Syria & Higher Education: A Battle to Win

October 7, 2009
DAMASCUS, Syria

INTRODUCTION

One of the most important issues that the Syrian government has to face urgently is how to strongly increase the level of higher education (or tertiary education) in the country. In fact, the current university facilities are absolutely inadequate for a growing number of people demanding a university education. Syria has a population of around 18.5 million and around 36 percent is aged less than 15 years. This means that in the coming years more and more young Syrians will demand higher education courses. The aim of this article is to describe the current situation of the Syrian educational system with a specific attention given to tertiary education.

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Notwithstanding the fact that Syria is a low-income country it has a good educational system. And in the last ten years the government has increased the expenditure in order to provide a better and improved educational system. As a good example it could be considered that, in year 2000, 12.6 percent of government total expenditure was allocated for education, while after just five years the percentage was raised to 15.7 percent (in the MENA region the percentage is around 18.3 percent). According to data provided by the World Bank, (W.B.), while in 2000 total expenditure for the education stood at 35 billion Syrian pounds, this amount was more than doubled in 2005 when 4.3 percent of G.D.P. was allocated for education. 

Syria in the Human Development Index is ranked 105th out of 179 countries, but it is important to underline that it is one of the very few Arab countries that obtained the result of providing universal primary education. In 2004, the literacy level stood for young people aged 15–24 years at 92.4 percent. 

The Syrian Ministry of Education has the responsibility of supervising the educational system and of deciding the curriculums and targets of the teaching activity. In specific, the ministry has to provide educational services to all of its 14 directorates in the governorates. The 14 directorates are the bodies materially responsible for the schools in their governorates.

The Syrian educational system is based on the old French system. Education is given free of charge in public schools and it is mandatory up to the 9th grade.

There are three levels of school:

• 1st to 4th grade: Basic Education Level I (mandatory)
• 5th to 9th grade: Basic Education Level II (mandatory)
• 10th to 12th grade: Secondary Education (not mandatory, it is equivalent to high school in Western countries). 

    

In 2007, the student population was around 8 million students, with 4 million enrolled in basic level I, 1.4 million in basic level II and 2.3 million in tertiary education.    

  

At the end of 9th grade all students have to take the final exams. Their results will decide whether students are entitled to attend general secondary schools or technical secondary schools. In fact, Syria has a large number of students attending the so called technical and vocational training. These vocational schools are: industrial schools (for males), agricultural schools (for males), craft schools (for females), commercial schools (for both males and females) and science schools (for both male and females). The vocational system is particularly rigid and there is no possibility to go back to general secondary school. Instead, students that go to general secondary schools at the beginning of the 11th grade have to decide whether they want to study in the literary branch or in the scientific branch.

At the end of 12th grade students have to pass the baccalaureate and also in this case according to their results it will be decided which university the student will attend and in particular which his/her faculty will be. This system is called Mufadalah.  It's probable that some students will be forced to study at faculties they do not like. The tradeoff is that the fees are really very cheap ($70 a year, all included) for students with good marks. Instead, if students do not get good results with their baccalaureate exams they may still enroll in a faculty, but they have to pay higher fees ($1500 to $3000). In addition, are now being created private schools and colleges, but, as it will be examined below, fees are much higher. 

In 1966 it was established the Ministry of Higher Education with the specific task of supervising the scientific and educational institutions. In other words, the ministry has the supervision over universities, academic councils, the Arab Language Academy and educational hospitals. The majority of public universities in Syria follows the French model of higher education with a three-stage system.

• The first stage is the license, which is awarded after four years to six years of study according to the different fields.
• The second stage is the DEA or DESS, which requires one year to two years of study after the license. 
• The third stage is the doctorate, which requires three years to five years of study after the DEA or DESS.

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION?

Three are the main problems affecting the Syrian tertiary education and they are all linked among them. They are:

A) Too many students for too few universities

B) Providing quality assurance mechanisms

C) Almost free tertiary education

A) Too many students for too few universities — The most important challenge that public universities have to face urgently is the impossibility to physically accommodate and to guarantee high standards of quality to an always-increasing number of students requiring tertiary education. At the University of Damascus it is quite common to have 2,000 students to 3,000 students, who all want to attend the same lecture, which is normally given in classes that can physically accommodate a maximum of 500 people. In the period,  from 2003 to 2007, the number of students requiring higher education increased by 50 percent and this problem will be worsening in the following years given the fact that 36 percent of the Syrian population is now aged less than 15 years. At the University of Damascus in 2008 there were 120,000 students. It is indeed a huge number. Moreover, it should be considered that the body of students it is not well balanced among the different faculties. In fact, that there are some departments, like the English and Arabic language departments inside the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, that are hugely overpopulated. Domestic policies are trying to push some students to enroll in the faculties of engineering and medicine, but when at secondary schools many students choose the humanities track then for them it is a natural choice continuing to study literature once they are at the university. 

