Yemen

Partners situated in Yemen

None.

Yemen in a nutshell

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen)

Yemen (Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen (Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhuuriyya al-Yamaniyya) is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east.

Source : http://www.cia.gov

Yemen's size is just under 530,000 km2, and its territory includes over 200 islands, the largest of which is Socotra, about 415 kilometres (259 miles) to the south of Yemen, off the coast of Somalia.

Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people.

Its capital is Sana'a.

Between 2000 and 2006, 17.5% of the population lived on less than US$ 1.25 per day.

In 2006 Yemen began an economic reform programme designed to bolster non-oil sectors of the economy and foreign investment. As a result of the program, international donors pledged about $5 billion for development projects. In addition, Yemen has made some progress on reforms over the last year that will likely encourage foreign investment. Oil revenues increased in 2007.

Yemen is divided into twenty governorates (muhafazah) and one municipality. The governorates are subdivided into 333 districts (muderiah), which are subdivided into 2,210 sub-districts, and then into 38,284 villages (as of 2001)

Yemen is the only republic on the Arabian Peninsula, and one of seven in the Arab World.

Yemen has one of the world's highest birth rates, similar to the rate in Somalia to the south - roughly twice as high as that of Saudi Arabia and nearly three times as high as those in the more modernized Gulf Arab states.

Yemenis are mainly of Arab origin.

When the former states of north and south Yemen were established, most resident minority groups departed.[23]

Arabic is the official language, although English is increasingly understood by citizens in major cities. In the Mahra area (the extreme east) and the island of Soqotra, several ancient south-Arabic Semitic languages are spoken.

Islam is the religion of almost all of the population in Yemen, with Sunni and Shia in roughly equal proportions.

Note that Yemen is not a member of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

Yemen education policy

There are several ministries that manage the education system at different levels. General education is under the purview of Ministry of Education(MoE). Vocational schools and community colleges are managed by the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training (MoTEVT). The tertiary education is regulated by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR). There is also a small private sector that accounts for 2% of basic and secondary each and 15% of university enrollments for the year 2005.

The Government of Yemen has subsidized public schooling at all levels. Most of the expenditure increase in the education sector is allotted for post secondary education. This expenditure increase led to greater expansion of education services. From 250,000 students in the 1970, there are now about 4.3 million students in basic education. In addition, between 1996 and 2004, enrollment increased at secondary level from 324,000 to 595,000 students and at the university level from 104,000 to 201,000 students.

Recently, Government of Yemen launched an exercise to improve communication and coordinate policies among the three ministries so as to have a more integrated vision for education. The government has also worked in collaboration with the Governments of Netherlands, Germany and the UK, and also with multi-donor organizations, such as the World Bank, DFID and CIDA to make substantial improvements in the education system at all levels.

Yemen education system

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Yemen)

The Government of Yemen has made the development of education system its top priority. The share of the budget dedicated to education has remained high during the past decade, averaging between 14 to 20% [1] of the total government expenditure and as of 2000 it is 32.8 percent. The education expenditure is 9.6 percent of GDP for the year 2001. In the strategic vision for the next 25 years since 2000,the government has committed to bring significant changes in the education system, thereby reducing illiteracy to less than 10% by 2025. Although Yemen’s government provide for universal, compulsory, free education for children ages six through 15, the U.S. Department of State reports that compulsory attendance is not enforced. The country ranked 150 out of 177 in the 2006 Human Development Index and 121 out of 140 countries in the Gender Development Index(2006). It is also very likely that Yemen will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, despite increase in enrolment rates in the past few years. In 2005, 81 percent of Yemen’s school-age population was enrolled in primary school; enrollment of the female population was 74 percent. Then in 2005, about 46 percent of the school-age population was enrolled in secondary school, including only 30 percent of eligible females. The country is still struggling to provide the requisite infrastructure. School facilities and educational materials are of poor quality, classrooms are too few in number, and the teaching faculty is inadequate.

