efa regional report for the arab states 2011 · 2014-10-08 · efa regional report for the arab...

UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States – Beirut Cite Sportive – Bir Hassan P. O. Box: 11-5244 Beirut – LebanonTel: +961 1 850 013 /4 /5 Fax: +961 1 824 854 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.unesco.org/beirut

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EFA RegionalReport for the ARAB STATES

2011

EFA Regional Report for the

ARAB STATES 2011

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ARAB STATES 2011

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The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout

this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever

on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country,

territory , city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation

of its frontiers or boundaries.

For more informationyou can contact the following addresses:

UNESCO Regional Bureau

for Education in the Arab States – Beirut

Cite Sportive – Bir Hassan

P. O. Box. 11 - 5244

Beirut – Lebanon

Tel: +961.1.850 013 /4 /5

Fax: +961.1.824 854

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.unesco.org/beirut

© UNESCO Regional Bureau - Beirut 2011

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Table of Contents

Foreword .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................................................................................

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Chapter 1: From Jomtien to Dakar: Mapping out the Challenges to Education

for All in the Arab States ........................................................................................................................................................

Chapter 2: Education for All: Making it Work in the Arab States ...........................................................

2.1 Early Childhood Care and Education

2.2 Universal Primary Education

2.3 Promoting Learning and Skills for Young People and Adults

2.4 Adult Literacy

2.5 Gender Disparities

2.6 Quality Education

2.7 Summary of Progress Towards EFA Goals

Chapter 3: Issues and Challenges in Education in the Arab States ..................................................

3.1 National EFA Fatigue; donors, National Counterparts and Organisations

Exhausted

3.2 Slow Progress and Low Quality in ECCE Programmes

3.3 Unbalanced and Slow Trends in Primary Education Delivery

3.4 Low Quality Education System

3.5 Globalization and the Division between Education Systems and Market

Requirements

3.6 Demographic Change

3.7 Increasing Number of Displaced Children and Refugees

3.8 Geography and Gender – a double-disadvantage

3.9 Limited Educational Opportunities for Children with Special Needs

3.10 Limited and Unstructured Non-formal Education Programmes

3.11 High Illiteracy Rates and Cycles of Educational Exclusion

Chapter 4: Policy Recommendations .........................................................................................................................................................

List of References ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Country Profiles ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Foreword

The Dakar Framework for Action emerged in 2000 as a result of the World Education Forum

in Senegal 10 years after the Jomtien Declaration of Education for All (EFA). Through the

establishment of six specific education goals, the Dakar Framework for Action laid the

foundation for structured and comprehensive policy and practice review and development in

the education sector across the world. As the lead agency in cooperation with 4 other partners

(UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank) in the achievement of these six goals, UNESCO’s

role is to support policy dialogue initiatives, implement monitoring and advocacy activities,

mobilize funds and strengthen national capacity.

The present regional report seeks to provide an update on the current state of educational

development in Arab States. The report data is based on the most recent data gathered by the

UNESCO Institute for Statistics as well as the results of several national reviews and surveys

commissioned by UNESCO such as the 2007 National EFA MID Review, The 2010 national

ECCE Progress Survey , the 2009 National Literacy Report in preparation for Confintea V1.

In the Arab States, considerable progress has been made in several areas related to the six EFA

goals. In particular and most notably, many States have significantly built their ECCE capacity

in the past decade, resulting in increased awareness and accessibility to ECCE programmes.

UNESCO Beirut and partners have supported the development of a new phase in ECCE in

the Arab region through the cooperative implementation of several activities including a high

level regional conference. Quality and equity remain the primary foci of decision-makers and

practitioners working to achieve EFA in the Arab States, and efforts in several countries are

being developed and strengthened in order to ensure that children enrolled in school remain

in school. Gender parity at all levels of education, a significant challenge to the achievement

of EFA goals throughout the 1990s, has improved dramatically in recent years as a result of

targeted activities and efforts on the part of Ministries of Education in every Arab State. In

tandem, many stakeholders in the region have begun and continued cooperative efforts to

improved education services in providing opportunities to those most marginalized in society

through the piloting and scaling of equivalency education programmes, community education

initiatives.

Another area where significant progress has been made is in non-formal, literacy and

adult education. Efforts have been intensified in the reform of literacy and adult education

programming to include more learner-centred and holistic initiatives and a more participatory

approach.

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In quality education, there are noticeable efforts in several Member States towards setting

up monitoring quality assurance mechanisms and in promoting the culture of quality and

accountability.

These efforts and initiatives must continue and improve in order to ensure that these important

gains are maintained and improved. Despite strong commitment and extensive endeavors by

Governments of the Arab States, UN agencies, civil society organizations and communities

themselves the road is long and fraught with considerable obstacles. Strengthened

collaboration and capitialisation on shared success are necessary in order to achieve our

common goals and meet our shared commitment to provides the best education possible for

our children and theirs.

Dr Abdel Moneim Osman

Director

UNESCO Regional Bureau

for Education in the Arab States - Beirut

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Executive Summary

The Arab region has achieved significant progress over the last decade and fast expansion

of average levels of educational attainment. Developments in the region include higher

enrolment rates at all levels, the progressive closing of the gender gaps in formal education

in many countries, and commitments from governments toward achieving the EFA goals.

Yet, this progress still places states in the Arab region below that of South-East Asia, Latin

America, and East Asia. With 6 million children still out of school and 60 million adult

illiterates, the Arab region must continue to build on progress made to achieve and sustain

developments in education.

The remarkable expansion of education systems has given rise to a growing awareness

of a number of qualitative deficiencies. These pertain to the low levels of internal and

external efficiency of national systems as they are confronted with high drop-out and

repetition rates in some countries, as well as with a significant mismatch between skills

produced and those required by the labour market and higher and further education.

What makes this all the more worrying is that public investment in education is generally

high and further strain on these limited resources will be required to meet the demand

for increasing access to post-compulsory education.

While large numbers of out-of-school children and adult illiterates still have to benefit

from education, the demand for education from new generations is increasing drastically.

Pre-primary education has witnessed an increase in enrolment but still suffers from a

lack of investment, public understanding of its importance in a child’s early cognitive

and social development and an overall lack of resources including trained staff and

curriculum standardization. The march toward Universal Primary Education (UPE)

has made progress over the last two decades but challenges remain. National and

international surveys of learning outcomes have also documented low levels of learning

across the Arab Region.

Considering where the Arab region is today, many states are at risk of not achieving

some, if any, of the EFA goals. Only Bahrain and Kuwait are expected to achieve the

three EFA time bound targets of universal primary education, gender parity in primary

and secondary education and halving adult illiteracy rate by 2015. Other countries would

achieve two of them: Qatar would miss the gender goal; Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the

UAE the literacy goal; Oman the UPE goal. Djibouti, Mauritania, Sudan, the Occupied

Palestinian Territory, and Yemen are at the greatest risk of not achieving the goals.

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Despite the progress achieved across the Arab region, the impressive improvements

in some countries will not be enough to reach all EFA targets on time. There is an

urgent need for key policy actions in order to accelerate the progress and to remove the

remaining barriers. To respond to the challenges and meet head–on the issues related

to accessibility, affordability, cultural/social demands, curricular relevance and quality

of education in the Arab States, non-formal education, a determined political will backed

by the required resources is needed to provide the human, infrastructural, and financial

resources not only to create but sustain change well after 2015.

