Better Education Will Improve GCC – Analyst

Gulf countries will benefit from improved teaching standards, a senior Booz & Company director says.

Education quality will be the most important factor in dictating national economic competitiveness in the coming decades, according to a senior director at Booz & Company.

“Emerging regions, like the GCC, must leapfrog to higher educational standards in the decades ahead, education quality must become a national obsession,” said Hatem Samman, director of the Booz & Company Ideation Centre, a Middle East think tank.

“By creating incentives in the education market and opening up the educational landscape to competing ideas, local governments can improve the GCC’s return on educational investment and create fervor and excitement about the education system.”

The director added that inducing private sector competition tends to make up for demand gaps in public education by increasing the quantity and quality of education providers.

“Competition will improve education quality, especially when aided with government regulation that promotes the entry of reputable institutions with a history of excellence,” he said.

“The success of the few will encourage many more quality players to enter the education market. In an increasingly global world with more liberalised markets, international investors are bound to play a crucial role in shaping the GCC’s education system.”