Higher education

Universities in Yemen

There are public and private universities. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Yemen The page http://www.webometrics.info/university_by_country.asp?country=ye lists URLs but notes that several are not in the Yemen domain - confirming other reports that the National Research and Education Network developments are at an early stage.

Polytechnics in Yemen

Several institutions are listed uner "Schools, Colleges, Academies, Universities & Polytechnics" at http://www.hejleh.com/countries/yemen.html - in particular:

• The American School - Typical American curriculum
• Aden University
• Al-Ahqaf University, Mukalla
• Al-Iman University, Sanaa
• Hadhramout University of Science & Technology
• Ibb University,
• Queen Arwa University + Sanaa
• Sanaa University,
• University of Science & Technology, Sanaa & Hodeidah
• Yemen Networking Academy (Learn about the networks devices by CISCO)

Yemen's HEIs in the information society

(sourced from http://www.comminit.com/en/node/148411)

The Ministry of Education is take measures to secure sustainability of all ICT resources in the HE sector. This will include establishing the Yemen Foundation of Information Technology in Higher Education (YFIT-HE) to manage and maintain all common ICT assets, information resources, and other ICT related services such as training and end-user support. The development of cadres of ICT management and support services staff will be facilitated by establishing training programmes and facilities. Skills in the day-to-day management of ICT resources will be developed and user support services in HE institutions will be provided. Finally, the Ministry will create conditions, enabling public HE institutions to establish their own ‘local’ ICT management capabilities that will be complementary to the national facility.

A project (NPT/YEM/018, January 2004 – April 2006) has been completed with Dutch and Tanzania partners to: Develop an ICT Policy for the Yemen higher education system and ICT Master Plans for 10 institutions of Higher Learning in cooperation with, and for the benefit of, the MoHESR and ten institutions of higher learning. (see http://www.nuffic.nl/pdf/cb/npt/yemen-npt-country-information.pdf)

Towards the information society

Telecommunications

(sourced from http://www.reportbuyer.com/telecoms/country_overviews_telecommunications/yemen_telecoms_mobile_broadband.html

The telecommmunicationsmarket has had little liberalisation, competition or private investment outside the mobile sector. All fixed-line and Internet services are provided by state-owned PTC and its subsidiaries.

Infrastructure improvement has been slow and fixed-line penetration remains at less than 5%. ADSL broadband services have been launched however and both dial-up and broadband Internet subscribers are growing steadily but from a very small base and Internet user penetration remains at only 5%. (Other reports note that ADSL is very expensive compared with the average wage.)

Yemen's low literacy rate, at about 50% of the population, is a major reason for low Internet penetration. Among adult women, literacy rates are only around 25%.

Low Internet penetration rates also reflect the small number of computers in the country. Most Internet users access the Internet at Internet cafes, of which there were nearly 1,000 in 2009.

Internet censorship is very strict.

Mobile telecoms are the big success story. Steady growth of 40-50% over the past two years has seen penetration rates rise to nearly 30%.

Virtual Campuses in HE

Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives

None.

Interesting Programmes

No Programmes as such. None are likely in the near future.

Re.ViCa Case-study

NOne.

Lessons learnt

Yemen is still at too early a stage of development for ICT and e-elearning to be widespread.

References

Wikipedia

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Yemen
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Yemen

Others

• The Country & People of Yemen, http://www.hejleh.com/countries/yemen.html - with much more "local colour" and relevance than other sites
• NPT COUNTRY INFORMATION - YEMEN, NUFFIC, http://www.nuffic.nl/pdf/cb/npt/yemen-npt-country-information.pdf
• Yemen ICT4D Sectoral Policy - Education, 2005, http://www.comminit.com/en/node/148411
• http://www.reportbuyer.com/telecoms/country_overviews_telecommunications/yemen_telecoms_mobile_broadband.html

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