Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair on the UAE's economy and education system

Gulf News

As Mashreq celebrates its 50th anniversary, its energetic CEO, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, marks a full life in both the private sector and in public life. The successful banker and businessman talks of his pride in his time as Speaker of the Federal National Council, and how he is focusing on the vital topic of improving education in the UAE. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00I think the sunshine is there. I mean, if you look at the money we make, the profit

00:12the organization making, it's a very decent money compared to what is happening in the

00:19rest of the world. So people have to be content also. Qana'a, you know. Qana'a is being a

00:28content individual, not greedy to the degree that you, you know, dissatisfy what you have.

00:36I think what we have is very good. Yes, we got used, we were spoiled by double-digit

00:43growth. So what is wrong with a single-digit growth? It's great.

00:53We applied the same kind of discipline as if it was a privately held company. And of

00:59course, Mashaq was a publicly held company and we have imposed that kind of discipline.

01:03I think that have helped us to, you know, pass through all the ups and downs in the

01:11economy for the last 50 years.

01:19We have raised awareness and we have reached a great relationship with the cabinet, with

01:27the executive arm of the government. And there have been some challenging times in the interest

01:35of the country. And the government took us as a serious partner. When you put something

01:43on the table, which has number one interest is the country. Everybody listen.

01:52Yes, I am concerned for UAE size and economy size, political role to place. Our education

02:07could be much better. And the government have realized and they are started and they

02:17have realized this is a way and they have kept it as a priority. And we have no choice

02:26but to fix the education system from kindergarten to university.

02:35Why do we have a dropout from schools? We should first stop that, then increase the

02:40quality of teaching and quality of learning at school and experience, and then go on and

02:49look at the university. Why don't we have the top five universities in the Arab world

02:55comes from UAE? Okay, forget the world. I want to be the top university in the Arab

03:00world comes from UAE. I have the top five universities come from UAE. And then I say,

03:06okay, Asia, then Europe, then the world. We need those universities to be ranked at that

03:13level. We need to have the master degrees and the PhD degrees university as well here.

03:21We're not going to survive on just undergraduate. We need to have a research based university

03:27who really produces quality thinker. So these are the challenges and we need to have our

03:38students graduating from high school. Every single university will fight to admit them.

03:44Today, bulk majority of high school graduate go through foundation. This is not acceptable.

03:54That means our education system has failed.

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