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Introduction

The Arab region has come a long way in raising the average educational attainment levels

of their populations over the past several decades. While still lower than levels observed

in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East Asia, average levels of educational attainment

in the the Arab region witnessed the fastest expansion in the world between 1990 and

20101. In particular, the region as a whole has made great progress in expanding access

to education and has recorded significant increases in enrolment ratios at all levels

of education in most cases. In addition, recent educational development has seen the

progressive closing of the gender gap in formal education in many countries, although

significant gender gaps continue to exist in adult literacy.

This remarkable expansion of education systems has given rise to a growing awareness

of a number of qualitative deficits. These pertain to the low levels of internal and

external efficiency of national systems as they are confronted with high drop-out and

repetition rates, as well as with a significant mismatch between skills produced and

those required by the labour market and higher and further education. What makes this

all more worrying is that public investment in education is generally high and further

strain on these limited resources will be required to meet the demand for increasing

access to post-compulsory education.

More fundamentally, national and international surveys of learning outcomes (such as

TIMSS and PISA) at various levels have documented low levels of learning across the

Arab region. At the time of the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, it became clear

that “an enormous gap exists between the number of pupils graduating from schools and

those among them mastering a minimum set of cognitive skills”, and that “a significant

proportion of school leavers do not achieve minimum mastery levels, as defined by

their own national governments”2. For example, while 97% of children reached the last

grade of primary school in Qatar in 2008, results of TIMSS in 2007 indicated that large

numbers of eight graders have limited skills. About 84% of pupils scored below the low

international benchmark in Mathematics and 71% in Science3.

Recognizing that educational achievement within the region lags behind that of countries

with similar levels of educational provision, many of the countries in the Arab region

1 Barro & Lee, 2010.2 Dakar EFA Action Plan.3 IAE, TIMSS 2007

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have embarked on major reforms of their education and training systems in order to

make them more relevant to their needs. The World Education Forum (Dakar 2000)

coincided with national educational reform efforts undertaken across the Arab world,

often within the context of larger reform processes, including, for instance, reform of

the financial sector and social protection in Egypt, trade and governance in Morocco,

telecommunication in Tunisia, private sector development in the GCC countries, and

labour market strategy and knowledge economy in Qatar.

Addressing both the issues of persistent inequities in access to basic education and the

low levels of learning outcomes as monitored through national and international surveys

have constituted fundamental rationales for the initiation of national education reform

processes. In addition, there has been greater awareness of a number of structural

phenomena, which are serving as important rationales for educational reform in the Arab

region. These phenomena include (1) the growing importance that knowledge economies

play in the development process and the consequent need for economic diversification,

(2) the slow yet steady demographic changes taking place within the region and the

resulting pressure on job creation in a context of already high unemployment, and (3) the

financial constraints on meeting the increased demand for upper secondary and higher

education resulting from expanded access to the basic education cycles, and this, within

a context of high average levels of public expenditure in the education sector.

Within this context, this report assesses the achievement status of the Education for

All goals and identifies the new educational trends and key EFA issues, based on the

most recent data4 as well as the progress made since Dakar 2000, and specifically

highlighting the main issues and challenges facing the achievement of EFA goals five

years ahead of the 2015 targets, and tracing the way forward to enhance EFA in the

region.

4 Data source in this report is principally from UNESCO Institute for Statistics of December 2010.

EFA Regional Report for the Arab States 2011

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CHAPTER 1From Jomtien to Dakar: Mapping out the Challenges to Education for All in the Arab States

The period between the signing of the Jomtien

Declaration in 1990 and the launch of the Dakar

Framework for Action in 2000 is marked with a

series of advances and set-backs in the Arab

States Region. Although considerable success

was achieved in many Arab States, particularly

in broadening access and strengthening the

basic structure of public education in the Arab

region, the challenges to Education for All

remained multiple and complex.

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Poverty can be seen as a significant obstacle

in achieving education for all in the Arab

States during the period between Jomtien

and Dakar, not only in terms of government

spending which ranged from 7% to 12%

of GDP, but also in terms of the available

household budget families could afford to

set aside for the purpose of education. This

period witnessed lower government spending

on education in several Arab States in terms

of teacher training, facilities upgrading

and curricular revision coupled with higher

costs of education for families even without

government fees; uniforms, books, materials

and transport costs all impacted heavily on

families in financial difficulty across the Arab

region. In real terms, the percentage of the

population in the Arab States living below the

poverty line fell by only 1% during this decade.

Crucially, in the Least Developed Countries

in the Arab States (Yemen, Sudan, and

Mauritania), there occurred an increase of

10% in the number of people living below the

poverty line, meaning that the poorest of the

Region’s population increased significantly.

Another characteristic of the educational

landscape in the Arab States during the

period between Jomtien and Dakar is the

prevalence of conflict and the related effects

it bears on the education sector and the lives

of children. The people of Iraq, Palestine

and Sudan witnessed widespread and

profoundly destabilizing instances of conflict

throughout the decade in question. This left

its mark on the education sector not only

in terms of enrolment rates, which in Iraq

and Palestine fell 6% and 16% respectively

between 1990 and 1995, and also in social

terms through access issues (displacement,

transport, road safety, school structural

safety) and also basic services (water and

electricity supply to schools), not to mention

the psychological and emotional effects of

trauma on children and young people both in

and out of education.

One of the most cross-cutting challenges

affecting the achievement of all six EFA goals

in the Arab States in the period spanning 1990

to 2000 was the level of gender disparity at all

levels of education in the region. Despite the

remarkable improvement accomplished by

the Arab LDCs - the GPI rose from 0.54 in 1990

to 0.81 in 2000, its progress since then mirrors

the regional average. Girls’ enrolment and

completion rates were consistently lower

than boys in most countries, and thus girls

also constituted the majority of out-of-school

children across the region. In situations

of conflict or in marginalised populations

(displaced, very poor, refugee, rural) girls

were also double- and triple-disadvantaged

by the lack of educational opportunities

available to them. Likewise, in terms of

youth and adult literacy rates, the triangle of

poverty, gender and education opportunity is

clear; the lowest national literacy rates in the

region belong to the region’s LDCs and those

with the largest populations, and the gender

parity index of these rates is stacked heavily

against women: Algeria, Djibouti, Sudan,

Egypt, Mauritania and Yemen all maintained

a gender parity in literacy levels among youth

and adults of 0.65 or below. This consistent

and comprehensive discrimination against

girls and women in education can easily

be identified as one of the most significant

obstacles to the achievement of education

for all in the Arab States.

CHAPTER 2 Post Dakar Monitoring Progress

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In addition to these intersecting circumstances

of poverty, conflict and discrimination,

there is a range of goal-specific conditions

and realities that proved obstacles to the

achievement of education for all between

the period of 1990-2000. In relation to Early

Childhood Care and Education (ECCE),

awareness of the importance of ECCE was

extremely low, and the regional enrolment

rate remained 15.3% in 1998, with more than

half of the Arab States registering less than

12% of young children in any kind of ECCE

programme. Moreover, the vast majority

constitutes private sector service provision,

with many more boys received ECCE support

than girls. In comprehensive terms, it must be

noted also that the percentage of malnutrition

in the Arab States in young children fell

by only 1% to 12% of the total population

aged under 5 between 1990 and 2000, and

immunization programmes reached 85% of

children, up from 77% in 1990. This means

that social protection for the region’s poorest

young children often did not meet the diverse

and interconnected needs of the increasingly

younger population, which had direct effects

on their concentration and learning abilities,

well-being and growth.

