Evaluation

The participants who offered their views on the evaluation of the imported systems and models, be it their take on the process or their own personal assessment of what was going on, produced disparity and divergence in attitude that ranged from positive to extreme negative.

Positive Perceptions of the Evaluation Process On the positive front were P06, P10, P11 and P16.

Acknowledging Evaluation Cycles and Guidelines

P06 noted that there was “always follow-up and evaluation” for what might work and what might not work for Oman. Giving more specific details, P11 described a cycle of evaluation with radical assessment taking place once every five years to find out whether the objectives were met and whether the outputs met the needs of the healthcare system in Oman. P11 also noted that with the establishment of OAAA, the evaluation process in 2008/2009 examined whether “we were on the right track” and whether the syllabus was in line with the standards of Oman qualifications framework. Furthermore, P16 evaluated the experience of CAS, which completed ten years since the contract with NZ, “we have become a heritage to the NZ system”, clarifying that “the curriculum between now and the one we brought in 2005 is almost unrecognisable. The difference between them is big … we have added and developed according to what fits Omani context, Omani curriculum, Omani student, local community institutions, and commercial and industrial community and institutions”. Overall, P10 acknowledged that in HE “we succeeded a lot”.

To Err is Human

P06 admitted, “We are Omanis, [we] are not ashamed to say we’ve made a mistake. We correct these mistakes along the way. There is no such thing as perfection especially in HE. Perfection is a virtue of Allah”. She reported that there were degrees of mistakes ranging from “wrong or slightly wrong or a bigger degree of wrong”, but there was “always scope to correct it” and internal committees to take care of this. P10 also recognised that ‘some did not work’, especially in private HE because ‘they brought things in a way that did not fit with the environment and they failed, so these were changed’. Having said that, P10 pointed out that this problem was not limited to Oman, as it also existed in all GCC countries.

Benefiting from External (Western) Evaluators and Models

P06 stated, “sometimes when we need expertise we call on international organisations, UNESCO, the World Bank” and many other international organisations to provide experts to come and work with Omani authorities. “Sometimes we bring outside evaluators [who] come and tell us what is going wrong, how are we doing and so forth” she disclosed.

P11 also talked about the major transformation of shifting from a 3-year nursing diploma to a 4-year bachelor’s degree, which was a major plan by the ministry, but actually directed by a WHO recommendation for the whole GCC region. Moreover, for the planning of their programmes, P11 explained, “we designed our programme and sent it to the university of California to be evaluated. You may ask, why the University of California? Because we have a relationship; the dean there came to Oman as an expert and worked here for some time. She helped design the nursing programme at SQU and she knows about the context. So, we thought we should send it to someone who knows the context to evaluate it for us and they sent us back some feedback and we modified it”.

Negative Perceptions of the Evaluation Process On the negative side were P04, P05 and P15.

All three respondents, from groups B and D, believed that an evaluation plan for imported Western models and systems was either poor or lacking. They also offered their opinion

regarding several projects and models that were borrowed from foreign and Western countries, some even accusing the overall HE management of being ‘random’.

No Real Evaluation; Poor Quality

P04 claimed, “evaluation as a concept, there isn’t. Officials talk, etc. but to say an external evaluation committee where they bring people, I haven’t experienced this.” Talking about his own experience, he stated, “locally, I have not been offered a project to give my expertise … for us, as deans, to give our opinion on a certain matter. I talk from my experience now, but if there was evaluation that I don’t know about, I cannot answer you”. Overall, P05 stated, “If you assess education, you [will] see that there’s not a lot of quality and the proof is that we are still depending, we are still importing technology”, in an indication that the practice of “importing” was a sign of failure. Similarly, assessing the consequences of the policy of importing and applying Western, or foreign, philosophies and systems, P15 expressed his dissatisfaction with the status of Omani education, be it general or HE, as the recent PIRLS and TIMSS indicators as well as global competitiveness reports were disappointing. He clarified that perhaps due to improvement as compared to the past, “in recent times perhaps we have not sensed this; to the contrary, we have felt there has been improvement and better quality” but this to him did not mean that the situation was any better.

The CAS Model: Randomness in Management and Vision

P05 considered CAS a non-Omani system, a version that “came ready” from NZ. To him, this move was not studied well as he questioned, “What is the difference between applied science and technical education and vocational education? There has been a duplication”. Analysing how CAS replaced the old teachers’ colleges, P05 argued, “We thought … that we are solving the problem, but we create[d] another problem. We have a deficiency in the number of teachers”. To him, such a model, despite being owned and operated by the government, reflected some kind of “randomness in vision” and “lack of planning”, he asserted.

P05’s opinion was also shared by P15, who questioned the decision of the government to phase out the teachers’ colleges and open up new specialisations, such as graphics and design, in the NZ-borrowed CAS. He believed that such decisions were not “well- studied” and were imposed on students without being given any options to choose from.

The Basic Education Model: A Failed Experience

According to P15, Basic Education represented a clear example of the failure of imported Western systems. First, he pointed out that the fractional or selective application of the original model resulted in poor student outcomes represented in serious literacy problems. Second, P15 stressed that the Western model took away most of teacher’s authority, leading to teacher frustration. He clarified that due to the adoption of a Western style of schooling, the teacher “has no right to punish any student”, to the extent that “the student complains against the teacher and the latter is a defendant in court while the student is watching”. “What more humiliation and insult than this!”, P15 expressed his disappointment with the status of the teacher.

Affiliation: A Business Producing Low Quality Results

Assessing the affiliation system, P05 contended that “affiliation in general, that you take the name [of the Western university] and put it for the sake of a degree is useless, waste of time and waste of money”. Maintaining that it was not a solution, he revealed, “When it comes outside their border, it’s a business”, whereas for “us, it’s a degree. It’s not knowledge nor skill. It’s a degree”. He emphasised, “if this is the kind of affiliation, this is internationalisation … and it’s money. It’s a business”.

Western Experts: Low-Impact Reports

Questioning the impact of international development reports such as those done by foreign experts from the World Bank and UNESCO, P05 claimed that “our problem is that we enjoy things, especially when we read it [sic]”. He explained that these experts come, “stay one year, two years, etc.” in the host country, and then produce their reports in “a nice readable book”. “What was applied?” he wondered, after “they consulted and [did] surveys and brain storming sessions”. He replied, “because no one has lived it … and no one has told them, so now we finished this project, how do we implement it?”