Manpower and educational shortages in the Arab world: An interim strategy

This paper sets out the problems faced by the Arab countries in trying to meet their pressing demands for skilled manpower. The first part of the paper, therefore, describes the inadequacies in the existing educational infrastructure, e.g. inadequacies in quantity, quality, content and distribution of education as well as the ‘brain drain’. This discussion lays the groundwork for the author's interim strategy for reducing shortages of crucial skills by: (i) drawing on the skills, education and know-how of currently employed expatriates to teach on-site training courses, (ii) enticing skilled Arab emigrants to return to their home countries to teach university, technical or extension courses, and (iii) ‘bonding’ of recent graduates for service in underprivileged areas.