In working toward ensuring the access of all

children to basic education of good quality in

the Arab States region, there were several

important milestones during the period

between Jomtien and Dakar. Enrolment

rates increased impressively in many

countries across the region, with the regional

rate increasing to 79.2% in 1998. However,

that left 10.5 million primary school-aged

children out of school, 6.3 million of whom

were girls. Accordingly, although the

Jomtien Declaration was orientated toward

access, and enrolment rates did increase,

the manner and implications of the increase

was not as valuable as anticipated. The

quality of the education available was not

sufficient to support learning achievement

or increase completion rates, which we

both low and gendered. At base the systems

were Inadequate and mismanaged funding,

centralized governance and management

of education systems, lack of updated

and relevant curriculum and low levels of

teacher training and professionalisation

all contributed in varying degrees to weak

education outcome in many of the Arab

States. The implications of these challenges

led to poor internal efficiency with high

repetition and drop-out rates, authoritarian

teaching and learning methodologies, a lack

of critical thought in students and a distinct

lack of certified or accredited non-formal

education methods or practices.

In relation to the education of young

people and adults, programme design and

implementation were often unsuitable/

incompatible with the target populations,

traditional methods and practices remained

in use; the objective was more alphabetic than

functional and curricula were not designed

in reference to the process of globalization

which had begun to take place. Although

literacy rates improved in this decade

by 10% up to 61.5% of the total regional

population, literacy rates in the previous

decade throughout the 1980s improved by

11% indicating that the Jomtien Declaration

was not as effective as was hoped. One of

the significant challenges throughout the

1990s was the lack of coherence between

education outputs and the requirements of

CHAPTER 1 from Jomtien to Dakar: Mapping out the Challenges to Education

for All in the arab States


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CHAPTER 2Post Dakar Monitoring Progress

The achievement of EFA goals in the region

faces various challenges. While large

numbers of out-of-school children and

adult illiterates still have to benefit from

education, the demand for education from

new generations is increasing drastically.

Despite the notable progress made in access

to and participation in primary education

since Dakar 2000, there are still grey areas

which call for immediate action.

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2.1 EARLY CHILHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION

“Expanding and improving

comprehensive early childhood care

and education, especially for the most

vulnerable and disadvantaged children”.

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007: Strong Foundations - Early childhood Care an Education.5

BOX 1: Regional Trends in ECCE

As a vital window for development in the

life of the individual, ECCE has become

a social and political issue that bears

considerable weight and continues to

climb the national agenda in many Arab

countries. Several notable trends can be

observed in recent years in the progress

of the Arab States toward achieving the

first of the EFA goals related to ECCE.

Many countries in the region with an

increasing emphasis on enrolment and

standard setting. Since 2005 many of the

Arab States have opened ECCE divisions

with their Ministries of Education and

many Arab universities have developed

and offered courses and, in some cases,

faculties for the study and research of

ECCE at the national level. In addition,

there is an effort to broaden access

to ECCE services from the private

fee-paying sector to the public sector

in order to reach out to marginalised

children, who stand to benefit most

from such an opportunity. Lastly, there

is a new trend in many of the Arab

States such as Egypt and Syria with the

establishment of resource and training

centres to improve the quality of ECCE

service provision.

Good-quality Early Childhood Care and

Education (ECCE) enhances children’s physical

well-being, cognitive and language skills as

well as social and emotional development, and

contributes to the realization of the other EFA

goals by laying the foundations for subsequent

education. Empirical evidence points to links

between participation in early childhood

programmes, primary school enrolment and

better results over the first years of schooling,

particularly for disadvantaged children. There

are also economic benefits of ECCE. Analysis

in Egypt found a benefit/cost ratio of 3:1, and

the benefits could be as high as 5.8:1 if ECCE

programmes are targeted at children most at

risk5. A pre-primary system is relatively new

and participation varies greatly between Arab

States. In 2008, more than 3.1 million children

were enrolled in pre-primary education in

the Arab region, with an increase of 31%

since 1999. On average, 47% of the students

are girls. Morocco is the only country which

lags behind, with a share of girls’ enrolment

of only 42%. Although it is often fragmented

with an apparent lack of coherence and

coordination, most Arab States do have a pre-

primary education system for 3-5 year olds.

In some countries this takes a traditional

form, such as government-supported Kuttabs

(Koranic schools) in Mauritania and Morocco.

Considerable regional disparities exist in

pre-primary education coverage as well

as significant sub-national discrepancies,

particularly between urban and rural

locations. Among the countries with available

data, GERs were above 50% in Bahrain, Kuwait,

Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, and the United Arab

Emirates, but under 10% in Djibouti, Iraq,

Libya, Mauritania, Syria and Yemen.


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BOX 2: ECCE in Jordan - some Encouraging Signs

The Jordanian Government has pledged to support the National Plan of Action for children

(2004-2013) whose strategy calls for holistic development of the child focusing on five

components: securing a healthy life; developing and strengthening capability of children;

protecting children in difficult circumstances; and expanding the role of the media and

monitoring and evaluation. The main objectives of the Plan are to increase enrolment of

4-year olds from 28% to 50% and of 5-year olds from 47% to 70% by 2013.

The Ministry of Education Policy focuses on opening kindergartens in remote and

disadvantaged areas, and plans call for a daily meal and warm clothes for disadvantaged

children. The Ministry of Social Development is responsible for parenting education

programmes and supervises centre-based child care programmes. The Ministry of

Education supervises all pre-schools and provides kindergartens.

Source: National Plan of Action 2004, Ministry of Education, Jordan.

BOX 3: Early Childhood Care and Education in Difficult Circumstances – The

Ghassan Kanafani Foundation working in Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon

The Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation has been implementing an Early Childhood

Care and Education programme through its Centres in Palestinian refugee camps in

Lebanon since 1974. The programme, which is delivered by a team of education and social

care professionals and facilitators, consists of inclusive educational and developmental

activities for Palestinian refugee children aged 3-6 years on a range of topics but focusing

particularly on art.

The programme services are currently meeting the needs of approximately 600 children,

47 of whom have special need. It faces a range of challenges, from lack of resources to

the prevailing focus traditional academic in primary schools. In recounting the lessons

learned over 30 years of successful implementation, the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural

Foundation highlights the importance of child-centred approach above all, and the

importance of partnership with the family of children participating in their programmes.

Source: UNESCO Innovations in ECCE, 2010.


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BOX 4: The improvement of pre-school education in Egypt –

The Ministry for Education in Egypt, the World Bank, FAO and the Canadian

International Development Agency

In cooperation with the above-listed agencies, the Ministry of Education in Egypt is currently

directing the implementation of large project that seeks, among other things, to increase

the pre-school education enrolment rate from 13% to 60% before 2012. The project began

in 2005 and aims to strengthen the pre-school education delivery by providing 2,698 new

kindergartens across Egypt and, in tandem, improving the quality of education provision

through the establishment of national standards, a revised curriculum and training of the

teaching and facilitator work-force. Lastly, this project is working to build the capacities

of education professionals within the Department of ECCE in the Ministry as well as its

outlaying pre-school education and administrative staff across the country.