In the year 2008-2009 the universities accepted 264,550 students (these figure were released by the magazine Shabablek and the Ministry of Higher Education. For just five public universities, it is indeed a huge number and for this reason the public universities have started to apply some measures in order to cope with so many students. Two solutions have been: introducing multiple-choice exams and canceling some research sessions. It's manifest that these are not real and long-lasting solutions.

In order to reduce the overcrowding, the Syrian government is moving toward a very drastic decision: limiting the number of people admitted to tertiary education. As a result of this action, at the University of Damascus in the last two years students have decreased by 10 percent each year. This is a tough decision, which is compensated by the intention of increasing the number of the teaching staff. At least an increased staff will improve the student-to-staff ratio. This has been possible through a recent decree issued by President Bashar al-Assad. This law permits to top students in every area to be immediately appointed as tutors without the usual selecting process, which is normally the required road for government positions. There is also the will to have more professors with Ph.D.s earned abroad.

A good solution — but very expensive — could be an expansion of the facilities. This is exactly what the University of Damascus is doing on a large scale. Right now, at the University of Damascus, there are more than 200,000 square meters of facilities under construction. New departments, like the Spanish and German language departments, have been added recently, while the Italian department will be open in 2010. Many of these projects are being developed through the support of foreign countries and this could be the way to gain sufficient funds and resources.

Probably the best tool the government has to provide to more students a good tertiary education is to establish new universities, which it defines as satellite branches of the most prestigious public universities. Syria has five public universities: Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, Lattakia and Deir ez-Zor. The regional branches are located in Dera’s, Suweida, Idlib, Tartus, Hama, Hassakeh and Raqqa. Obviously, because these new branches have been established quite recently, they do not have all the faculties that can be found in the five original institutions, but with time they will expand and the intention of the government is to transform the regional branches into new independent public universities. In addition to the original universities and the new branches, there are all across Syria 31 intermediate institutes. These are not universities, but they can provide to students two-year courses in some disciplines taught at the universities. Since the beginning of 2009 in Syria 8 new branches (with limited faculties) and 8 intermediate institutes in four governorates have started their activities. The fact of having tertiary or quasi-tertiary education all across the country is a very good option for all the Syrians who are not residents and are not living in one of the five places where are located the old public universities. In this way, students can save a lot of time and money. Moreover, at the new branches it is possible to enroll in departments where classes are very small. A reduced number of students may permit a better interaction between students and professors. In other words, it is easier to have a high level quality with reference to the taught subjects.

 

B) Provide quality assurance mechanisms 

Quality in Syria means to work with reference to two issues: Offering modern teaching methods and curricula and secondly tackling corruption. In fact, at public universities many departments have very old programs. A good example could be taken from several Syrian faculties of economics where still in 2009 the programs are based on Soviet-style central planning economics. The reason is that many professors in the 1960s studied in the Soviet Union.

A difficult issue to be tackled is the fact that in Syria it does not exist any independent body to examine universities and to assess the quality of their courses. Three years ago the Ministry of Higher Education started to work with the British Council in order to create a quality assurance system to be implemented in each Syrian university. The target was to be able to establish a center for evaluation, assessment and capacity building for professors. A similar cooperation agreement has been recently signed with the German academic state agency. The difficulties to set up this quality assurance center is that inside the Ministry of Higher Education some circles want this assurance center to be under direct control of the ministry while other circles would like to grant it a powerful independence. With this internal quarrel the center has not yet being created.

What the ministry has to do right now is to reform teaching plans according to what is required in the 2009 job market. Labor market is always changing. Economic courses based on Soviet-style central planning may be interesting from a historical perspective, but then they should be reformed in order to provide university courses spendable on the job market. In Syria, since the last years, there has been an important growth of both private banks and private insurance companies. These two modern sectors cannot rely on people who have studied program dating back to some decades ago. And for example if Syrians do not study the right and updated disciplines, the jobs in the two mentioned sectors will always go to foreigners. A good solution could also be to provide students in the last years of tertiary education with specialization paths, so that students after graduation could be considered as experts in the chosen field of study.   

In any case, although the quality assurance center has still a long way to run, every university has now a strategic plan with objectives and in every university there is a quality assurance center with a specific director. Good quality universities provide two good results for students: a positive studying experience and the possibility to find a first-class job after tertiary studies.

