3 Data and Model Specification
The main objective of the study is to investigate the impact
of education on the sustainable development and economic
growth in UAE. Time series data cover the period 1980–
2017, which were collected from different national and
international resources. Data from the international organization such as UNDP, World Bank, UNCTAD, as well as
from UAE institutions, namely, the Federal Competitiveness
and Statistics Authority (FCSA), Federal Ministry of Education (MoE), and Commission for Academic Accreditation
(CAA), were used to provide the variables in this study.
A Simultaneous Equations Approach (SEA) is used. This
approach is known to be an appropriate methodology to
explore the reciprocity impact of education on sustainable
development. The approach involves a system of two or
more equations that allow each variable to be dependent in
one or more equations and independent in one or more
equations in the system. Therefore, the model of the study is
Y ¼ FðxÞ
X ¼ FðyÞ
ð1Þ
where Y is proxy of the sustainable development and X is the
education proxy.
Since both variables depend on other variables such as
population, investment (foreign, domestic), enrollment in
education, Gross Domestic Product, Public Expenditure on
Education, Gross Capital Formation, Adult Literacy Rate,
Unemployment Rate, and other variables, the system can be
written as
HDI = F (GDP growth rate, export, domestic investment,
FDI, population growth, inflation, exchange rate, gross
capital formation, education, export, labor force).
EDU = F (HDI, population growth, GDP, inflation,
education expenditure, adult literacy rate, enrollment rate in
primary, secondary and tertiary education, labor force).
4 Education System and Features in the UAE
4.1 Background
According to (Ministry of Education, 2018), education in
UAE has passed through three stages of development and
improvement. These stages are
1. The first stage is before the year 1953; in this stage the
education depends on what is so-called the Motawa’a in
which a person allocates a space in his home and teach
children without any curriculum mainly how to read,
write, and religious subjects.
2. The second stage started in 1953 up to independency and
establishment of the UAE or so-called the educational
mission’s stage. It is the beginning of organized formal
education. Formal schools are established with the educational missions that came from the emirates that untied
as UAE. In 1953, the first school was established and
only 230 students enrolled in that school. After that the
number of schools and students increased to reach 22,325
students enrolled in 61 schools in the period 1969/1970
and 32,862 students enrolled in 73 schools in the year of
dependency. It is worth to mention that the first girls’
school was established in 1955/1956 with only 30 girls
while at the end of this stage (1971/1792), the number of
girl’s school account for 31 schools teaching more than
11,000 girls.
3. The third stage began after the formation of UAE until
now; after the establishments of the union, the number
of students and schools is increasing sharply to reach a
total of 1226 schools (53.7% are public schools, with
more than one million students and 36% are public
schools.)
Ministry of Education (UAE-MOE) is the ministry
responsible for education in the country. The ministry vision
is innovative education for a knowledge, pioneering, and
global society; the mission is to develop an innovative
education system for a knowledge and global competitive
society, that includes all age groups to meet future labor
market demand, by ensuring quality of the ministry of
education outputs, and provision of best services for internal
and external customers (Ministry of Education, 2018). To
achieve this vision, Ministry sets the following strategic
objectives as quoted from the Ministry website (Ministry of
Education, 2018):
1. Ensure inclusive quality education including preschool
education.
2. Achieve excellent leaderships and educational efficiency.
3. Ensure quality, efficiency, good governance of educational and institutional performance, as well as the
delivery of teaching.
4. Ensure safe, conducive and challenging learning
environments.
5. Attract and prepare students to enroll in higher education
inside and outside the country, in light of labor market
needs.
6. Strengthen the capacity for scientific research and innovation in accordance with the quality, efficiency, and
transparency standards.
7. Provision of quality, efficient, and transparent administrative services, in accordance with the quality, efficiency, and transparency standards.
272
A. M. Haddad
The main objective of the study is to investigate the impact
of education on the sustainable development and economic
growth in UAE. Time series data cover the period 1980–
2017, which were collected from different national and
international resources. Data from the international organization such as UNDP, World Bank, UNCTAD, as well as
from UAE institutions, namely, the Federal Competitiveness
and Statistics Authority (FCSA), Federal Ministry of Education (MoE), and Commission for Academic Accreditation
(CAA), were used to provide the variables in this study.
A Simultaneous Equations Approach (SEA) is used. This
approach is known to be an appropriate methodology to
explore the reciprocity impact of education on sustainable
development. The approach involves a system of two or
more equations that allow each variable to be dependent in
one or more equations and independent in one or more
equations in the system. Therefore, the model of the study is
Y ¼ FðxÞ
X ¼ FðyÞ
ð1Þ
where Y is proxy of the sustainable development and X is the
education proxy.
Since both variables depend on other variables such as
population, investment (foreign, domestic), enrollment in
education, Gross Domestic Product, Public Expenditure on
Education, Gross Capital Formation, Adult Literacy Rate,
Unemployment Rate, and other variables, the system can be
written as
HDI = F (GDP growth rate, export, domestic investment,
FDI, population growth, inflation, exchange rate, gross
capital formation, education, export, labor force).
EDU = F (HDI, population growth, GDP, inflation,
education expenditure, adult literacy rate, enrollment rate in
primary, secondary and tertiary education, labor force).
4 Education System and Features in the UAE
4.1 Background
According to (Ministry of Education, 2018), education in
UAE has passed through three stages of development and
improvement. These stages are
1. The first stage is before the year 1953; in this stage the
education depends on what is so-called the Motawa’a in
which a person allocates a space in his home and teach
children without any curriculum mainly how to read,
write, and religious subjects.
2. The second stage started in 1953 up to independency and
establishment of the UAE or so-called the educational
mission’s stage. It is the beginning of organized formal
education. Formal schools are established with the educational missions that came from the emirates that untied
as UAE. In 1953, the first school was established and
only 230 students enrolled in that school. After that the
number of schools and students increased to reach 22,325
students enrolled in 61 schools in the period 1969/1970
and 32,862 students enrolled in 73 schools in the year of
dependency. It is worth to mention that the first girls’
school was established in 1955/1956 with only 30 girls
while at the end of this stage (1971/1792), the number of
girl’s school account for 31 schools teaching more than
11,000 girls.
3. The third stage began after the formation of UAE until
now; after the establishments of the union, the number
of students and schools is increasing sharply to reach a
total of 1226 schools (53.7% are public schools, with
more than one million students and 36% are public
schools.)
Ministry of Education (UAE-MOE) is the ministry
responsible for education in the country. The ministry vision
is innovative education for a knowledge, pioneering, and
global society; the mission is to develop an innovative
education system for a knowledge and global competitive
society, that includes all age groups to meet future labor
market demand, by ensuring quality of the ministry of
education outputs, and provision of best services for internal
and external customers (Ministry of Education, 2018). To
achieve this vision, Ministry sets the following strategic
objectives as quoted from the Ministry website (Ministry of
Education, 2018):
1. Ensure inclusive quality education including preschool
education.
2. Achieve excellent leaderships and educational efficiency.
3. Ensure quality, efficiency, good governance of educational and institutional performance, as well as the
delivery of teaching.
4. Ensure safe, conducive and challenging learning
environments.
5. Attract and prepare students to enroll in higher education
inside and outside the country, in light of labor market
needs.
6. Strengthen the capacity for scientific research and innovation in accordance with the quality, efficiency, and
transparency standards.
7. Provision of quality, efficient, and transparent administrative services, in accordance with the quality, efficiency, and transparency standards.
272
A. M. Haddad