In addition to the very low enrolment rate of 13%, the project faces several challenges

such as the lack of awareness of the importance of ECCE among the general public, and

also the lack of qualified teachers and facilitators needed to provide a complete national

service to all children of pre-school age. Conversely, the Ministry of Education has seen

success and can offer many lessons learned in the importance of inter-ministerial

coordination for comprehensive ECCE, the importance of nutritional incentives especially

in poor areas as well as the vital component of setting and sticking to national quality

standards in ECCE supported with clear and accessible guidelines.

Source: UNESCO Innovations in ECCE, 2010

Most countries in the region with available

data have experienced increases in pre-

primary GERs during the post-Dakar period,

with rises of 10 percentage points or more in

Algeria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, Sudan, and

the United Arab Emirates. On the other hand,

participation declined in Djibouti, Kuwait,

Morocco and the Palestinian Autonomous

Territories. In Morocco, the decrease in pre-

primary enrolment is attributed to a declining

population in this age-group; implementation

of the National Education Policy reform

measures (2002) which encouraged the

private sector without appropriate regulation

and control on fees; and the inability of the

Ministry of Education to establish a pre-

schools infrastructure particularly in rural

areas. The decrease in the Palestinian

Autonomous Territories, on the other hand,

took place primarily due to the prevailing

instability and conflict with Israeli armed

forces where several kindergartens have

been shelled, destroyed and closed. Further,

in areas close to the recently erected wall,

access and mobility to kindergartens has

been seriously obstructed.


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For Example, in Lebanon where the minimum academic qualification required for pre-primary teaching is post-secondary non-tertiary education, only 53% of teachers meet the formal requirement. Source: EFA/MTR Report 2007.

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BOX 5: The Down Syndrome Charitable Association (DSCE) – Saudi Arabia

The programme is offered by the DSCE – Saudi Arabia to serve children with Down

Syndrome and their parents from age 3-7 years in order to prepare them for school. The

programme focuses on training the children and enhancing their social skills in order to

support and build their character and to equip them with pre-school skills that help build

their personality and assist with social integration in the community.

The educational mainstream classes differ from regular classes in that the children join

classes without a parent for 4 hours per day and are offered opportunities to continue to

develop their academic and social skills. The general focus of the programme is similar

to that of traditional kindergarten with an increased focus on individual goals and plans

for each child. Lastly, the programme contains a large mother and family component in

order to promote and achieve integration and to ensure that learned skills are reinforced

and attained.

Source: UNESCO Innovations in ECCE, 2010

On the other hand, the region has recorded

notable progress in bridging the gender

gap in pre-primary education, with the

average gender parity index (GPI) rising

from 0.77 in 1999 to 0.92 in 2008. Even so,

gender disparities at pre-primary level

are higher in the Arab region than any

other region. Disparities are also higher in

pre-primary education than at any other

level of education – the opposite of what is

observed elsewhere. The gender disparity in

pre-primary education is particularly high

in Morocco, despite the situation having

improved.

Another ECCE constraint stems from

the poor quality of teaching staff in some

countries. A majority of pre-primary

teachers are employed on a contractual

basis, receive low salaries and have limited

or no professional training. Formal entry

requirements are often not respected and

exercised6. Teachers at this level receive

little training – almost always less than their

primary school counterparts. In 2009, the

percentage of trained pre-primary teachers

was between 24% and 48% in Bahrain,

Sudan and Syria. In contrast, all teachers in

pre-primary had received some pedagogical

training in Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, the

Palestine Autonomous Territories and the

United Arab Emirates, indicating efforts

towards achieving good quality of care,

health, education and development of young

children.


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2.2 UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

“Ensuring that by 2015 all children,

particularly girls, children in difficult

circumstances and those belonging

to ethnic minorities, have access to

and complete, free and compulsory

primary education of good quality”.

BOX 6: Regional Trends in Primary

Education

Regional trends at primary level in

the Arab States have revolved around

issues of both access and quality. Since

2000, there has been a very significant

improvement in enrolment rates in

several countries, particularly among

girls, and the marked diversification

of delivery mechanisms such as

community and mobile schools, often

with multi-grade structures.

Enrolment has been boosted by the

removal of fees at primary level in every

country in the Arab region and also the

establishment in many countries of

education support mechanisms such as

book and uniform schemes to support

families shoulder the indirect costs

of education. In terms of curriculum,

there have been reviews conducted

in many countries to improve the

relationship between education output

and job market requirements, more

specifically in terms of moving from

objective-based to competency-based

curricular frameworks.

There has been progress towards Universal

Primary Education (UPE) in the Arab States

since Dakar, although it has been slower

than in other regions. In 2008, approximately

41 million children were enrolled at this

level in the Arab region, representing an

increase of 17% since 1999, or almost 6

million additional pupils. Girls’ share in

the total enrolment accounted for 47% for

the whole region. The increase in primary

school participation in the Arab states mainly

reflects rises in the number of new entrants

in Grade I (20% over the period), with Djibouti

and Yemen standing out with a sharp 90%

and 57% increase, respectively. Declines

however are reported in Algeria, Lebanon,

the Palestinian Autonomous Territories,

Oman, and Tunisia.

Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, and

the United Arab Emirates are all pushing

close to universal enrolments with an

adjusted Net enrolment rate7 of 95% or

above. On the other hand, in countries such

as Djibouti, Iraq, Mauritania, the Palestinian

Autonomous Territories, Oman, Saudi

Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen, the education

system is facing serious challenges and

even the impressive gains in net enrolment

recorded in the region would be insufficient

to ensure universal participation by 2015.

In order to achieve universal primary

education, the Arab countries still have

to enrol more than 6 million children of

primary school age, of which 58% are girls.

Even though this number has decreased by a

third since 1999 (or over 3 million children),

Adjusted NER consider children of primary school age enrolled either in primary or secondary education.7


21

UNICEF, 2005. Progress for Children, A report card on gender parity and primary education

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010 : Reaching the marginalized.

8

9

an enormous effort still has to be made by

some countries to reach this objective before

2015. The available evidence suggests that

more than eight out-of-school children

amongst ten live in six countries: Sudan

(estimated at over two million) followed by

Yemen (just over one million), Iraq (over

half a million), and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and

Morocco each accounting for nearly half a

million children. In Iraq and Egypt, 70% of

out-of-school children are girls, while in

Yemen and Algeria, girls’ share accounts for

63% and 58% respectively. Though Bahrain

and the United Arab Emirates have very low

numbers of out-of-school children, those

that do not attend are overwhelming girls at

a rate of 77% and 63% respectively.

There are hybrid situations of intersecting

circumstances that inhibit children’s

participation in and completion of basic

education of quality. Galloping rates of

demographic expansion, large pools of

out-of-school children, intractable social

attitudes, entrenched prejudices, continued

civil strife, unbridgeable gender and ethnic

divides, poor educational infrastructures,

and the need to supplement family income

have all been responsible for the slow pace

of progress in some countries of the Arab

region. Marginalization deprives millions

of children, in rich and poor countries, of

education and life opportunities. They are

victims of poverty, geographic isolation,

conflict and discrimination based on ethnicity,

language, disability and ill health. Factors

leading to marginalization do not operate in

isolation: wealth and gender intersect with

language, ethnicity, region and rural-urban

differences to create mutually reinforcing

disadvantages.

The regional household data in developing

countries show that children from the

poorest 20% of households are 3.2 times

more likely to be out of primary school than

those from the wealthiest 20%8. The ratio is

4.5 in the Arab states, while for countries

such as Algeria and Bahrain it stands at more

than 4.9. The range varies widely among

regions and between individual countries.