The second issue to be tackled is corruption that is an endemic problem in Syria more or less everywhere. In fact, at the moment of this writing, there are some professors at the University of Damascus under investigation for irregularities during their examinations. It is not easy to give some numbers to the problem of corruption at universities, but according to some interviews (done under the condition of anonymity) stories of corruption have emerged quite well. In general, this means two things: students paying money to pass an exam or a phone call done by a powerful person ordering a professor to permit a student to pass an examination with no serious test. It seems that the majority of these cases have happened at the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Literature. The situation in the last years has partially improved thanks for example to multiple-choice exams.

Why is there so much corruption? A first reason could be the low salaries at public universities. In fact, at the private universities — where salaries are much higher — corruption is almost inexistent. But this is only a partial explanation because salaries at public universities for professors have improved and they earn more than $1,000 per month plus additional benefits. They are among the best-paid public servants. A second explanation could be that it is quite difficult to be punished so some professors could be lured by the idea of getting easily some extra money. Students and honest professors are scared and disillusioned about reporting corruption cases which they know. A possible reason could be that sometimes there is the idea that for public universities it is much more important to protect their reputation and avoid embarrassment than to take action against corrupted professors. This is true especially now that Syrian universities are expanding a lot domestically and internationally. It goes by itself that this way of thinking is only focused on the short-term. According to Minister of Higher Education Ghiath Barakat, there have been only 8,000 documented cases of corruption out of a student population of 500,000, but people say that the phenomenon is much more spread out.        
         

C) Almost free tertiary education

Another problem that the Syrian government will be obliged to consider is trying to understand whether also in the future it will be capable of providing public university with almost o charge. Given this situation, providing public tertiary education almost for free is a huge burden on the government’s balance sheet. Some suggested that it could be introduced a sort of low-cost or interest-free loans, which students would pay back only when they would start to work. But at the moment there are no serious plans for a real change. It is true that, with a per-capita G.D.P. around $4,700 there is not much room for Syrians to pay additional money for their studies. In the last year, there have been for Syria some political improvements on the international arena and as the executive director of the British Syrian Society, Ghayth Armanazi says "until recently perceived as a pariah state, Syria is now a country courted by many." This is absolutely correct, but Syria is still a low-income country with a big chunk of the population living in poor conditions and, before these political improvements may bring important economic upswings, it will take a lot of time.  

    

WHAT ROLE FOR PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES?

President Bashar Al-Assad authorized the decision to allow private universities in Syria in 2001 (Decree 36). Now, in the country there are 15 private universities. Previously, there was the idea and hope that the opening of private universities would have permitted to ease the burden of public institutions. It did not work out toward the mentioned goal because private universities charge students with fees that are absolutely unbearable for the average Syrian family. In some private institutions fees may reach the stellar amount of $10,870. According to the U.N.D.P. and the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics, 16,000 students are registered at the 15 Syrian private universities. It is less than 4 percent of all Syria's tertiary students and this means that the burden is always and will continue to be loaded on the public universities. In other words, at the private Syrian universities there are enrolled just people of well-off families who previously would have gone abroad to study. The opening of private universities permit now to partially “solve the problem of having students’ future determined by their baccalaureate results” as the president of Kalamoon University, Assaad Loutfi, points out — Kalamoon University is a private university that opened in 2003. The problem of the high fees is always present although some systems to provide students with scholarships have been in recent times implemented. In any case, these account for a very small number of the studying body. Another manner in order to pay reduced fees for students consists in getting very good results. In this way, private universities can return students the paid fees or avoid asking for payments in relations to the following term. 

     

Private universities are treated as public universities. Also for them it is “the Ministry of Higher Education that sets lesson plans, curriculum, interior systems and employment process, as well financial matters” remembers the president of Yarmouk Private University, Fayez Kiwan — Yarmouk Private University (Y.P.U.) opened in October 2008. What is really different between private universities and public universities is that in the former students have more flexibility in studying what they want. An important point is that in most private universities the taught courses are given in English and this could permit to students to later approach better the job market. The studying methodology normally follows the American credit-hour system and in general it is put a lot of importance on participation, team-working and the creation of solving-problem skills. In other words, private universities try to avoid an excessive reliance on rote learning. In addition, another positive feature of private universities is the fact that they have more cooperation agreements with both American and European universities and that they run exchange programs for both students and teachers. Also for private universities, exchange programs with universities abroad are based upon governmental agreements among countries.  

