GAP BETWEEN SECONDARY AND COLLEGE EDUCATION

SANA'A, April 20 (Saba) - High School education in Yemen has witnessed tangible improvements during the last four decades, spreading to all Yemen areas and with educated people numbers increasing yearly.

But these improvements remained tinged by a number of defects and failures that made it unable to achieve its goals as allowing students to enter the labor market directly or continue their college education.

Yemen News Agency 'Saba' met a number of academic and local authority representatives who participated in the scientific workshop on the gap between the secondary education outputs and the university education requirements in Yemen and the urgent solutions. The workshop was concluded last Monday in the Secretariat Capital.

The secretary –general of the local council in the Secretariat Capital Ameen Joma'an said that the main reasons behind the negative increase of the university graduates lie in the universities policies. The admission and differentiation mechanisms push students to join majors and colleges against their will or future ambition.

Dr. Anees Tahe'e, a professor in Aden University, has mentioned that the gap's reasons are various and can not be specified to one education stage. He also said that there is no synchronization in syllabuses between the public education and the university.

On his side, the Education Faculty dean in Hadramout University, Dr. Abdul-Qader Ba-Jobeir, affirmed that the secondary school graduates level decline came as a result of the teachers' incompetence besides the weakness of the educational syllabuses.

Small school buildings and the increase of the students' numbers affect delivering the information to the students, he added.

According to the general manager of the educational office in the Secretariat capital, Mohammed al- Fadhli, the education decline reasons led to the gap between the graduates and the labor market. The low level of the secondary education graduates deprived them of joining the university education that requires high averages.

Also, Mohammed Ahmed Ismail school headmaster in al- Sabeen Zone, Mohammed al-Awlaki, said that education won't be improved unless the teachers are highly educated and qualified to meet the needs of the students to join the labor market.

Studies affirmed that the main reason of the low education in Yemen is the less qualified teachers. 'Statistics showed that 43.9% of the high school headmasters have only high school certificates or lower than that. As well as 10045 high schools are managed by non educated headmasters and this means 31.13 %,' he added.

The gap size:

'The gap is getting bigger between the high school education outputs and the high education capacity to absorb them,' the education office director said.

Statistics clarified that the absorbing capacity of the governmental universities increases annually by 4700 per cent.

Yemeni universities admission policy:

The secretary -general of the local council in the Secretariat Capital affirmed that high school education faces difficulties which weaken the outputs competence and majors and make students incapable to contribute to developing the country.

He also pointed out that the universities follow an inappropriate admission exam policy that would prepare university graduates with certificates that do not suit the labor market. The issue lays a huge pressure on the state to absorb the cumulative numbers of the job applicators in the civil service.

Treatment strategies:

Dr. Anees Taye'e said that treating this gap depends on applying the strategy of improving elementary and secondary education as well as the high education via improving the syllabuses and qualifying the teachers.

He also stressed the necessity for a preparatory year in which a student receives skills and knowledge that they may need in college, after finishing high school instead of wasting a year at home.

In this regard, Ameen Joma'an affirmed that the treatment should be implied in supervising the academic , scientific and technical majors needs which coincide with the preparation of the fifth plan that should be undertaken by the supreme council of education planning that includes the universities compulsive decrees' project results agenda.

'Establishing a post university scientific directing academy depending on the developmental needs of the government and the labor market is also one of the most important treatments' he added.

For his part, Ba-Jobeir said that treating this gap would be achieved by joining efforts of the concerned ministries of Education, Finance, Civil Service and High Education and Scientific Research.

Whereas Mohammed al-Fadhli thinks the problem needs a state and community serious stand to put well-studied scientific treatments according to a strategic vision for limited tasks and responsibilities.

'Education Ministry should set out a most effect strategy for improving the elementary and secondary education and converting it to a practical executive program that should cover the ministry, governorates, districts and schools,' he added.

So this would contribute in improving the education quality all around the country, he said. The Technical and Vocational Education Ministry can also play a vital role in dealing with the problem as it's responsible to train and prepare thousands of youth to the labor market. The role can be activated through the vocational education diversity according to labor market requirements,' he said.