For instance, in Yemen the incidence of

four-year education deprivation among

the poor is double the national average9.

More significantly than these numbers,

however, is the concern that education

largely reproduces and reinforces wider

social discrimination and economic and

political disparities experienced by girls and

women in many countries of the region. In

that regard, education systems in the Arab

States generally need to be more gender

responsive, particularly in rural and hard-

to-reach areas.

In Maghreb, the number of out-of-school

children decreased drastically because of

the remarkable improvement in Morocco

where comprehensive reform efforts

addressed low enrolment rates, particularly

focusing on rural areas and vulnerable

groups. Conversely, the modest progress

in the Middle East is mainly a result of the

deterioration of enrolment rates in conflict


22

countries. Indeed, enrolment rates have

dropped by over 20 percentage points

since 1999 in the Palestinian Autonomous

Territories, due to continued Israeli

occupation, and stagnation in Iraq.

In sum, over a quarter of the region’s 6.2

million out-of-school children live in the

region’s four conflict-affected states;

Palestine, Yemen, Sudan and Iraq. The

multiple and complex direct and indirect

effects of conflict are extremely detrimental

to national and regional achievement of

the Education for All goals. In direct terms,

attacks on schools, school staff and students

has increased globally in the past 10 years,

and the Arab region is no exception.

In addition to poverty and conflict, the

majority of the world’s out-of-primary

school children living in rural areas are girls.

This is a particular characteristic of many

Arab states where girls’ non-participation

is strongly influenced by religious, ethnic,

geographical and security (particularly in

post-conflict countries) factors. However,

once girls enter school, they tend to stay

longer and generally complete primary

schooling. In addition to the direct impact

of gender discrimination in education,

in global terms, 75% of children out of

primary school in developing countries have

mothers who themselves were excluded

from education. Regionally, the rate of

intergenerational exclusion from education

is striking in the Arab states – the mothers

of 80% of out-of-school children are totally

illiterate. Research evidence suggests

that the education level of mothers plays a

determinant role in children’s participation

and attendance in school. In addition to the

inherent value of educating women and girls

for their own individual and social benefit

and empowerment, this also underlines the

importance of getting as many girls and future

mothers into school as soon as possible and

encouraging them to stay on to complete

their education. Besides the impact of

discrimination of this kind, geography plays a

considerable role in determining the kind of

education opportunities available to children

in the Arab States. An estimated 30% of rural

children in the Arab states are out-of-school

compared with 18% of those living in cities

and towns. Among the multiple contributing

factors, children in rural areas are very likely

to have to travel further to reach the nearest

school; their parents are less likely to have

been educated and to value education; and

it is often harder to attract good teachers to

the countryside.

Progress on primary completion has not

been fast enough to place the region on track

towards meeting the goal. Although school

retention rates have been rising steadily

since 1999, drop-out rates remain high in

Iraq, Mauritania, Morocco and Yemen, with

survival rates to the last grade of primary of

67%, 82%, 78% and 59% respectively. On the

other hand, other countries manage to retain

a large proportion of their students until the

last grade of primary education; such is the

case in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the

Palestinian Autonomous Territories, Oman,

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab

Emirates.


23

2.3 PROMOTING LEARNING AND SKILLS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS

“Ensuring that the learning needs of

all young people and adults are met

through equitable access to appropriate

learning and life-skills programmes”.

BOX 7: Regional Trends in Relation

to Youth and Adult Education

Regional trends in youth and adult

education show that most Arab States

have introduced new subjects related to

the promotion of life-skills and continuing

education into their national curricula

such as computer literacy, civic and

human rights education, and environment

and health education. The learning

content of adult education programmes

have been updated in order to reflect the

learning needs of youth and adult learners

in most countries: functional literacy

programming incorporating relevant

topics such as health, agriculture,

sewing and other income-generating

activities needed by adult learners have

been introduced. Several countries have

introduced pilot projects and innovative

initiatives aiming to promote learning and

develop life-skills among young and adult

learners. Lastly, in line with many regions

of the world, in the past decade, the Arab

region has made efforts to move toward

the provision of pubilc education to better

meet the needs of the knowledge-based

economy.

Arab countries have approximately 6.2

million children out of school and over 60

million illiterate adults. Youth unemployment

reached 30% in 2006 and accounted for 50%

or greater of all unemployment in most

Arab states and continues to increase with

natural population growth. In the coming

10 years, the combination of these figures

and the demographic figures indicating the

Arab Region’s youth bulge in population

terms may stretch youth and adult literacy

rates and programming beyond their

current state. Arab States must, therefore,

give more priority to improving educational

quality in order to improve internal efficiency

and equip graduates with skills demanded

by a modern, productive market based in an

internationally competitive economy10.

Despite progress in introducing life-skills

in a formal setting, countries still face

several challenges in achieving EFA Goal 3,

particularly in relation to limited access of

young and adult to non-formal education

programmes. A great variety of structured

learning activities for the young and youth

take place in the Arab States, although the

extent to which this supply corresponds to

demand is unknown. There is an urgent need

to improve the monitoring of supply and the

demand in non-formal education at national

levels.

UN, 2010. The Third Arab Report on the Millenium Development Goals 200 and the Impact on the Global Economic Crisis

10


24

BOX 8: Promoting Literacy and Lifelong Learning through Community Learning

Centres in the Arab States

The Community Learning Centres (CLCs) initiative proved to be a successful model for

lifelong learning in Asia and the Pacific region before being implemented in the Arab

States.CLCs aim to provide lifelong learning to all people in local communities including

adults, youth and young children. CLCs are a flexible and cost effective set up managed

by local communities at places that are easily accessible to all, such as public places,

municipalities, schools, sport centres, mosques and churches.

The goals of CLCs are:

• To empower poor communities to become self-reliant.

• To promote human development by providing learning opportunities to all community

members.

• To be a resource centre and venue for local community cultural, recreational and

educational activities.

• To act as multipurpose venues for functional literacy and post-literacy, and lifelong

learning and development (educational , social, and economic).

UNESCO Regional Bureau-Beirut is leading the implementation of several CLCs in the

Arab States in close collaboration with UNESCO offices in the region: Amman, Cairo, Iraq

and Rabat. At present, CLCs are operational in 6 countries, namely: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan,

Lebanon, Morocco and Syria, in addition to the implementation of CLCs in all Palestinian

Refugee Camps in Lebanon.

Sources: UNESCO Progress Reports

While equivalency, Recognition of Prior

Learning (RPL), and second chance

programmes are a commonly used strategy

in providing learning opportunity for young

people in Asia and Latin America, it is rarely

used in the Arab countries with the exception

of Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Syria, albeit on

a small scale.

Recent studies by UNESCO Beirut on synergy

between formal and non-formal education in

Egypt and Tunisia reveals that NFE in these

countries faces serious challenges such as

lack of recognition by officials and the public,

lack of funding and lack of coordination.