The problem for private universities could be the quality of the degrees they release. In fact, to date, many of these new institutions still have to graduate a class. As Syria Today magazine points out:

the legislative framework establishing private universities allow them to be set up as profit-making ventures. This mean that, unlike private universities in the West which are independent corporations of scholars, local private universities have an incentive to ease up on weaker students who would not pass elsewhere, at the expense of academic integrity.

Obviously, if private universities do not have a sufficient number of students there will be great problems for the universities in order to survive economically. This problem, as it was well explained above, can reduce that quality of the private tertiary education. Recently, a private university based in the city of Aleppo, in the northern part of the country, has been closed as a consequence of a quality gap in relation to its standards. All this said, there are some mechanisms for monitoring private universities. Normally, an academic committee check on the place whether a private university is adhering to the rules of quality assurance decided by the ministry.  

      

CONCLUSION

The steps the Syrian government has started to implement all go towards the right direction. In particular, the creation of new university branches located in different Syrian cities is probably the best move in order to reduce the number of students enrolled in every tertiary institution. In addition, it could be a good idea to provide means to assess and then to improve the quality of tertiary education in the country. Obviously, it should be implemented a strategy in order to tackle immediately all the episodes of corruption at the universities. If these corruption episodes were brought in the limelight, they would probably have negative short-term consequences in terms of bad reputation. But in the long-run, they would be important tools to improve the quality of Syrians institutions.

On the one hand, with reference to the new private universities they could be good quality institutions, but they won’t be able to reduce the overpopulation of public universities. Their fees are too high. On the other hand, private universities could be very useful to help public universities to develop modern programs, which are much more relevant when students enter the job market.

What is instead absolutely clear is the fact that Syria will need more and more economic resources devoted towards its educational system and, as such, Syria will have to divert towards the its educational system economic resources one time allocated to other areas. But it is true that if a country in today’s world wants to develop, it requires an ever-improving educational system.     



 

Arabic Language in Damascus: A Natural Blend

September 14, 2009

DAMASCUS, Syria — During the last few years, Syria has increasingly emerged as the most important cultural center for teaching Arabic. As a matter of fact, every Arab country uses two different languages: Modern Standard Arabic (M.S.A.) and colloquial Arabic. This phenomenon is called "diglossia" and consists of utilizing two forms, which sometimes are very different, of the same language according to context.

M.S.A. is used in journalism, in modern literature, on radio, on television and in formal occasions like conferences and official speeches. M.S.A. is based on Classical Arabic, which is also known to be the language used in the Koran as well as in many numerous literature texts of the Omayyad and Abbasid eras (between the 7th and 9th centuries A.D.). On the one side, differently from Classical Arabic, which today is a static language, M.S.A. is a living language and continuously evolves. Moreover, between Classical Arabic and M.S.A. there are lexical and stylistic differences. And differences exist regarding some language innovations on which the classic authorities have not ruled upon. On the other side, M.S.A. is identical from Morocco to Oman and therefore it allows a perfect understanding among people from different countries. If the native dialects of two educated Arabic speakers from two different countries are incomprehensible (for example: Moroccan colloquial and Levantine colloquial), the two speakers will revert to M.S.A. and they will perfectly understand each other. M.S.A. is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations (U.N.).

However, there is no colloquial Arabic language that works well from Casablanca, Morocco to Muscat, Oman. Indeed, we found a number of local dialects. Among these one of the closest dialects to M.S.A. is the Levantine dialect (Lebanon and Syria). It should be noted that there are many sub-dialects across the Levant (in Syria they are three) but the Levantine dialect permits an almost perfect understanding among people from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine and even a good understanding with people from Egypt. Small problems begin to arise with the dialects of the Persian Gulf. But, also in this case, if a Levantine speaker may have some little understanding problems when dealing with the Persian Gulf dialects — he may need just some time to be accustomed to different sounds — Gulf Arabs will immediately understand him. So, the Syrian-Lebanese colloquial Arabic is really a kind of passe-partout  valid for almost the entire Arab world, except for Morocco. Indeed between Syrian-Lebanese colloquial Arabic and M.S.A., there are differences especially in the usage of verbs (it’s very interesting the usage of the so called "helping verbs" in colloquial Levantine), but at the same time there are many vocabulary similarities allowing a student of Arabic to improve fast both M.S.A. and Levantine during a Damascene stay.

With reference to this point I want to debunk, once and for all, the bias that who wants to speak Arabic needs to decide whether learning M.S.A. or instead a dialect. In reality, it’s necessary to continue exercising both languages at the same time. Keeping going an everyday conversation in M.S.A. sounds really hilarious and deeply embarrasses the ears of native Arabs. Many of them might not even answer you. In addition to this, not being able to speak an Arabic dialect means losing everyday color and humor, which are present in songs, jokes, stories, films and in all the other aspects of popular culture.

