to do is look around.

Many surveys and informative studies have been published in Kuwait on the substandard quality of education delivered and the low level of outcomes produced, but it has all been for nought. Poor results have been observed at all levels of education, from basic school to higher education. According to the latest numbers from the World Bank's Human Capital Project on Kuwait, more than half of Kuwaiti children under the age of ten are unable to read and comprehend a short, age-appropriate text. The 62 percent pre-primary enrolment rate among 3-5-year-olds is lower than the 83 percent average in many high-income nations.

Kuwait, a leader of the World Bank's Human Capital Project, is ranked 77th out of 157 nations, which is low when compared to countries with similar income levels. Kuwait, according to the World Bank research, has quality disparities in education results, skills, and human capital, trailing behind many other high-income nations in terms of human capital richness. According to World Bank data, human capital accounted for just around 24% of overall income production in Kuwait in 2018. Human capital was 56 percent in Australia and Italy, 64 percent in Germany, 71 percent in the United Kingdom, 72 percent in Canada, and 78 percent in the United States.

Kuwait also ranked 103rd out of 140 economies in the quality of its primary education, as well as 88th in the overall quality of higher education and training, 99th in mathematics and science education, and 86th in school management, according to the World Economic Forum's "The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016." Kuwait was placed 84th in terms of staff training, 81st in terms of internet connectivity in schools, and 112th in terms of specialized training services.

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) — which conducts the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) — found Kuwait and the region in yet another indictment of Kuwait's education system and its outcomes.

Kuwait's education expenditures as a proportion of GDP were 6.6 percent in 2020, the highest among the GCC states (which spent an average of 4.8 percent of GDP on education). Surprisingly, the nations in the area that spend the most on education in terms of GDP scored the lowest in terms of TIMSS results. In 2019, the average TIMSS score for 8th-grade pupils in mathematics and science was 394-433 for Saudi Arabia, 403-444 for Kuwait, and 411-457 for Oman, among the three nations that spend more of their GDP on education than the regional average.

Qatar scored 443-475 among the three states that spend less of their GDP on education than the regional average, followed by the UAE (473-473), and Bahrain (481-486). Singapore, which topped the TIMSS rankings in 2019 with scores of 616 and 608 in mathematics and science, respectively, spent only 2.6 percent of its GDP on education in 2019.

The disparity between expenditure and outcomes indicates that reasons other than resources are at play in Kuwait's poor academic performance and that these variables must be thoroughly investigated if we are to improve educational outcomes in the future. Surprisingly, approximately 70% of Kuwait's education budget is set aside to pay administrative expenditures, with just 30% dedicated to the educational process.

The education imparted and outcomes gained at these institutions were 'disappointing,' according to a survey study on 260 public and private schools in Kuwait issued by the country's ministry of education in January of this year. The poll results garnered extensive attention in the media and were met with criticism from a number of civil society organizations concerned about the state of education. They called for more public awareness of the country's education crisis and asked authorities to take immediate action to solve the problem.

We had remarked in an editorial at the time that the issue was not one of the governments being oblivious of the country's appalling level of education. It was an example of legislators' incapacity, and to some degree, reluctance, to make the fundamental adjustments needed to overhaul the educational process. Part of the blame for the country's poor educational standards also falls on the administration and parliament, who have persistently placed a low emphasis on education, despite several complaints raised on the floor of the National Assembly.

The crucial decisions on education in Kuwait's highly centralized education system, where the Ministry of Education has overarching responsibility for educational processes and outcomes are made by a small group of people, including assistant undersecretaries, district heads, managers, and supervisors. The six education districts in the nation are led by district chiefs who are in charge of teacher distribution, student evaluation, and local administration, among other things.

Accusations of corruption, inefficiency, and ineptness might arise due to a lack of efficient monitoring and evaluation of these people's performance. In order to obtain better outcomes, as shown by a recent TIMSS research on Kuwait, we may need to build a closer link between policy design and operational execution. A stronger relationship would aid in achieving a balance between the centralization and decentralization of various parts of the education and school system, as well as, perhaps, a shift in views about school assessment and evaluation in the country.