25

BOX 9: Innovative Approaches in Expanding Basic Education to the Deprived and

Marginalized Groups and Eliminating Gender Disparity in Egypt

The Ministry of Education in Egypt, in collaboration with several UN Agencies (UNESCO,

UNICEF, WFP) and bilateral donors, has developed several educational initiatives to reach

the un-reached and to diversify the basic education delivery to meet the educational needs

of rural girls and children living in difficult circumstances. These initiatives included the

following:

a) The One Classroom Schools for Girls in Rural and Marginalized Areas in Egypt :

The Ministry of Education in Egypt began this initiative several years ago to provide easy access

for drop-out girls living in rural and marginalized areas. It has provided educational opportunities

for thousands of girls in more than 3,000 schools around Egypt and has enabled them to have

problem-free education close to home and to acquire life-skills and professional efficiency to

improve their living conditions.

b) UNESCO Friendly School Initiative for Street and Working Children in Egypt:

This initiative, initiated by UNESCO Beirut in collaboration with WFP and the Ministry of Education

in Egypt, aims to re-integrate street and working children into basic education and society

through enrolling them in multi-level classrooms and offering an accelerated primary education

programme equivalent to the National Primary Educational System. The initiative targets boys

and girls living in difficult circumstances. The model has been designed to meet the educational,

economic and social needs of the target group through developing an adapted national curriculum,

using innovative teaching/learning methodologies and offering incentives. The model operates in

27 Schools in the different governorates in Egypt and the Ministry of Education has committed

itself to expanding the project to reach 50 schools all over the country.

c) UNICEF Community Schools Model

This model was initiated by UNICEF and the Ministry of Education in Egypt to meet the needs of

deprived and marginalized children, especially girls. The initiative is built on the same concept of

the one classroom and multi-grade schools. However, the community school model focuses more

on community needs and community participation in school management and the use of active

and self teaching/learning approaches. There are more than 20,000 enrolled in the initiative in 339

community schools in Egypt.

d) Girls Friendly School Initiative:

A new initiative has been established in collaboration with several donors catering for the provision

of educational opportunities for girls living in remote and deprived areas in seven governorates

in Egypt. The Initiative aims to eliminate gender disparities in these governorates by meeting the

educational and social needs of girls. There are 434 schools and 10,674 enrolled girls participating

in this initiative.

Sources: Egypt - EFA Mid - Term Review Report 2000 - 2007


26

2.4 ADULT LITERACY

“Achieving a 50% improvement

in levels of adult literacy by 2015,

especially for women, and equitable

access to basic and continuing

education for all adults”

BOX 10: Regional Trends in Adult

Literacy

In the area of adult literacy, there

have been considerable changes in

methodology and approach, such as

the regional move toward embracing

functional literacy instead of the

more traditional alphabetic literacy

training. This has been supplemented

by a regional trend to increasingly

professionalise literacy service

provision, in terms of quality and

training but also in terms of managerial

mechanisms and monitoring.

In addition, in recent years and in

particular in LIFE Arab countries the

mechanisms of encouraging NGOs

toward literacy work has been set

up. Most countries have now well-

developed national literacy plans and

often a formalised unit within Ministries

of Education or Social Affairs dealing

with the adult literacy.

Although the literacy rate for adults improved

in average for the region during the last

decade from 67% to 72%, the total illiterate

population increased by around one million,

reaching over 60 million in 2005-2008. Egypt

and Morocco account for nearly half of the

regional adult illiterates. Algeria, Sudan

and Yemen also are countries where adults

illiterates surpass five million each.

If Education for All is to be achieved,

breakthroughs must take place in these

key countries of the region, which share

a number of challenges because of their

physical size, large populations, and vast

rural and remote arid and desert areas,

with extreme local ethnic diversities. Yet,

developments in science and technology

as well as communications, coupled with

the inherent economic potential of these

countries present dramatic opportunities to

meet these challenges.

Women from rural areas are the main victims

of illiteracy. In the region, two out of three

women are illiterate. While adult literacy

rates are expected to rise by the year 2015, the

female illiteracy disadvantage, particularly

in rural areas, will not just “disappear” as

part of general educational progress. Unless

the region specifically targets rural female

illiteracy, the problem will continue to fester

and prove a substantial stumbling block in

the move towards gender equity and rural-

urban parity.

The chief concerns are now about

sustainability. A careful strategy and

implementation policy is required for

meaningful post-literacy and continuing

education to become a reality. The narrow

concept of literacy must be broadened to

include knowledge of basic life-skills and

enhanced competencies. Functional literacy

must provide to the learner an avenue for

renewed self-belief and most importantly

self-advancement. Hence, initial literacy

teaching must have strong follow-up for

retention on the one hand and imparting life-

skills on the other. Only then will lifelong

learning translate into learning life long.


27

BOX 11: Innovative Approaches

Egypt: One-Room Community Schools

One-room community schools have been established to improve female education in

rural Egypt to help acquire basic life-skills from within the community and to bridge the

gap between male and female education.

Saudi Arabia: Post-Literacy Training Programme for Girls

The programme aims at providing girls and women with vocational, life, and income-

generating skills together with literacy and post-literacy courses.

Lebanon: UNILIT Pilot Project

The project is an attempt to combine literacy programmes and higher education

institutions in an effort to combat illiteracy on the basis of “teaching others” and to bridge

the education gap between the “haves and have-nots”.

Source: National EFA/MTR Reports 2007.

2.5 GENDER DISPARITIES

“Eliminating gender disparities in

primary and secondary education by

2005, and achieving gender equality

in education by 2015, with a focus on

ensuring girls’ full and equal access

to and achievement in basic education

of good quality.”

Gender disparities appear high in pre-

primary education than at the other levels

of education in most of the countries of the

region in favour of boys. In relation to their

respective population, boys and girls seem

to be enrolled in the same proportions for

eleven of the countries in the region (Gender

Parity Index - GPI - in the range of 0.97-1.03).

The GPI exceeds 0.90 in six other countries

with data. Morocco is lagging behind

as regards gender parity at this level of

education, with only three girls enrolled for

four boys. Yemen is the second country with

relatively large disparity in favour of boys in

pre-primary education. Oman, on the other

hand, has a GPI of 1.17, indicating that girls

out enrol boys at this level of education.

In primary education, more than half of the

countries have met the 2005 target or are

close to it. Four countries still have a long

way to go to achieve this goal with a GPI

at or below 0.90, including Djibouti, Iraq,

Sudan and Yemen. Conversely, Mauritania

enrols more girls than boys at this level of

education, as do Jordan and Oman.

Only four countries have met the 2005 target

at secondary education: Kuwait, Oman, Syria,

and the United Arab Emirates. Countries

lagging behind at secondary education are

the same as for primary including Djibouti,


28

Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen. In Yemen, for

example, only one girl is enroled for every

two boys. There are more countries where

the GER of girls is higher than that of boys:

Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, the

Palestinian Autonomous Territories, Qatar,

and Tunisia. In Qatar, two boys are enrolled

for every three girls in secondary education.

Most of the countries missed the 2005 gender

target for both primary and secondary

education, strictly speaking. Indeed, only

three countries met this target (GPI between

0.97 and 1.03): Kuwait, Oman and the United

Arab Emirates. Four patterns of gender

parity emerged:

• Three countries that met the target for

primary education also did so also for

secondary education (Kuwait , Oman,

and the UAE). Bahrain, Jordan and Syria

met the target for one level and are very

close to doing so for the other;

• Four countries met the target for primary

education, but not yet for secondary

education (Lebanon, the Palestinian

Autonomous Territories, Qatar and

Tunisia). In all of them disparities in

secondary education are in favour of girls;

• In seven countries the target has been

missed both in primary and secondary

education and disparities are in favour of

boys at both levels of education (Djibouti,

Egypt, Iraq, Morroco, Saudi Arabia,

Sudan and Yemen);

• In three countries the target has also

been missed both in primary and

secondary education but for Mauritania

disparities are against boys in primary

and against girls in secondary while the

opposite is true for Algeria and Libya.

