Reports to the Nation: Report #3: Education for Self Sufficiency [Archives:2000/47/Reportage]

Dr. Abdulmageed Ghaleb Almikhlafi
Lecturer,
Sanaa University
Dependency and Education
Since the departure of the colonialists from the Arab world, there has been no transformation, so to say, from the realm of retardation to the realm of emancipation, which really signifies a change of the Arab order. A principal factor in this state of affairs was the fact that the pattern of the colonial economy persisted even after Arab countries got rid of the colonial rule. The international division of labor and the continued dependence of Arab governments on foreign aid constitute a dependency relation which has its parallel in and connection with a dependency relationship existing within the Arab economy, education, and culture. As far as education system as an instrument of cultural socialization is concerned, dependency is a phenomenon of domination. The dependent-class structure and the linkage between the dependent local bourgeoisie and monopoly capitalism have led to the functioning of education as an effective instrument in reinforcing cultural dependency. In this cultural dependency situation, culture is used as a means for promoting consumption (needed to rationalize the dependent economies) and of defusing values which would consolidate dominion. The school is used as a means of transmitting ideologies of dependence and as a means of cultural reproduction of cultural dependency. Those who benefit from dependency in the Arab world have used the educational system as a system for internalizing ideological values and for controlling the social groups which were incorporated into the educational process. Education was used as an instrument for socializing people into their occupations and social positions in the Arab dependent bourgeois order. Education also was used as a tool for ameliorating certain contradictions in the development process by converting and taming the middle classes to cultural consumption.
Self-Sufficiency and Education
The notion of self-sufficiency as a condition of emancipation is very important, because it clarifies for Arabs that they may shift only half of the responsibility on others. But shifting the whole responsibility on others is a case of psychological infantilism which ignores the most important question: What have the Arabs done for themselves? A self-sufficient system is needed to provide the necessities to all the people, to cover economic, social, cultural and political aspects, to ensure justice in distribution to end exploitation, to be self-sufficient (self-reliant and dependent on the people only), and to adopt, as an economic and social policy, austerity and simplicity for the ruling segment of the Arab nation so that difference from the people is reduced to the minimum and possibility for double democratization of state and society is maximized.
Reliance on the people and their emancipatory forces means to be free from all conditions of retardation and free from the inferiority complex in the blind imitation of the material way of life. It also means respect for the cultural heritage and faith in the ability of the people to create. But it does not exclude learning from outside ones own cultural heritage. It also means mass participation in planning and execution of development programs. It also means austerity. Disaster is not caused by austerity but by the opposite. The masses revolt against waste, corruption, and social injustice but do not revolt against poverty when everyone is poor. The individual Arab country has to deal with problems of self-sufficiency, not through decoupling or through development in isolation, or in any autarchic sense, but through the proper management of interdependence among Arab countries as a step in the right direction toward greater chance of unity. Arab countries can be interdependent only with Arab countries. For the alternative is a continued dependence on developed countries for capital, technology, and skills. Self-sufficiency policies must be adopted. These policies must aim at and envision an increase in production and productive capacity, and thus in the quality of life for the citizenry, whose creativity and energy are to be mobilized to decrease external dependence. That, in turn, requires mass participation in decision-making, reduced social inequalities, expanded roles for member-controlled and client-managed institutions, rejuvenated and transformed indigenous cultural patterns and social networks, stronger links between local production and consumption, and increased cooperation among Arab states.
Since the Arab nation has become ensnared in the competition between major capitalist and socialist powers, it has to seek political and cultural independence. Since Arab education is expected to play a major role in facilitating and nurturing that independence, Arab educational system must embody the commitment to self-sufficiency as a condition of emancipation which would reinforce that independence. The combination of decolonization and resistance to continued dependence, the demand for self-determination, and the call for cultural rejuvenation and transformation, must create a setting in which self-sufficiency can become national educational policy, rather than merely an orientation of a few schools outside the public educational system. Dependence on foreign funds is unlikely to promote self-sufficiency in the creation and organization of knowledge. All Arab schools must incorporate practical programs through which students would be integrated into the surrounding community and would develop useful skills. However, Arab education must contribute to the realization of the ideal of self-sufficiency by promoting cultural, scientific, and technological programs that would maximize the possibility of being self-sufficient in terms of food, health, defense, and shelter.

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