Education for human development: a capability perspective in Saudi public education

ABSTRACT

In Saudi Arabia, the national education policy emphasises developing well-rounded human beings. This broader role of education echoes the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which urge greater efforts to empower students to create a better world. This paper aims to investigate to what extent the rhetoric of Saudi education policy has been translated into practice, with a focus on the degree to which policymakers consider this wider approach and the impact that the current policy designs have on students. The study utilises the capability approach to identify students’ real opportunities to expand their learning and life capabilities. Findings from this study suggest that Saudi education tends to focus on economic benefits and give little consideration to the intrinsic value of education for whole-person development and lifelong learning. Therefore, a wider perspective is needed in education policymaking that acknowledges both the instrumental and intrinsic roles of education.

KEYWORDS:

• Human development
• human capital
• capability approach
• Saudi Arabia
• public education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in the language of participants (Arabic) and translated into English. The excepts from them quoted in this paper have been edited to clearly convey the speakers’ tone and intended meaning to readers.

2. Names of participants have been changed to ensure anonymity and confidentiality.

3. Saudi Arabia is classified among the high-income countries by The World Bank (2018).

Additional information

Funding

The research has been funded by the Saudi Government and approved by the Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee of Flinders University, South Australia (project number 6169).