My choice to come to Damascus prevailed over the option of going to Lebanon. In Beirut the Arabic dialect is very close to the dialect of Damascus, but in addition to Arabic a good part of Lebanese people speak English or French, if not both languages. Very often when a foreigner has some difficulties with Arabic, Lebanese people will immediately switch to English or French according to what their second language is. Syria has understood very well its language privilege and in the city of Damascus, many schools and centers that teach Arabic have sprung up in the last years. The main teaching centers are the University of Damascus (one-month courses), the Arabic Teaching Institute for Non-Arabic Speakers (three-month courses) and the French Cultural Center (much more expensive courses). These schools are perhaps a bit “messy”, because in the same classes there are students with very different Arabic skills, but in the end they really let you have a daily commitment of at least three hours, pushing the student to work with a language that especially in the beginning is very complex and has nothing in common with neo-Latin languages. Plus, a lot of Syrians offer to tutor students with face-to-face sessions for very reasonable prices. Some tutors are just offhanded professors who require cheap money, but that in the end do not teach well, while others are extremely well organized and allow students to get positive results in a short timeframe.

The motivations pushing students to enroll with the mentioned schools or private tutors are quite different as I have noticed myself. There are people who want to know Arabic for reading Quran and get closer to Islam, people who have to work with Arabic and, last but not least, (and this is not a small category) half-Syrian people (in general the father or the husband is Syrian) who want to learn Arabic because they do not want to lose their Arabic cultural heritage or because their family recently moved back to Syria.

The most difficult moment when studying Arabic — when a lot of people quit studying — is exactly at the beginning when students have to memorize a different alphabet, fresh sounds, unknown words and unheard grammatical constructions. But in the end, it’s living in Damascus that allows breaking the initial barrier, which is always present when the studied language does not have any overlapping points with students’ mother tongue. The key ingredient to speak Arabic after few months is mixing lectures in school, sessions with private tutors, radio, television and street chats. And in the end, as people say in Middle East, Inshallah (God willing) students will speak Arabic. 

Lingua Araba a Damasco: un connubio pressoché naturale

14 settembre 2009

DAMASCO, Siria — Negli ultimi anni la Siria sta emergendo sempre di più come il centro culturale per eccellenza per l’insegnamento della lingua araba. In ogni paese arabo si utilizzano due lingue a seconda del contesto in cui si opera: l’arabo standard e l’arabo colloquiale. Questo fenomeno si chiama diglossia e consiste nell’uso di due distinte varietà — anche molto differenti — dello stesso linguaggio generalmente in due diversi contesti.
 

L’arabo standard (Modern Standard Arabic, M.S.A.) è quello che viene utilizzato nella stampa, nella letteratura moderna, alla radio, alla televisione e in occasioni formali come discorsi ufficiali e conferenze. Esso si basa sull’arabo classico chiamato anche arabo Coranico che è quel linguaggio utilizzato dal Corano come anche in numerosi testi letterari del periodo Umayyade e Abbaside (dal settimo al nono secolo D.C.). Però a differenza dell’arabo classico, oramai una lingua statica, l’M.S.A. è una lingua viva e dunque in continua evoluzione. Inoltre, fra arabo classico e M.S.A. vi sono differenze di carattere lessicale, stilistico e in riferimento ad alcune innovazioni non regolate dalle autorità classiche. L’M.S.A. è identico dal Marocco all’Oman e quindi permette una perfetta comprensione fra persone provenienti da paesi diversi. Nell’eventualità di una conversazione fra due persone arabe di buon livello culturale e di differenti nazionalità nel caso in cui i dialetti rispettivi risultino incomprensibili (per esempio arabo colloquiale marocchino con arabo colloquiale siriano-libanese) queste due persone saranno in grado di passare all’M.S.A. e di comprendersi perfettamente. L’M.S.A. è inoltre una delle sei lingue ufficiali delle Nazioni Unite.
 

Invece non esiste una lingua colloquiale araba che vada bene da Casablanca(Marocco) a Muscat (Oman). Infatti si riscontrano tutta una serie di dialetti locali di cui quello più simile all’arabo standard o M.S.A. è quello definito grosso modo come siriano-libanese. Questo dialetto (va detto però che già all’interno della Siria vi sono almeno tre sottodialetti) permette inoltre una pressoché perfetta comprensione fra persone provenienti da Siria, Libano, Giordania e Palestina e un’ottima comprensione con persone provenienti dall’Egitto. Dei problemi iniziano a sorgere con i dialetti del Golfo Arabo. Però anche in questo caso bisogna notare che se da un lato un interlocutore che parli il dialetto siriano-libanese avrà qualche difficoltà iniziale a comprendere i dialetti del Golfo e necessiterà di un pò di tempo per adattarsi, dell’altro lato egli verrà quasi interamente compreso sin dall’inizio da un abitante del Golfo. L’arabo colloquiale siriano-libanese, dunque, è una sorta di passpartout valevole per quasi tutto il mondo arabo, Maghreb escluso.
 

