Education and technology
In the second part of this series, the deliberation on education and technology continues. At first, economic prosperity evaded the third world, which was manipulated by the West to restrict itself to the production of primary commodities. Since the demand for primary commodities is extremely elastic, the developed countries were free to impose an international system of tariffs and quotas to ensure that the terms of trade would be perpetually unfavourable to developing countries.
Concomitantly, the latter were neither able to generate sufficient capital to industrialise at a viable pace nor could they develop a technology comparable to the West. This was a deliberate policy introduced by developed countries to ensure that developing countries wouldn't be able to compete with the economies of the developed nations.
The Muslim world was, therefore, reduced to a position of having to depend on external aid and importing technology and armaments, which became a drain on the tattered economies of most of these countries. Even where enormous revenues were later indigenously generated - as in the oil-producing countries - political subservience to the West prevented them from developing a viable industrial and technological infrastructure. Finally, the conditions imposed by donor agencies like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are not necessarily conducive to economic and technical development in third world countries. A brief delineation of the situation in Muslim countries will corroborate the preceding analysis.
e of the essential indices of development, highlights the disparities between the developed world and Muslim countries, where approximately half of the school-going population between the ages of five and 19 years and more than three-quarters of the adult population are bereft of formal schooling. Despite much rhetoric, higher education - particularly in science and technology - has been criminally neglected. Compared to an estimated 50,000 scientists and engineers in the entire Muslim world, there are 35,000 in Israel and 400,000 in Japan. In the Muslim World, there are only 100 scientists and technologists per million population as compared with 3,000 in the developed world.
A survey conducted in the US shows that, on the basis of research papers published in world-class periodicals, the US ranked in the first position, India stood in the eighth position and Israel was at the fifteenth position. None of the Muslim countries deserved even a mention as their collective contribution was dismally low.
First, literacy must be increased. It is true that some countries have a high literacy rate - Malaysia with a literacy rate of 80 percent and Jordan with a 90 percent literate population. On the other hand, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have a literacy rate of a mere 40 percent. It is imperative that these states strive for an optimum literacy rate. Priorities have to be reset and higher allocations must be made for education. In Pakistan, for example, less than four percent of the GDP is earmarked for education. Simply because the returns are not immediate, a lower priority is assigned to education and, specifically, science and technology. In other words, long term national interests are often sacrificed for short-term political expediencies.
Second, a critical mass to provide the reservoir for specialisation cannot be built up in science and technology without an equal emphasis on the qualitative aspect. Far greater effort must be put in the teaching of science and scientific research. To encourage initiative and innovation in the scientific and technological sphere, financial support for science and scientists is imperative. India - with its much larger GNP as compared with Pakistan - allocates around one percent for research and development and has quadrupled the salaries of its academics.
Third, even where the paucity of funds is not a prime factor - for example in Saudi Arabia - there appears to be a lack of commitment to the development of forefront scientific research and technology. Statistics indicate that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States have within a single year spent more than about $15 billion on military imports. This is an example that indicates that Muslim countries must establish long-term priorities and display a more resolute will to develop scientific and technological expertise to withstand the external pressures that reduce them into dumping grounds for second-rate imports from the developed world.
Muslim scientists do not, on an extensive enough scale, have access to cutting-edge scientific research and state-ofthe-art technology. There must also be a greater demand for the transfer of advanced technology as opposed to the acceptance of turnkey projects. Therefore, a collaboration between competent Muslim scientists and their counterparts in the developed countries must be increased and adequately supported financially.
In Pakistan, lessons have to be learnt from instances where there was political will, financial support, competent group effort and an uncompromising scientific leadership. Pioneering success in the indigenous enrichment of fissile material and missile technology brought Pakistan to the forefront of the Muslim world in 1998.