Student voices vital to education reform

There is a palpable sense of urgency in the Middle East to improve employment levels and job options for the region’s growing youth population. Half of the Middle East’s population is under the age of 25, a quarter of whom are unemployed — one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. One reason for widespread unemployment is the mismatch between the skills businesses need and the skills being taught in schools. Indeed, even the most educated suffer high unemployment. In Saudi Arabia, for example, more than 40 percent of those with university or vocational school education are unemployed, while in Morocco and the United Arab Emirates the rate is over 20 percent. To their credit, governments around the Middle East are aware of the youth employment challenge and some seek to address the problem by making “human capital development” core to their policy agendas. Governments of the Gulf