In this regard, the episode "For the Story is Rest" (1/3/2021) questioned the extent to which educational curricula changes in our Arab world are based on the necessary scientific and technical controls?
How can educational curricula achieve its goal of promoting Arab societies without compromising their principles?
Regarding the interference of politics in the educational field, Professor of Philosophy of Ethics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University Moataz Al-Khatib explained that the political system plays a major role in the way curricula are formulated and interfered with, distinguishing between authoritarian regimes that interfere in a way that is not based on specific criteria, while the original curricula is a specialized issue. Education experts have nothing to do with politics.
He stressed that the state should not be confused as institutions and a system, but in an authoritarian regime, the state and the system are talked about in one sense, so political directives are issued to serve specific goals pursued by those in power.
He added that the curricula turned into a field of conflict of ideas between different trends, as well as a security issue, especially after the events of September 11, pointing out that the curricula were changed with a security approach, citing the repeated statements of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi regarding the renewal of religious discourse.
Al-Khatib went on to say that the academic curricula have turned into a security issue and not a developmental, educational and pedagogical issue, describing this transformation as dangerous, because statements about changing curricula are not issued by specialists, but rather by parties that approach the issue on security and politics.
power service
For his part, the educational consultant and expert, Muhammad Al-Amin, said that the school curricula have been transformed to serve the authority and political systems. Instead of adopting educational policies and general goals specific to the identity of the citizen, changes are imposed by governments, and educators and education specialists only have to implement these directives.
He referred to external interventions that make the process of developing curricula a non-independent matter and entrusted to specialists in the field.
He mentioned that the government - in an ideal situation - is proceeding according to general goals that take into account the needs of the citizen, the labor market, and then the national identity.
Regarding the language, Al-Amin indicated that the colonizer imposed his language before leaving, and the market need dictated learning certain languages, stressing that the teaching of the Arabic language is declining and students have become increasingly interested in learning foreign languages, while they neglect their mother tongue.
Egypt witnessed a sensation after the revelation of directives to delete religious texts from the curricula of the Arabic language and history, and the justification for this was that these texts constituted a great danger, according to what was said.
In Algeria, there is a presidential directive to reconsider the educational system, while the Minister of National Education promises change, while the Algerians recall the controversy caused by a former Minister of Education, who wreaked - as they say - corruption in educational curricula and national constants.
In Sudan, too, the director of the National Center for Curricula resigned after freezing new curricula following protests against the inclusion of the painting "The Creation of Adam" in history.