Education & Health
From The Report: Kuwait 2013
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The Ministry of Education is moving ahead with plans to develop schools on a public-private partnership basis in order to deal with pressure from the country’s rapidly expanding youth population. Kuwait’s health care industry is also on the verge of a major period of development and expansion. The planned establishment of an independent regulatory body in the near future is a sign of market maturation. While the Ministry of Health will likely continue to play a central role for years to come, particularly in terms of health care provision for nationals, the private sector is increasingly active, and could potentially serve as a major foreign direct investment draw over the course of the coming decade. This chapter contains an interview with: Adnan A Shihab-Eldin, Director-General, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Broadening horizons: New developments will focus on improving quality and capacity
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As a key component of Vision 2030, the government’s long-term economic planning document, Kuwait’s education sector is poised for substantial expansion in the coming years. Indeed, improving the quality of the education on offer in schools and universities is widely considered to be a prerequisite to achieving the state’s overarching goals of developing a competitive local workforce and diversifying the economy away from hydrocarbons dependence. With this in mind, a number of education-related…

Analysis

Virtual learning: Integrating technology into curricula is a key area of focus
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Information and communications technology (ICT) will play an increasingly important role in Kuwait’s schools and universities in the next few years. Indeed, two state-funded projects under way could potentially transform the education sector over the course of the coming decade. The government’s Education Net project, which is currently in development, aims to connect every government school and library to a data network. According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), which is overseeing the…

Interview

OBG talks to Adnan A Shihab-Eldin, Director-General, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS)
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Interview:Adnan A Shihab-Eldin What regulatory changes need to be made to transform Kuwait into a knowledge-based society? ADNAN A SHIHAB-ELDIN: Kuwait has always welcomed the idea of incorporating science and technology into its economic development. Over the last 50 years, many institutions have been given ample opportunities to do so. The Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research, Kuwait University, and KFAS were established in 1960. Volatile growth over the years has slowed the natural…

Overview

Getting into shape: With a push from the state, private health care provision is on the rise
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With high levels of government spending and steadily increasing private sector participation, Kuwait’s health care industry is poised for considerable expansion in the coming years. The Ministry of Health (MoH), which is constitutionally mandated to offer free health care to all Kuwaiti citizens, accounts for the great majority of medical provision. In 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, the government accounted for around 80% of total health expenditure in the country,…

Analysis

An apple a day: Combatting non-communicable diseases has become a priority
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Improving public health has been the overarching goal of health care development in Kuwait for over a century. The nation has had a considerable amount of success in this area. As of 2011, life expectancy in the country was nearly 78, up from the low 60s at the time of independence in 1961, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Similarly, the infant mortality rate fell from 80-100 per 1000 live births in 1950 to 10.7 per 1000 live births in 2011, according to data from the WHO. Most…