We end up with mediocre people because the focus is on the academic paper rather than on the person and his abilities. In the West, which we love to deride and denigrate, talent is encouraged. Here we Arabs stamp out the creative urges of the individual. And so we, metaphorically at least, kill them. What also holds us back is our society's regimentation.
People have to be conformists.
While one would agree that order is needed, it should not be mistaken for absence of initiative or a lack of original thought. The cloning of behavior inhibits an individual's capacity to think and produce ideas beneficial to society. It is therefore important that we educate ourselves not just to read and write but, most importantly, to think. Individual requests for information and ideas are too frequently silenced. In many homes, children are seen and only seldom heard.