Progress since 1999 has been in the direction

of the gender parity goal for most of the

countries in primary education, particularly

for those who were far from the parity range

such as Djibouti, Morocco and Yemen. The GPI

in these countries rose by 24, 15, and 11 points

respectively, meaning that the achievement

was to bring more girls to schools than it was

in the past. Change has also been substantial

in Mauritania (8 points) but from parity to

disparity against boys. No progress has been

observed though in Iraq where still four

girls out of five boys are enrolled in primary

schools; the same level as in 1999.

At the secondary level of education, the

progress has been slower and not always

in the right direction for some countries

during the period under consideration.

Only Mauritania and Morocco improved

substantially their GPI in enrolling more

girls in secondary education, with Syria also

achieving notable progress. Progress also

occured in Iraq and Yemen, however they are

still far from parity at this level of education.

In Djibouti, disparities against girls are even

slightly increasing. Other countries, such as

Qatar and Tunisia, are moving away from the

parity range to the disadvantage of boys.

In many countries, more girls than boys who

start grade 1 are expected to reach the last

grade of primary education. If we compare

the GPI of the gross intake rate at grade 1

with that of the survival rate to last grade,

the gender disparities seem to be improved

with the later in all countries except in Iraq

and Saudi Arabia. Once girls are enrolled in

schools, they are more likely to complete

primary school than boys.


29

Even in countries where overall gender

parity is achieved, large disparities appear

in the distribution of male and female

students among the different educational

programmes, such as in technical and

vocational education and training (TVET) and

fields of study in higher education. In the

Arab region, the share of girls in technical

and vocational education ranges from

10% in Kuwait to 50% in Djibouti. Syria and

Lebanon have also high proportion of girls

participating at this type of education. On

the other hand, TVET is planned exclusively

for boys in Oman, Qatar and the United Arab

Emirates.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab

Emirates are the only countries where

literacy rates both for adults and youth are

in the gender parity range. Less than eight

adult women out of ten men are literate in

Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan

and Yemen. For every two adult literate

males, there is only one adult literate female

in Yemen and two adult females out of three

adult males in Morocco.

Providing equal learning opportunities for

boys and girls figures prominently in the

educational agenda of many countries. TIMSS

2007 data allow us to examine the extent to

which the goal of gender equality is achieved

in terms of learning achievement. Girls on

average scored better in some countries

while boys did so in others across the TIMSS

countries. For instance, in Bahrain, Egypt,

Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, the Palestinian

Autonomous Territories, Qatar and Saudi

Arabia, girls on average outperformed boys.

In contrast, boys on average outperformed

girls in Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia.

2.6 QUALITY EDUCATION

“Improving every aspect of the quality of

education and ensuring the excellence for

all, so that recognized and measurable

learning outcomes are achieved by all

learners, especially in literacy, numeracy,

and essential life skills.”

BOX 12: GPI and Enrolment Rates in Yemen

Since 2000, the adjusted net enrolment rate among girls has jumped 20 points – admit-

tedly to just 66% – which represents a huge improvement in terms of access and enrol-

ment. This has impacted considerably upon the gender parity index which rose from .66

to .83 in the same period. In addition, this pushed the total adjusted net enrolment rate

for primary education in Yemen to 73% from 59% in 2000, (UIS, 2010). Since 2005, public

education expenditure as a percentage of GDP has more than doubled and it is hoped that

this investment, supported by international efforts, will provide the necessary push to

bring Yemen closer to achieving universal primary education (World Bank, 2008).


30

For quality of education in general,

definitions and expectations differ according

to purposes, contexts, stakeholders and

time. Monitoring progress toward better

quality education is as much a challenging

task as the notion of quality is complex.

The most direct way used by the education

systems to measure quality education is to

assess what students have learned. These

outcomes are however linked to many inputs

and process indicators that enable students

to perform well in schools. An extensive

dimension of quality education implies the

socio-economic environment of students

and schools as well as the impact of such

outcomes on the society at large.

Results from TIMSS 2007 show that school

systems in the majority of the participating

Arab States were characterized by very few

top-scoring students in either of the two

subjects and very large numbers of students

with relatively low scores. Clearly though,

a system that provides a “high standard”

for a small minority and a “low standard”

for a large majority cannot be said to have

achieved high quality for all. In total, eight-

graders in all Arab countries participating

in 2007 survey scored on average below

TIMSS scale average (500) in both Math and

Sciences.These results highlight the urgent

need to drastically raise the level of learning

in schools in the region.

BOX 13: Regional Trends in Education Quality

The measurement of progress in the achievement of goal 6 remains more difficult, but the

participation of countries in global assessments goes some way to giving an indication of

improvement. The participation of Arab States in the international assessment surveys is

increasing, like for TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA. The most popular survey with these countries

has been TIMSS, with 15 countries participating in TIMSS 2007 and 14 countries will be

participating in TIMSS 2011. This level of participation in the Arab States indicates a high

level of commitment to the gathering of high quality evidence in the area of educational

policy making.

Results from international studies on learning achievement like TIMSS, show indeed

that participating countries from the Arab region perform on average well below the

international average and below the indicated low benchmark. At the same time many of

them don’t have any national mechanism for evaluating the quality of education. There is

a need to go further in this broad picture to understand more thoroughly factors for low

performance and their relationship with other contextual factors.

There is a movement among many of the major regional partners to education development

calling for the establishment of a regional quality observatory in order to further improve

quality in education.


31

Compared with TIMSS 2003 surveys, out

of the Arab countries which participated

in the two surveys, eight graders in three

countries showed significant progress in

Math ( Lebanon, Jordan, and Tunisia) and in

sciences in five countries (Lebanon, Jordan,

Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain). Palestine, on the

opposite, showed a regress in both subjects.

The most critical indicator of achievement

in the Arab countries is the percentage of

students who scored advanced benchmark.

Results show that very few students in Arab

countries scored advanced benchmark in

Math and sciences. For every 100 Grade 8

students, only 1 in Jordan, 1 in Lebanon and 1

in Egypt reached the “advanced benchmark”

in Math. In the remaining Arab countries, no

students reached this level. As for sciences

the situation was slightly better: in five

countries one student out of 100 reached

this benchmark, two in Bahrain, and five in

Jordan.

A large number of Grade 8 students in the

region performed at the “intermediate”

and “low” international benchmarks.

Yet, a considerable percentage of eight

graders scored below the low level (below

400) especially in math. More importantly,

with the exception of Lebanon, about

40% or more of Grade 8 students in all

participating countries failed to reach the

“low” international benchmark in Math. The

proportion of students who were not likely to

reach low score ranged from 26% in Lebanon

to 84% in Qatar.

A slightly better picture is noted in Sciences.

40% or more of students in 9 countries failed

to reach the “low” international benchmark.

The proportion of students who were not

likely to get the correct answer to a question

more than half of the time ranged from

21% in Jordan to 71% in Qatar. Qatar with

the largest proportion of low-performing

students was only surpassed by Ghana

(81%).

Overall, sizeable proportions of students

in the Arab States eighth grade failed to

master the basic knowledge and skills in

mathematics after at least eight years in

school. The average score is 286 in knowing

and 392 in applying. None of the Arab

countries attained TIMSS scale average (500)

in each of the three Mathematics Cognitive

Domains: knowing, applying, reasoning.

