School Information System
Newsletter Sign Up |

Subscribe to this site via RSS: | Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

February 6, 2011

Arab World Built Colleges, but Not Jobs Unemployment, Broad Among Region's Angry Youth, Is High Among Educated

David Wessel:

The anger of demonstrators in Tunisia and Egypt runs, too, through 25-year-old Saleh Barek al-Jabri.

Mr. Jabri, the son of a Yemini bus driver, says he answered his government's call for young people to study petroleum engineering, enrolling in a course at Yemen's Hadhramaut University for Science and Technology. Officials visited his school to offer encouragement. An oil minister came through to promise jobs. Mr. Jabri excelled, finishing fifth in his class.

But after graduating last year, he has yet to find work. Classmates with family connections got what few jobs existed. Mr. Jabri moved to Yemen's capital, San'a, where he shares a single room with two other unemployed recent graduates.

"I had dreams," Mr. Jabri says. "They've all evaporated."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 6, 2011 1:14 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?