There has been an unprecedented decline in teenagers' maths, reading and science skills around the world in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, new rankings show.
But perhaps the most alarming finding from the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) report, is the decline in reading proficiency among 15-year-old pupils.
This was noticeable in the UAE, where pupils achieved an average score of 417, a drop of 14 points since the last Pisa report in 2018.
Experts believe reading skills declined during the Covid-19 pandemic as pupils spent more time on screens and devices and less time with books.
There is a generational decline in interest in reading
Rashmi Nandkeolyar
Rashmi Nandkeolyar, principal at Delhi Private School Dubai, warned that unless children are motivated or encouraged to read, their skills will continue to decline.
“When children are at home, they are not so cognitively engaged,” Ms Nandkeolyar said.
“Also, there might have been a lot of interest in playing games on tablets … that's why the rigour was not as good or pronounced as usual.”
However, Ms Nandkeolyar noted: “There is a generational decline in interest in reading over the years, while in maths and science, it isn't so.
“Maths and science are regarded as desirable subjects, while reading for pleasure is not a desirable activity by young people. Unless we push it, it will continue to decline.”
There is a plan, though.
In the past two years, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Dubai's private education regulator, has been promoting reading across the curriculum.
And in May, Dubai's private schools were ranked sixth in the world for reading and literacy skills, showing progress is being made.
Ms Nandkeolyar said the deeper problem is that pupils often don't understand the subtleties of the literature.
She highlighted Delhi Private School Dubai's READ programme, which stands for Read with Ease And Delight. It is aimed at pupils from kindergarten to Grade 11 and encourages them to read books in groups throughout the year.
Parents are encouraged to read with younger children, which Ms Nandkeolyar considers to be crucial.
“Some parents don't want to buy or read books but we tell them how important it is to just have physical books lying around in the house,” she said. “It's not money wasted.”
Pisa is an international assessment of the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, maths, and science carried out every three years.
It found around 52 per cent of pupils in the UAE attained Level 2 or higher in reading, against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 74 per cent.
“At a minimum, these students can identify the main idea in a text of moderate length, find information based on explicit, though sometimes complex criteria, and can reflect on the purpose and form of texts when explicitly directed to do so,” the 2022 Pisa report said.
In the UAE, five per cent of students scored a Level 5 or higher in reading, while the OECD average is seven per cent.
“These students can comprehend lengthy texts, deal with concepts that are abstract or counterintuitive, and establish distinctions between fact and opinion, based on implicit cues pertaining to the content or source of the information,” the report said.
Rebecca Gray, director of education at school provider Taaleem, said that the skills decline in the UAE was not as steep as the global drop.
“If we look back at 2018, the UAE’s Pisa scores were quite strong. Fast forward to 2022, and yes, there has been a slight decline," she said.
“Despite the upheavals brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, including the shift to online learning, our education systems and our students seem to have demonstrated remarkable adaptability and resilience.
“They're [globally] seeing declines in key areas like reading and mathematics that equate to almost a year's worth of learning lost. That's quite significant. In contrast, the decline in the UAE is relatively modest.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
