Abstract
There are a number of reasons why education plays such a crucial role in Saudi Arabia: its young population, the influx of expatriate labour, the lack of natural resources besides exhaustible oil and a relatively new educational system. The major issue, however, is not the amount of expansion, but rather the orientation of the educational system. A major problem with this system is that it attributes high social prestige to university education, while underestimating the significance of technological and vocational education. It is widely, if unfairly, believed that only school dropouts and academically poor students enter technical training (Kibbi, 2002). This belief is further strengthened by employment policies which, until recently, encouraged an educational structure that offered priority employment opportunities in the government sector to university graduates, thus making technical and vocational education even less attractive and less socially desirable (The Economist, 1997).
All who have mediated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
Aristotle
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Ramady, M.A. (2010). Education: A Tool for a Knowledge-Based Economy. In: The Saudi Arabian Economy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5987-4_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5987-4_13
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