Arab countries fear that the billions of dollars allocated by the US to encourage reforms in their curricula are actually intended to monitor the Islamic curriculum. It is easier to cry out for "supervision" and "re-education" than to deal with the hard data on the real state of the education systems there
Zvi Barel
Bush and Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh about a month ago. Opponents of the reform see it as an American conspiracy
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"Do you want to guarantee yourself a profession for the future? Do you want to be an international expert? Do you want to influence decision-making, be a leader and build tomorrow?" These are the slogans of the advertising campaign that the Qatar government is currently running to recruit teachers who will agree to study and then teach according to the British education system.
According to an agreement between the government of Qatar and the British Teachers' Association and the University of Southampton, the teachers will undergo training in technology studies and new teaching methods and in return will receive a certificate of completion from the British university. To encourage the teachers, the Qatar government allocated a special budget, from which an additional one thousand dollars per month will be paid to each teacher during his training period.
The advertising campaign is percolating among the heads of education systems, intellectuals and politicians in Arab countries. "This is how the West wants to take over our minds," wrote Mustafa Suleiman in the Egyptian opposition newspaper "Al-Osboa".
The beginning of the educational outcry in December 2002, when the US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented at the "Heritage" Institute the main points of the democratization program in the Arab countries. The program was given the non-binding title "The Initiative for Middle East Partnership", and it was designed to convince the Arab countries to carry out, among other things, reforms in their curricula. The administration intends to allocate about a billion dollars in the coming years, in order to bring about the revolution, which is currently facing strong Arab intellectual opposition.
Nowhere in the program is the need to change the religious content mentioned. Powell quoted President Bush's vision according to which "when it comes to civil rights and the status of women, there is no war between cultures, the demands for freedom apply to Latin American countries as well as to the entire Islamic world." He also added that education in Arab countries, "often means memorization and not teaching critical thinking that is suitable for the era of globalization." The American initiative talks about technology studies, internet connection, teacher training and learning English. This is not how her Egyptian critics see her.
Prof. Galal Amin, a senior lecturer in economics at the American University in Cairo and one of the fiercest opponents of globalization, published a long and strong article against the "re-education" program, as he calls the American initiative. In his article, he also refers to the program that was adapted to Iraq after the occupation, and especially to the sterilization of the existing program from Saddam's cult of personality. His words represent a common perception among Egyptian intellectuals.
"Some Arab scholars believe that because America's goals align with the goals of Arab reformists, we should approve plans without considering who is behind them," Amin wrote. "They are wrong. It is impossible to take seriously the claim that Americans are only interested in uprooting the cult of personality. The American government has devoted more than half a century to cultivating regimes that are notorious for supporting the cult of personality." The main claims of Amin appear later in his article. "The claim that the Americans want to replace the memorization method with a method that encourages criticism and analysis is misleading... It is clear that it is not in the interest of America and its ally Israel to encourage free and independent teaching methods in Iraq in particular and Arab countries in general, which will provoke their citizens to criticism. On the contrary, their interest is to leave all nations The Arabs are forever backward, intellectually passive."
Amin states that even if the program will train Arab students to recognize manipulations that may encourage them to act out of religious fanaticism and become victims of Islamic extremism - the Americans and Israelis are not really interested in that. Their intention, a reliable judge, is to replace manipulation with manipulation. To cause the Arabs to be deceived, to believe in every American plan and to refrain from hating Jews; Let them forget the suffering of the Palestinians and make peace with Israel.
Amin does not refer at all to the state of the education system in Egypt. The state invests in education about 6.5% of the GNP, but due to the great natural increase, the investment per student at the pre-university level has decreased by about 20% in recent years, compared to an increase in investment in students by about 70%. Educators in Egypt attack this trend and claim that it The attempts to find an educational strategy that is more suitable for the Egyptian population produces a thin elite layer, which cannot obtain adequate jobs for itself They have failed so far. It is frequently replaced by slogans and optimistic statistics, which are difficult to substantiate.