Infatti fra arabo colloquiale siriano-libanese e M.S.A. vi sono delle differenze nell’utilizzo dei verbi (interessante l’utilizzo dei cosiddetti “helping verbs” nel colloquiale) però vi sono anche moltissime analogie a livello di vocabolario che permettono di portare avanti nello stesso tempo ambedue le varietà di lingua araba durante un soggiorno damasceno. A questo riguardo bisognerebbe sfatare una volta per tutte il preconcetto che chi vuole parlare arabo debba decidere se imparare l’M.S.A. oppure il dialetto. In realtà, è necessario ed è altamente consigliabile di portarli avanti ambedue nello stesso tempo. Pensare di sostenere una conversazione inerente la vita di tutti i giorni in M.S.A. apparirà come una cosa ilare e fortemente impacciata alle orecchie di tutti i nativi arabi e molti di loro non risponderanno neppure. Inoltre, non parlare un dialetto significa invariabilmente perdere il colore, lo humor del linguaggio della vita di tutti i giorni presente in canzoni, barzellette, storie, film e tutti gli altri aspetti della cultura popolare.
 

Nel mio caso la scelta di venire a Damasco ha prevalso sulla possibilità di andare in Libano A Beirut — dove il dialetto locale è pressoché lo stesso di Damasco — buona parte della popolazione parla in aggiunta all’arabo inglese oppure francese se non un po’ di tutti e due. Spesso e volentieri quando uno straniero avrà delle difficoltà a parlare arabo l’interlocutore locale cambierà immediatamente lingua passando all’inglese oppure al francese a seconda del caso.
 

La Siria ha compreso molto bene questo suo privilegio di carattere linguistico e nella città di Damasco sono sorti molti centri dove è possibile effettuare dei corsi di arabo. E similmente moltissimi siriani si offrono come tutori linguistici face-to-face per cifre molto basse. Le principali scuole sono l’Università di Damasco (corsi di un mese), lo Arabic Teaching Institute for Non-Arabic Speakers (corsi di tre mesi) e il Centro Culturale Francese (quest’ultimo molto più caro). Queste scuole forse — anche in base alla mia personale esperienza — sono un po’caotiche però permettono veramente di avere un impegno quotidiano di almeno tre ore che spinge lo studente a lavorare in una lingua che specialmente all’inizio è molto complessa senza punti di contatto con le lingue neo-latine. Ugualmente con i tutori privati va posta un po’ di attenzione nella scelta. Alcuni sono professori improvvisati che prendono poco ma rendono anche poco, altri invece sono estremamente organizzati e permettono di ottenere ottimi risultati in poco tempo.
 

Le motivazioni che spingono gli studenti a registrarsi presso le scuole o con dei tutori privati sono le più varie come ho potuto constatare io stesso. Si passa da persone che vogliono studiare l’arabo per poter leggere il Corano e che vogliono avvicinarsi sempre di più alla religione musulmana, a persone che invece in futuro dovranno lavorare con la lingua araba, a persone – e questa categoria non e’ piccola - che hanno un componente della famiglia siriano (primariamente il padre oppure il marito) e che vogliono imparare l’arabo per non dissipare un patrimonio culturale presente in famiglia oppure perché si sono trasferiti da poco in Siria.
 

Con l’arabo il momento più difficile, quando molte persone si “arrendono”, è proprio all’inizio, quando uno studente si trova a confrontarsi con un alfabeto differente, con suoni differenti, con parole differenti e con costruzioni grammaticali differenti. In ogni modo è il vivere a Damasco che permette di rompere quella barriera iniziale che esiste sempre quando vi sono scarsi punti di contatto fra una lingua di partenza ed un’altra. E’ il mix di lezioni scolastiche, tutori privati, radio, televisione e chiacchiere di strada che rende possibile dopo qualche mese fare un certo salto di qualità ed iniziare a parlare arabo. E poi, come si dice da queste parti, “se Dio vorrà”alla fine lo studente parlerà arabo.



 

Europe and the Recession

Will the recession do more to divide or unite Europe?

