Ba'thist ideology, economic development and educational strategy

The changed educational situation in Syria brought about during the 1950s is not fully represented by the increased numbers of students and the expansion of the educational facilities that greatly altered the state's capacity to educate the population. Its real significance lies in the wider context of the economic and social realities that existed at that time in Syria. Education began to break down the traditional barriers that had always separated Syrian society: urban/rural, male/female, Sunni/non-Sunni and rich/poor. In the words of one observer, it became a 'means of homogenizing the separate social groups in Syrian society'. Secondly, the appearance of new political parties, such as the Socialists, coincided with increasing enrollment at the universities which meant that these parties had a new social base from which to recruit. Consequently, students became politicized, as evidenced by the overthrow of the Shishakli regime, which was instigated by student activists at Aleppo and Damascus. Against the reality of this rapid educational expansion stood the traditional economic structures. As late as 1958, 70 per cent of the rural population were still denied educational opportunities owing to the lack of a sufficiently effective political organization to carry out policy. Real economic and social change, including education, would have to wait for the Ba'thist assumption of power in 1963, when political power and a commitment to economic change came together, and the political will to enforce that wedding of development policies emerged

Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society