One of the most promising signals in recent education reforms in the Sultanate of Oman is the decision to bring general education and higher education under a single ministerial vision. This move should be welcomed not as an administrative adjustment, but as a conceptual breakthrough. Now, education can be treated not as a series of disconnected stages, but as a continuous life cycle — accompanying individuals from early childhood through adulthood, reskilling, and lifelong learning.
Advanced nations organise education around people, not institutions. They recognise learning as cumulative and developmental, where early foundations shape later outcomes and transitions are managed rather than improvised. A unified education ministry gives Oman the opportunity to align curricula, pedagogy, assessment, and skills development across the entire journey — closing the gaps that often appear between school, university, and the labour market.
Yet institutional alignment alone will not suffice. The deeper dilemmas facing education in Oman are structural.
The first is the dilemma of purpose. The system continues to oscillate between education as certification and education as formation. Students quickly learn that navigating requirements often matters more than mastering ideas. Degrees multiply, but judgement, adaptability, and intellectual confidence lag behind. Employers complain about readiness; graduates complain about relevance. This is not a generational failure — it is a systemic one, rooted in misaligned incentives and unclear educational ends. Across OECD countries, employment rates are higher among those with vocational qualifications than general ones (83 per cent vs 73 per cent for 25–34-year-olds), showing that skills delivery — not just credentials — matters for economic outcomes.
A second dilemma lies in how knowledge is taught as opposed to transferred. Curricula remain dense with content but thin on method. Students are rewarded for recall rather than reasoning, for compliance rather than curiosity. Critical thinking features prominently in policy language but far less in classroom practice and assessment. Advanced systems teach students how to think under uncertainty, how to test assumptions, and how to revise conclusions. Too often, our teachers teach students how to perform under certainty in artificial conditions.
The language dilemma may be the most under-acknowledged — and the most consequential. Oman’s aspiration to educate in a global language is understandable; English opens doors to science, technology, and international exchange. But educating large segments of the population in a non-native language creates hidden disadvantages.
For many students, English becomes an obstacle rather than a medium of thought. Cognitive effort shifts from understanding ideas to decoding language. Talent is filtered not by intelligence or creativity, but by linguistic privilege — often correlated with socio-economic background or early exposure. At the same time, Arabic is frequently underdeveloped as a language of analysis and inquiry, reduced to formality rather than intellectual depth. The result is a silent exclusion of capable students whose potential is constrained not by ability, but by the language architecture of the system.
Advanced nations confront this dilemma honestly. They invest in strong mother-tongue cognitive foundations, introduce second languages strategically, and ensure that language empowers rather than excludes. Until Oman treats language policy as a question of equity and cognition, not merely internationalisation, educational outcomes will remain uneven.
Equally pressing is the dilemma of teachers. No reform survives weak teacher empowerment. Yet teachers operate within tightly prescribed systems that limit professional discretion and intellectual renewal. Training often emphasises compliance over mastery, coverage over impact. In advanced systems, teachers are trusted professionals—designers of learning and mentors of judgement. Without elevating their status, autonomy, and intellectual life, reform will stall.
Last, but not least, is the dilemma of pathways and hierarchy. Academic tracks continue to enjoy cultural prestige, while vocational and technical routes are framed as second choices. This hierarchy is economically irrational and socially damaging. Advanced economies dissolve false binaries between thinking and doing, and design permeable systems that allow individuals to move fluidly between academic, vocational, and technical pathways over their lives. Learning is recognised as non-linear; skills are respected and mobile. Oman, by contrast, still channels students into rigid tracks that are difficult to exit or re-enter, producing credentials misaligned with labour-market needs while industries struggle to find technical talent.
The merger of education portfolios offers a rare opportunity to think systemically. But success will depend on whether structural integration is matched by conceptual courage — the willingness to confront uncomfortable truths about purpose, language, pedagogy, and power.
Education is not merely a sector. It is the country’s operating system. With around 63 per cent of the population under 30 and a youth unemployment rate still significant, the mismatch between education and employment outcomes carries real economic risk. If Oman wishes to compete among advanced nations, it must design that system around the full life cycle of its people — clearly, equitably and without illusion.
Ahmed al Mukhaini
The author is a policy analyst
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