Getting Kuwait to work

Unemployment has many causes. Economists say that it is technically impossible to eradicate it completely because some workers will always be in transit between jobs, while other potential employees will be too lazy to work at all.

The sick and infirm can add to the percentage of unemployed in some countries, but classified as unable to work in others.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development defines full employment in the United States at a level of between 4-6.4 percent unemployed.

There is therefore no need to panic about Kuwait's official unemployment rate of 5.5 percent among its national population. Saudi Arabia, in comparison, has an officially recognised unemployment rate of 13 percent, but some estimates put its youth unemployment as high as 25 percent.

Kuwait's newly elected government could argue it has plenty of more pressing policy priorities, top of which should be tackling record inflation.

But low unemployment should not be used as an excuse to ignore underlying problems in the labour market that are almost entirely due to too many Kuwaiti workers being poorly equipped for a 21^st century economy.

Reform of the country's education system has been piecemeal, and often driven by a desire for snappy headlines rather than root and branch transformation.

The Kuwait-Maastricht Business School, opened in 2003, is now pumping out a small number of MBA graduates. While welcome, this is hardly a substitute for improving core skills in reading, writing and science.

Schools must also modernise to teach soft skills that are increasingly vital in today's economy. Rigid doctrine must make way for flexible people skills like negotiation, communication, self motivation, teamwork, citizenship and even basic time keeping.

It is not acceptable for children to be given an easy passage through school based on the privilege of their upbringing rather than the efforts in the classroom.

It is important that the education system in Kuwait creates opportunities for everybody, regardless of income. It should be designed to narrow the gap between rich and poor, not to widen it as the current antiquated state school versus modern private school model does.

The problems in Kuwait are not unique in the Gulf. The need for Saudi Arabia to modernise its education system is even more acute.

But Kuwait is a small country awash with oil revenue, and with a population of fewer than 3 million people. If the government can't effect change here, there is little hope for Saudi Arabian reform.

Rob Corder is the editorial director of ITP Publishing Group.

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