Higher education and scientific research are among the most important factors for development and progress in any country, society, or even a small factory. Without it, there is no guarantee of progress, not even of not being late. The Arab nation faces huge challenges in education and research, and most of them have excuses because of their difficult political and financial conditions, and the corruption of their systems, but what is our excuse in Kuwait?
It is clear to every discerning person that “ e d u c a t i o n ” does not receive the slightest interest in Kuwait, other than the extravagant spending on salaries. It is also clear that the government is following the saying of the late Lebanese Parliament Speaker Ahmad Al-Asaad, when his constituents criticized him for not having schools in their villages, he responded to them that he was educating his son, “Kamil”, for their sake!
The Iraqi expatriate professor, Muhammad al-Rubaie, says that he devoted almost all of his time, two decades ago, to studying the education situation in the Arab countries, and Iraq in particular, especially in the scientific fields on indoctrination, lack of interest in critical and analytical thinking, refusal to apply modern technologies in the field of teaching and scientific research, and so on!
It is fortunate for Kuwait that the circumstances endowed it with a personality such as Representative Hamad Al-Matar, representative of the Muslim Brotherhood Party, and the head of the Education Committee, on whose honorable shoulders the nation placed its hopes in the development of education, but he was distracted from the task -- and also, fortunately -- by asking the government, through an official letter directed to the Chairman of the Council, of the need to open a shop for changing car oils in the city of Sabah Al-Ahmad! A good doctor needs a good education. A good engineer needs a good teacher.
A clean politician needs an advanced education. An accomplished nurse needs a distinguished educational system. And so it is with all other professions and businesses, without exception. Without education, no country can advance. Those concerned are divided into three groups: The first one knows the importance of education, and knows the seriousness of the situation, but is a helpless minority, and has nothing to do, or has completely lost hope and surrendered to the situation.
The second acts as if the matter does not concern it, as it has what it needs, inside and outside the country, and the progress and development of education is at the bottom of its list of interests; likes to scoop and walk, whenever the udder becomes dry and the crops become dry. And the third, which represents the vast majority, was ignored, and often deliberately, with premeditation, by directing its attention to other matters! You have to think, with me, about it carefully, maybe there is some hope, or some glimmer of light, but I can’t discern it, nor see it, at the end of the tunnel!
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e-mail: [email protected]
By Ahmad alsarraf
