Naseem Zamel is an Education Coordinator at Modern American School in Amman, Jordan. He completed his High School in Jordan and posses a degree in Philosophy from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A. Modern American School is accredited by AdvancED, the College Board and follows an American syllabus. More information about the school can be found on their website.
Naseem Zamel during an educational trip to the Dead Sea (Image Courtesy Rahul Sakkia)
Education is big Business in the Middle East. This is because the Middle East is a unique region in terms of educational requirements. A majority of the citizens in GCC countries are expatriates, whereas a majority of students in non GCC countries do not have access to many higher education options.
The expatriate population are dependent on schools that cater to them in terms of educational systems. Indians prefer the CBSE board, alternatively Europeans prefer the IB system. One of the primary reasons for them to continue in their homeland’s education system is the lack of citizenship opportunities. Staying in a Arab country for decades does not ensure citizenship, which means expatriates have a higher turnover on entering and exiting the country. A secondary reason is the lack of higher education opportunities. Until recently there were not many options for expatriates as Naseem Zamel explains;
"Expatriates are used to systems back home. Some of them are far more rigorous and comprehensive than what’s available here. These education systems date back centuries and are well established. While local education boards are fairly recent propositions and don’t have the same hold. Carnegie Mellon only recently established an outpost in Qatar. "
NYU in Abu Dhabi was the first international outpost in the region. Prior to this the only access to an American college experience would be to enroll oneself in the local American University. The name behind a university is a huge selling factor. The more prestigious the name, the more parents are willing to spend, which brings us to the second and third factor; funding of one’s education and what do the local middle easterners want?
Most Students in the middle east are self sponsored and do not rely on scholarships or external sources of funding such as grants, loans or other means. This is due to a culture difference, where Asians consider education in their child an investment, thereby sponsoring them and even with the other expatriates its a sign of prestige that their child is enrolled in a prestigious university. As Naseem reiterates;
The first factor most parents consider is the brand of the institution. They simply wouldn’t enroll a child based on merit but rather how the rest of their family and friends look at the university or school. Although this approach is shallow minded, one must consider that these institutions have this repute to their higher standards of academic excellent therefore do hold some merit.
The third factor being the local arab population. They consider the same factors while picking an educational institute however they also consider they skill set they acquire from foreign institutions. As Naseem explains;
“While the local not for profit institutions do have decent standards of education and work culture, the foreign based institutes offer more such as Exchange programs, globalization and the integration of technology. Take MAS (Naseem’s school) for example, we have a Model UN, We host and coach students for the SATs and our primary medium of communication is English. This helps our student better integrate with international students and is beneficial when they travel outside the country to pursue their higher education. Students these days cannot just be academically focused but also focus on wholesome development.”
All this however does come at cost. An average price for a school computer is AED 4,392.06 per student, inclusive of software. If ‘Bring-your-own-device’ solutions are implemented then the price is far lesser on a hardware front but higher in terms of additional support systems such as WiFi networks and system security managers. Additionally international accreditation is an expensive process requiring huge investment in staff, training and infrastructure. This cost is then borne by the student.
Looking back at all this, makes one realize, perhaps after all Education is not a bad investment. No economic downturns or crisis prevent students from attending classes. This is perhaps one of the most stainable and high reward investments, Naseem amused by this explains;
“Indeed it is a high reward investment but there is a lot of work that goes into it to get it to that level of high reward and maintain it as such.”
This applies to many facets of business. High risk equals High reward. The education business therefore is not for the faint hearted. Which explains why in the land of the brave, Education is such big business.