Positioning education as the number-one national priority edifies the mind that it can be an inclusive growth-engine for the nation! But mere prioritising doesn’t serve! Rather, one has to go back to primary schooling and revamp its entire teaching-learning system with utmost selflessness and visionary resoluteness.
Today’s primary kids will grow tall by 2040 to take the baton and mantle of national development and prosperity. So we need to catch them young today! The vision of any responsible state should be ultimately attaining its people’s welfare and their joy. Perceptively, the key means for achieving that vision are education and health. Therefore, the two primary responsibilities of any state are ensuring that its citizens get value-based quality education and quality public health.
My individual perspective is that these two responsibilities shouldn’t ever be privatised. As you know that ‘privatised’ means subjecting it to ‘profit motive’ and once it becomes so, it can be stuffed with whatever helps sell it. Finally, it loses its purpose. That means, the state fails. The citizens lose.
But the Oman Vision 2040 gives hope the other way round. I don’t have an option but to highly, sagaciously, generously appreciate the architect and be optimistic of the architecture of the vision document that its national priorities begin with education at its first position followed by health in the second position. How beautifully these are positioned! How future-oriented the positioning of these priorities is! The purpose of this article and the architect’s perspectives seem to be well-aligned.
Now let’s look at the facts that rationalise the materialisation of this plan, the Oman Vision 2040. Let’s first take education as it is positioned in the first place as the most prioritised sector for achieving the Oman Vision 2040. The strategic direction to achieve the vision with regard to its first priority is inclusivity to education and scientific research leading Oman to a knowledge society and a hub of human capital. The document-based performance indicators show that the global innovation index (GII) of Oman was 69 out of the 129 participating countries in 2018 and maintained the same position in 2023 but out of 132 participating economies. The strategic direction for 2040 for Oman is to be one of the best global innovators placing itself in the top 20 economies.
The position of Oman in the performance indicator of education for all development index (EDI) was 51 in 2015 and aspires to be one of the top 10 by 2040 performing the best in all its components including the total primary net enrolment ratio, adult literacy rate, gender specific education for all index and survival rate to grade five. Skills and global competitiveness index are concerned, Oman was placed at 36 out of the total 140 participating economies in 2018 but aspires to be one of the top 10 by 2040 by consolidating its national competitiveness. The performance indicator of global talent competitiveness index (GTCI) of Oman shows that the nation was placed at 56th position in 2018 but dropped to 59th in 2023. It’s a leap backward but can be like a phoenix again in the short run! As per the Quacquarelli Symonds ranking of world universities, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University was placed at 450th in the list of the top 500 world universities in 2018 and could rise to the 362nd position in the year 2023.
Oman sets its vision to have Sultan Qaboos University climbing its ladder to one among the top 300 by 2040.
The individual perspective is that the target set seems to be lower than Oman could really achieve as the national capacity and capability to achieve higher standards are superior as the trend analysis shows the same from 450th position in 2018 to 362nd position in 2023. Similarly, the vision further states that the number of Omani universities that could be placed in the top 500 world universities should also be increased to four.
Coming back to the starting point, like a reverberation, it is emphasised that the sustainability of any economy depends on its quality manpower. And the quality of manpower depends on value-based quality education and is not the result of an overnight-exercise but the legacy of the sacrifice made by the previous generations. To build the base needs to go back to primary schooling to catch ‘them’ young to build the nation. Let’s wish and work together to accomplish the vision.
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