The attempt to encourage the private industry to "adopt schools" did not go well, and apart from a few unique successes, such as the school in "Sadat City" - which is equipped with spacious classrooms, air conditioners, pianos and accordions for music and computer lessons and a beautiful yard - the schools suffer from neglect. They are overcrowded - about 60 students per class - the teachers are tired and unqualified, and they lack minimal teaching aids. In the rural areas the situation is particularly difficult and there the school dropout rate reaches about 20%. When the Egyptian Minister of Education recently proudly reported that 91.5% of schools have computers, he did not reveal that these are usually used in the boardroom. He also did not specify the ratio between computers and students. According to the International Monetary Fund, in the past six years, about half a million students in Egypt were trained in the use of multimedia, only 8% of all high school students.
But the opponents of the reforms are not worried about the crisis in education in Egypt or other Arab countries. They warn of a dangerous war of a well-known kind: an American plot "intended to instill American values instead of local ones... and worse, a large number of classes to be conducted in foreign languages at the expense of the Arabic language." Amin is convinced that this is a long-term damage, because when the knowledge of Arabic decreases "the creativity of the students and their ability to invent will also decrease."
The American University in Cairo has itself become the target of an attack by conservative elements. Against its curriculum it is argued that it relies mainly on the English language and does not place enough emphasis on the study of Arab and Islamic heritage. According to Mustafa Solyan, the man of the "Al-Osboa" newspaper, the danger is already at hand. The Egyptian Minister of Education, Dr. Hussein Kamal Baha ad-Din, held a "secret meeting" with the commissioner of education at the American aid agency. At the meeting, it was decided to implement advanced teaching methods in 14 schools in seven districts. According to the new method, "of which he heard Baha ad-Din during his visit to Washington and his tours of American schools", these schools will be connected to the Internet and English and technology will be taught in them. New teachers will be trained for the job.
According to Solian, there is a disaster in all this progress. "The goal is not to impart technological knowledge but to introduce American supervision of the curricula and to ensure that no anti-American or anti-Zionist study materials are introduced," he wrote. According to this concept, an American Internet connection and consultation means full control of the contents. "The intention is to remove religion from the curriculum," Suleiman warns, "and to give religious studies the name 'religious morals and culture.' The defense against his attackers and to dislodge the phrase 'Jihad'."
Opponents of the "spiritual invasion" present several pointed questions against the American plan. "If canceling the religious curriculum is a condition for progress and democracy, for a new economy and development - why haven't countries like Turkey and Tunisia reached the same progress?" Tama Ali al-Shami, a lecturer at the Lebanese University. He goes against the "American hypocrisy" which for years has not seen fit to curb the same education that it believes creates terrorism in countries where the Americans had economic interests.
"We have turned education into a new anti-American front," says a lecturer at the American University in Cairo in a telephone conversation. "We want progress and technology, on the condition that these do not come from the United States. We want more computers and the Internet, and on the condition that they are not connected to computers in the United States. We do not want terrorism to be attributed to Islam, but we also do not want the Americans to make the separation. Galal Amin, who clings to the great Egyptian intellectuals, Taha Hussein, in order to prove that the Arabic language must be preserved, forgot that it was Hussein himself who called for it to be taught in the schools foreign languages and to get as close as possible to the West. We have forgotten how to separate our need to move forward from political agreement or disagreement with the United States or any other Western country." This lecturer has already suffered serious complaints in the past. "Parents almost beat me claiming that I was passing on anti-Islamic ideas to their children," he says.
At the beginning of this year, an institute for public opinion polls published the results of a survey conducted in Arab countries, according to which between 80-60% of the residents (depending on the country) oppose the policy of the United States and see it as an enemy of the Arabs and Muslims. This position stems mainly from the US's policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war in Iraq. When those surveyed were asked about their attitudes towards American technology and American culture, the overwhelming majority replied that they like American music, American cars and other American developments.
Will the admiration for the products and technology of the United States succeed in introducing the American educational systems to the Egyptian market? "Forget it," says an Egyptian writer, "the reformists here justify the acquisition of American knowledge by saying that it derives from Arab culture, which was stolen by the West. We cannot adopt American learning methods, but we will continue to buy American products, since they are originally an Islamic product, right?"
Published in "Haaretz" 11/7/03
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