 

March 18, 2009

FLORENCE, Italy — It seems very plausible that during 2009 Europe will face a huge economic downturn with G.D.P. tumbling by 3.6 percent (according to Goldman Sachs, an international bank), while the German economy — by far the most important economy at the E.U. level — could plummet by 5.2 percent. In addition to these general very dark forecasts, until now it is not entirely understandable how to solve two disruptive issues that Europe has to confront right now: growing trade imbalances within the Eurozone and possible sovereign state defaults in Eastern and Central Europe.   

First, the growing trade imbalances within the Eurozone where the economically most vulnerable countries — the so-called PIIGS (Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece)— are considered to be more prone to undergoing an economic stagnation as a consequence of the current recession. These economic imbalances have already started to be evident since the middle of 2008 because of the spreads between the yields of German bunds and the yields paid by bonds emitted by PIIGS countries. The worst case scenario is to have one of the PIIGS countries forced to abandon the euro with all the consequences that such a move could mean for the future of the common European currency.

 

The second issue to be solved is linked to what is happening in Eastern and Central Europe where some sovereign states, like Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia, really risk defaulting in the next months and where also other countries like the Czech Republic and Slovakia — which are in better economic conditions — will be strongly touched upon by both the general economic recession and the dramatic situations of the surrounding countries. If one of these countries defaults also the eurozone could be brought down. At the moment it is understandable that the E.U. and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) will provide financial help, but given the fact that serious risks of huge household defaults exist in Eastern and Central Europe, will both the E.U. and the I.M.F. be capable of injecting the required resources in order to avoid the default of sovereign states? There is no clear answer.

In other words, the situation is critical and it is quite interesting to try to investigate whether the recession could boost Europe’s unity or could rather be an instrument of division among the European countries — such an instrument would indeed create fissures to the EU building. This recession could already have been for the E.U. a great opportunity — probably for Europe in general — to become a more integrated area. Last October, after the failures and the bailing-outs of many an international bank on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean it seemed that also in Europe there was a clear understanding among Europe's political key players (N. Sarkozy, G. Brown, A. Merkel) of the fact that global problems require collective solutions. Instead, after initial proposals regarding an extension of the field of action of the E.U. economic policy, Germany strongly rejected this possibility. Since then, all the attention has been given more to domestic interventions rather than to the implementation of collective E.U. actions. All this means that the indicators are not positive and that at the moment it is possible to have started a process that will continue to divide Europe rather than unify it. The economic crisis is a reality that cannot be avoided, but good E.U. economic politics could be the best tool to tackle it at three different levels: eurozone (16 countries), E.U. (27 countries), and European countries not included in the E.U. But could this be implemented in the next weeks? The answer is no.

In fact, Europe misses a class of national leaders seriously oriented towards the European idea. None of the political leaders of the E.U. most important countries, i.e., France, Germany, Italy and U.K., is entirely committed to the advancement of the E.U. In particular, there is not anymore a credible Franco-German axis, like the one that around 20 years ago at the time of Mitterand and Kohl was the real cornerstone of the European building. What is striking today is the position of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who does not understand that carving out just national solutions is not the right answer for Berlin. In fact, economic growth in Germany has become in the last years more reliant on exports than for the rest of the currency union. At the same time, Germany has continued to have a constant weakness in relation to its domestic demand. In other words, this means that the German economy is not well balanced and that its future possibilities are not extremely positive in reason of the current global recession that is investing also the Eurozone where are located the most important buyers of German products. The reasons for this position is probably linked to the fact that German politicians (like all politicians) have to respond to their constituencies. And these groups do not have a clear picture of the basic imbalances that have generated the current global economic turmoil, while they merely understand how to retrench their national economies domestically. This brings to another aspect, which is the widening gap between the E.U. institutions and the people of the countries members of the E.U. This trend had already emerged during the previous years and the vicissitudes of the Lisbon Treaty well exemplified it. What is happening now is only the following step.

The absence of politicians committed toward the European building is the real and most difficult hurdle to overcome in order to use this current global recession to unify in a better way Europe. On the one hand, it's true that  prospects are really grim. In Eastern Europe (Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) it is already growing support for nationalistic movements — some of them inspired by the Nazi-Fascist ideology — and, given the fact that for the whole 2009 the economic situation will continue to worsen, the outlook is depressing. On the other hand, there is a possibility that the economic recession could be used to unite Europe. In fact, if  the global recession really risked destroying the E.U., probably, such a scenario would force the E.U. technocrats, as well as the politicians of the member countries, first to understand that only a common action could save the European dream, and second to find a way to implement a reliable solution.

