EDUCATION AS A FORCE FOR ECONOMIC CHANGE IN AN OIL-BASED ECONOMY: A CASE STUDY OF SAUDI ARABIA

摘要

The interplay among fluctuating oil revenues, resultant demographic trends, a rigid educational system, and low labor productivity clearly has affected the direction of development outcomes in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s. Saudi Arabia's real per-capita income has fallen considerably from SR61,177 in 1981 to SR30,203 in 2002 as population has grown faster than oil revenues and labor productivity has not kept pace with private-sector market forces. In order to compensate for this "oil drag," labor productivity, and thus educational standards, will have to rise significantly faster in the next decade (2000-2010). While it is undeniable that the quantitative growth in educational levels of both males and females in Saudi Arabia has been impressive by world standards, the resultant 20-year boom in current education patterns and job creation are under strain. This is because government financial flexibility is more restricted and the size of the public sector has reached unsustainable levels as represented by the total wage bill to governmental recurrent expenditure levels, reaching around 50 percent of total government expenditures in the early 2000s. The emphasis on a more qualitative education for knowledge approach is now recognized by Saudi intellectuals, but it will be a hard transition to make for the younger generation. The result could be that Saudi youth must compete in a highly sophisticated market with underdeveloped skills, causing frustration and resentment. Their inherited deference to patriarchal authority means the young traditionally turn to the government for solutions, blaming employers and definitely preferring public-sector employment when available. There are encouraging signs that realism is creeping into both job searches and the educational needs of the market, but the challenge is still being addressed.