If the authorities needed any more prodding to wake up and treat education as a priority problem, it came in the form of a new study released recently, this time on the country's higher education quality. The renowned Kuwait University (KU) was ranked in the 1001 to 1200 category in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) annual ranking of world universities for the year 2022, out of a total of 1,300 universities evaluated.

Furthermore, the QS rankings show that KU is rated poorly not only globally, but also regionally among Arab states, with the institution falling from 19th place in 2019 to 27th place in 2022. Many of the nations that rated higher than Kuwait in this year's ranking lack even a fraction of Kuwait's financial and infrastructure resources. The low rating of KU emphasizes that it is not a lack of finance or facilities that prevents high-quality education from being delivered.

Despite having one of the largest budgets among state entities, at around KD560 million per year, and having recently spent close to KD3 billion on a new state-of-the-art university campus at the Sabah Al-Salem University City in Shadadiyah — billed as one of the world's largest academic campuses — the university has been unable to stem the steady erosion in academic outcomes over the years. The dismal performance in QS and other international rankings throughout the years may be symptomatic of the underlying lethargy and inefficiency that has crept into these once prestigious halls.

Kuwait University, which was founded in 1966 and drew college-level students from all around the area far into the 1980s, was seen as a beacon of higher education. KU has evolved into a multi-faculty institution of higher education with 16 colleges providing 92 undergraduate and 89 graduate programs in the decades since its founding. The university's enrollment has increased from approximately 400 students in its early years to over 38,000 presently; professor numbers have increased from 31 to over 1,600, and administrative and academic support personnel numbers have increased from 200 to over 5,000. Regrettably, the university's academic output has not kept up with fast advances in facilities, course offerings, and faculty strength.

Prominent Kuwaiti author and associate professor of English and comparative literature at Kuwait University, Mai Al-Nakib, notes that Kuwait University's sharp drop in the QS World University Rankings for 2022 is no surprise in a scathing commentary on the country's higher education quality, published in World Literature Today and titled: "In Ruins: Reflections beyond Kuwait." "Many of the college students I teach are unable to read, write, or think critically," she says. The majority of students enrol in the Department of English Language and Literature because public-sector jobs pay well for English-language speakers. Apathy, a lack of engagement with concepts, and a desire to be rewarded with excellent scores without work are all obvious."

"Kuwaiti university students are paid the equivalent of $660 a month just for enrolling, regardless of merit; money rather than knowledge is the main motivator for many young people to attend university, which is free and has low acceptance requirements," writes Al-Nakib. She goes on to say that "parliament members who intervene in the institution, as well as managers who do not want to deal with parliament, urge Kuwait University academics to inflate marks."

We can vouch for the transactional character of grading in higher education, and even earlier, at the school level, between those instructing and those being taught, based on anecdotal and first-hand experience from the past, as Professor Al-Nakib attests. Teachers, assistants, laboratory guides, and other academic support workers having direct access to change or affect grading have been lured or blackmailed with various inducements, especially if they are expatriates. The tempting offers vary from cash to a driver's license or a visa for a family in exchange for assisting with ward grading adjustments.

"Education constitutes the base and the fabric in which a community is altered and diverse dimensions of well-being are developed," according to a recent UNESCO report on corruption in higher academic institutions. Higher education corruption has a more harmful impact because it weakens the link between personal work and anticipated reward. Furthermore, employees and students learn the concept that personal achievement comes through canvassing professors and using other shortcuts rather than hard effort and merit."

Professor Al-Nakib closes her essay by stating that hundreds of good papers on education in Kuwait have been prepared by local and foreign professionals over decades, all to no result. "The unwavering regularity with which these research and ideas are dismissed demonstrates that their omission is not an accident. Kuwait's authorities, parliamentarians, and parents have made the decision to keep education standards as low as possible in the hopes of not rocking the boat. Future ruins, on the other hand, will disclose the exact reverse. We were driven to our knees by the abolition of education."

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