Education in Egypt and Syria vs. UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/talking_point/7230591.stm

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The World Bank has warned that the quality of education in the Arab world is "falling behind" that of other regions.

Two BBC website readers with experience of education in the UK and the Middle East respond with their own observation of the differences between the two.

MAZEN, FATHER-OF-FOUR, DAMASCUS, SYRIA

<i>Mazen has dual Syrian and British nationality. He grew up in Britain but moved to Syria with his Syrian wife and four daughters 18 months ago.</i>

In general I'd say creativity and individual thinking aren't really tolerated here in Syria.

It seems like my daughters have to more or less memorise their text books.

The questions they are given don't seem to test comprehension. If you learn something, you have to reproduce it. You can't change the format of the information.

My daughters speak fluent English. But if they dare suggest that the teacher might have got something wrong in English, they are told to shut up - literally.

My two oldest daughters [aged 14 and 13] are going to a private school. It's not a good one, but they can walk there safely.

The eight-year old goes to a state school, which is quite good. She's doing well.

If they were in England I don't think they would be studying as hard as they are here.

If you fail Arabic here, you have to take the whole year again. So, there's a lot of pressure on them to study. It's hard on them, because they have to catch up in a foreign language.

My daughter was thumped in the back for answering a political question incorrectly

I found my oldest daughter crying about it all in her bedroom the other day.

In Britain you can choose between the arts or sciences. Here, you've got to get over a certain mark to study sciences - otherwise, you're doing the arts.

Another daughter came home crying because the teacher had thumped her in the back. I went to complain and ask why.

The teacher thought it was a normal response to my daughter not answering some political question demonstrating patriotism correctly.

I think the Syrian school system changes people's mentality - you have to really fight for what you want.

My kids are English, really and they don't fit in.

NADIA ISMAIL, 22, QATAR

<i>Nadia has dual nationality because her father is Egyptian and her mother is British. She is a freelance journalist in Qatar.</i>

I spent five years at school in Britain, in both primary and secondary schools. I also attended an international [fee-paying] school in Qatar and a government [state] school in Egypt.

I think the British education system offers people more of a chance to develop themselves as individuals than in the Middle East.

In England, there's more emphasis on going back to primary sources and questioning what you think.

In Egypt, you have to learn things by rote. It's a less individualistic way of thinking.

I know it's a generalisation, but I'd say it's harder to create your own identity in the Middle East. I'd say a lot less critical thinking goes on.

This is especially true in subjects like history and English. In England you're encouraged to come up with fact and opinion; in Egypt, they're just looking for facts.

I have discussed this with my cousins who remain in the Egyptian education system. Several of them are quite unhappy.

A British classmate actually asked me if I had lived in a pyramid

People are generally too scared to say what's inside them.

Students don't have many options about what they can study or which university they go to.

One cousin applied to a university in Cairo and for some reason got assigned to a university miles outside the city.

In the end he managed to go where he wanted, but he had to fight for it.

However, my experience of the English state school system also left a lot to be desired.

There was surprisingly little knowledge about foreign countries.

They trotted out all the usual clichés about women in Arab countries being oppressed. That's the last way I would describe myself.

When I was 13, a British classmate actually asked me if I had lived in a pyramid. I'm still not sure if they were joking.