Manama: Kuwait's education programmes should focus on boosting communication skills and empowering students in foreign languages, the education minister has said.
Touring schools as they re-opened following the summer vacations, Ahmad Al Mulaifi said that the education system should do away with traditional ways of teaching and learning and should avoid the habitual method of "memorizing and re-delivering."
"We aspire to have a generation that is well aware of the importance of communication and the significance of the culture of dialogue," the minister said, quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Hurriya on Wednesday.
Education leaders and experts should encourage students to use English in their academic studies and to communicate orally and in writing, he said.
The minister said that he had faced daunting challenges in communicating in English with people in the US when he traveled for a university degree.
In a 2008 report, the World Bank said that the quality of education in the Arab world needed urgent reform in order to tackle unemployment.
According to the report, Arab states "had to make improving education their top priority, because it went hand-in-hand with economic development."
Marwan Muasher, a senior World Bank official, reportedly said the Arab states needed to have its youth "better equipped in a fast-changing world."
The ability to solve problems, critical thinking, innovation and teacher retraining were crucial to meet the needs of the labour market, he said.