 

The Integrated Framework: Institutional Conflict Over Mandate, Role and Responsibility

March 1, 2009

BACCI, A., The Integrated Framework: Institutional Conflict over Mandate, Role and Responsibility in SANER, R. & MICHELUN, V., Negotiations between State Actors and Non-State Actors: Case Analyses from Different Parts of the World, 6 International Negotiation Series, Republic of Letters Publishing, Dordrecht, March 2009.

Possible Advantages & Disadvantages of G-8 Expansion

 

September 9, 2008

ABSTRACT

In the international relations arena there is an increasing debate about the possible advantages and disadvantages of expanding the Group of Eight (G-8). The aim of this article is — after a brief historical introduction with reference to the G-8 and its role — to try to understand the pros and cons of G-8 expansion in the light of the recent public debate.

Introduction

The group of the world's eight most industrialized countries includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia (only since 2006), the UK and the USA. Previously, Russia was admitted to the meetings of the then G-7 countries only as an observer. This forum was created in the 1970s and initially it brought together the governments of France, West Germany, Italy, Japan the U.S and the U.K. At that time, the world was partly trying to recover from the oil shock of 1973 and the following economic recession spurred by the huge increase in the price of oil. The idea of creating a group including the most industrialized countries was linked to the fact that it could be very helpful to cyclically have a forum where to discuss at the highest level about the international economic situation. It is important to understand that also today the G-8 is not an organization but a forum. The participation of Italy to the group was partially opposed in the 1970s by some other countries that were casting doubts about the stability and the results of the Italian economy.

   

The problem that has arisen since the last years is that the membership of the G-8 is not completely matching anymore all the real powerhouses of the world economy. This means that G-8 countries are without any doubt important economic players, but that in order to have a sound and complete discussion about the international economic trends new members should probably be added to the forum. Among them it goes by itself to mention China, India and Brazil, but others countries like Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa could also be considered. In Paragraph 1 it will be discussed the advantages of extending the G-8 membership, while in Paragraph 2 it will be done an evaluation of the disadvantages of such an extension.

Paragraph 1 — Advantages

As well as for some other international organizations (but I repeat the G-8 is not an international organization) the actual real risk for the G-8 is to lose legitimization if it does not increase its membership. Obviously, if G-8 meetings continue in the future to have a membership only partially covering the most important economic players the risk of losing legitimization will become a reality. The world economy is not anymore only driven by the U.S., Europe and Japan. Asia is — economically speaking — rising powerfully and the balance of power is moving from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The advantages of an extended G-8 membership could well comply with the reason and the aim of this kind of forum. Similarly to the G-8, the I.M.F. (the International Monetary Fund) risks losing importance as well, if it does not restructure its voting structure. Given the fact that an increased membership is necessary for the G-8, the real issue is to understand how to reform it, i.e., to understand which country should be admitted.

This is the core of the problem. According to some analysts the G-8 should be transformed into a G-20 adding at least 12 more countries. But others speak of  a G-22 adding 14 new members. Probably, the right way to solve the problem could be to have a first extension of the membership adding those countries, like China and India, that already represent a big chunk of the world economy. Then, after this first extension, others could follow suit in the future when their economies will have increased their role with reference to the world economic trends. 

     

Paragraph 2 — Disadvantages

The clear and obvious disadvantage of an increased membership is the possible slow motion of the decision-making procedures during the meetings of the new G-10 (G-20?, G-22?). Increasing the number of actors could block the discussions or bring about additional frictional topics among member states. For example, the admittance of Russia in the forum in 2006 created a shift of the discussed topics from mainly economics themes to geopolitical considerations given the new assertiveness of Russian internal and external politics (this shift happened well before the Russian intervention in Georgia). Another good example of the difficulties created by a broad membership, although in a different context, is the W.T.O., where since the inception of the Doha Round in 2001 the process has been blocked by the different positions expressed by the member states.

Another disadvantage for a G-8 expansion could be that an enlarged membership would probably require the transformation of this sort of forum, which is the actual G-8, into a real organization capable of coordinating meetings with more delegations, topics and possible political frictions among the involved member states. The forum would have to be transformed into a real organization with additional costs, which not all the countries want to sustain.  

 

Conclusion

All this said, according to the expounded analysis, the advantages of G-8 expansion well outweighs the disadvantages. Maintaining an economic forum that is not able anymore to represent the world economy is definitely useless. Similarly, other international organizations will necessarily change their membership and one of these is the I.M.F. In other words, with reference to the group of the most industrialized countries it is worth having a new forum with more actors where the decision-making process could be slow, but where, at least, the forum is a living body well representing today’s world.