An education system should not merely facilitate a process where students are taught the alphabets and how to read and calculate. But its focus should be to educate and direct the learner’s behavior and to build in them the future vision to lead their country. Moreover it's the hallmark of a sound developmental process.
The first and foremost difference between the advanced and the developing countries is the level of education they present.  It's not an exaggeration to consider a successful educational system as the best choice to enlighten the any generation. 

 It’s obvious that the number of literate and educated people before the revolution was limited and could be counted by the hundreds compared to the hundred thousand graduates nowadays.   In order to evaluate the outcome of the educational system we should evaluate the quality of graduates as well as their quantity.  Did you know that some of primary school students are illiterate while some graduates of secondary school can’t read the Holy Qura’an correctly and do not know the basics of mathematics?  These graduates are only joining the queues of new phenomena I call, veiled illiteracy.  

 What's the reason for such a shameful fiasco and frustrating outcomes? It's not because the Yemeni students are stupid and lazy but "As you sow, so you reap" and as we offer, so we get. How do we expect to enhance the level of understanding and education when 200 students are crammed in a classroom?  Moreover how do students learn effectively when basic facilities such as labs are unavailable and unequipped?  Sometimes you may find schools where the average number of students in a class is fifty, but sadly, they don’t have chairs to sit on, and no textbooks to read.  The expected result is the early leaking of unprepared students from schools, and the consequent rise of veiled illiteracy.                                                                           

Then what about the syllabus and the teachers who are the brain builders and the inspirers of the students? Well, the fact is most of them lack the competence and/or confidence to teach.  Many teachers need a lot of training and qualifications.  Can we blame the teachers then for training poorly educated students?  Someone might ask "why don't they work on training themselves and improving their skills?" But can we really blame them when they are paid poor salaries that barely cover the essential requirements of their lives.

 Recent reports point out that illiteracy in Yemen is growing day by day and has reached 47%!  So is the Yemeni education system promising?  The easiest way to evaluate our education system is to look at the outcomes and ‘products’ of that system: the students.  And our students do not foreshadow a promising future. 

Comments (6)

1  Impressive :) Written by Guest, on 03-12-2006 07:41 I should say that out of the articles read, this has been impressive yet frustrating.   What would you suggest?? Or how would u make it any better??     It brings great saddness to my heart that there is no concern twaords students with special needs, but by reading ur article i wonder whether there is any concern towards students in general.   Jazak Allah kul Khair     raz

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