They showed the lowest scores in these

domains surpassed only two countries (out

of the 39 participating countries).

The performance of eighth-graders in the

Arab States in sciences was slightly better

than in mathematics, with somewhat more

high-scoring students and fewer students

with extremely low scores. However, none

of the Arab countries reached the TIMSS

scale average (500) in each of three science

domain: “knowing”, “applying”, “reasoning”.

“Knowing” and “applying” score average in

sciences stood at 430 and 425 respectively

for the 14 Arab countries. Only one country

showed lower scores than the Arab countries

in “knowing” and “applying” (Ghana) whereas

two Arab countries showed the lowest score

in “reasoning”: Egypt and Saudi Arabia.


32

Results from PISA 200911 confirm that the

quality of learning in the Arab States is

less than desirable. In all the three Arab

participating countries in addition to Dubai,

the overall scale in reading, mathematics

and science are below the OECD averages

(respectively determined at 493, 496 and

501). Amongst 65 participating countries/

economies, Qatar ranked 63 in reading,

63 in mathematics, and 62 in science;

Tunisia respectively 58, 63 and 58; Jordan

respectively 58, 58 and 52; and Dubai

respectively 43, 42 and 41.

In all the three Arab participating countries

in addition to Dubai, the highest reading

proficiency level achieved by most students

was the baseline Level 212. This was the case

for 81.7% of the students in Qatar, 81.6%

in Tunisia, 79.9% in Jordan and 56.4% in

Dubai. The situation was worse for all in

mathematics and for Qatar and Tunisia in

science.

These results confirm how it is important

for national educational policies aiming to

pay adequate attention to the issue of quality

so that children, when they are enrolled in

school, are provided with meaningful and

challenging opportunities to learn and to

achieve high in a globalized competitive

context.

It is well known that children’s chances of

success at school are strongly influenced

by their home circumstances. For instance,

students whose parents are better educated,

have social capital significant to positively

impact the lives of their children or quite

simply have greater economic capacity are

more likely to succeed at school. Children

from advantaged family backgrounds are

more likely to have higher levels of nutrition,

perhaps more physically comfortable

circumstances as well as attend better

resourced schools – be they better trained

and more experienced teachers and/or more

learning and teaching aids – or schools with

other characteristics that are more likely

to produce superior achievement. In other

words, schools reproduce or even exacerbate

the achievement gaps related to differences

in children’s family circumstances.

2.7 SUMMARY OF PROGRESS TOWARDS EFA GOALS

The table below assesses progress relative

to each goal looking at whether the goal

has been already achieved in 2009, or the

country is on track to achieve it in 2015, or

the country is off track to do so. It should

be noted that the indicators used here to

assess progress for each goal cannot tell

us the whole story. They are used here as

an indication of progress only. Targets and

benchmark assessment are based on the

following indicators and assumptions for

each specific goal:

OECD, PISA 2009

Level 2 is considered a baseline level of proficiency, at which students begin to demonstrate the reading skills that will enable them to participate effectively and productively in life. Students who do not reach Level 2 have difficulties locating basic information.

11

12


33

• Goal 1: the goal states that all countries

should improve access to early childhood

programmes. From the status of

participation in these programmes since

1999, the target will be considered as

achieved when the GER in pre-primary

education is above 50%. Countries are

on track when the GER increased by 50%

and its current value is not below 20%.

They are off track otherwise.


should ensure universal primary

education by 2015. Therefore, the

adjusted NER in primary education

should reach at least 95%. Countries

are on-track when the adjusted NER is

between 85 and below 95%. They are off-

track otherwise.


should improve the literacy rate by 50%.

For technical reasons13, the monitoring

uses “halving” illiteracy rate for adults.

The target is achieved when current

adult illiteracy rate is half the value

before Dakar. Countries who made half

of the way from this target are on track.

They are off-track otherwise.

• Goal 5: gender parity in primary and

secondary education should be achieved

by 2005 and gender equality by 2015.

The indicator used here is a Gender

Parity Index (GPI) of the GER in primary

and secondary, which both should be at

the parity range [0.97-1.03]. The goal is

achieved if GPI is within the parity range.

Countries are on-track when the GPI is

expected to be within the parity range at

any year up to 2015. They are off-track

otherwise.

• Goal 6: only countries who have

participated in TIMSS 2007 will be

commented on here and will be ranked

according to the percentage of children

who reached at least the intermediate

international benchmark in Mathematics

and Sciences. When half of the students

or more reached this benchmark, the

country will be considered as on track.

According to observed trends and assuming

that they will continue in the same direction

and with similar rhythm (which is unlikely as

countries may be implementing development

projects that may impact on the current

trends in the future), the situation of the

Arab States towards EFA goals is as follows:

• Seven countries have achieved high

enrolment rates close to UPE (goal 2) in

2009 with the adjusted NER above 95%:

Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Syria,

Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

Six other countries have potential to join

this first group by 2015: Iraq, Jordan,

Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco and Saudi

Arabia (ANER above 85%).

• Only three countries have achieved the

first EFA target due by 2005 relative to

goal 5 (gender parity in both primary and

secondary) with GPI ranged within [0.97-

1.03]: Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab

The literacy rate cannot be continiousely improved by 50% when getting the value above 66% without surpassing 100%.

13


34

Table 1: Achievement of EFA Goals

EFA Goals

Goal Status1

Goal 1 Goal 2 Goal 4 Goal 5 Goal 6

Achieved UAELebanonKuwaitBahrainMoroccoQatar

TunisiaBahrainUAEQatarSyriaAlgeriaEgypt

QatarKuwait

KuwaitOmanUAE

On track JordanOmanSudanAlgeriaTunisia

JordanKuwaitLebanonMoroccoIraqSaudi Arabia

BahrainOman

JordanSyriaBahrainEgypt

Jordan (S56)

Off track PalestineEgyptSaudi ArabiaSyriaLibyaIraqDjiboutiYemenMauritania

PalestineMauritaniaYemen OmanDjibouti

* No data for Libya and Sudan

PalestineJordanLibyaSaudi ArabiaSyriaTunisiaIraqAlgeriaSudanEgyptYemenMauritaniaMorocco

* Lebanon and UAE have no two data points to compare. Djibouti has no data

Qatar**

Tunisia**

Palestine**

Lebanon**

Morocco**

Saudi Arabia**

Djibouti**

Mauritania*

AlgeriaLibyaSudanYemenIraq

Lebanon (M36/S28)Jordan (M35/S56)Egypt (M21/S27)Tunisia (M21/S31)Bahrain (M19/S49)Syria (M17/S39)Palestine (M15/S28)Oman (M14/S32)Morocco (M13/S18)Algeria (M7/S14)Kuwait (M6/S28)Qatar (M4/S11)Saudi Arabia (M3/S18)

1 Countries are sorted from the highest to the lowest rank. Countries in italic are making negative progress.* Countries at risk to not achieve parity in primary only.** Countries at risk to not achieve parity in secondary only.

(Mx) refer to % in Mathematics and (Sx) refer to % in sciences. Countries are ranked according to Mathematics

scores.


35

Emirates. Only four other countries are

close to this range and would be able to

achieve the goal by 2015: Bahrain, Egypt,

Jordan and Syria.

• Seven countries have achieved gender

parity in primary education in 2009

(Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar and Tunisia)

or would achieve it by 2015 (Djibouti,

Morocco, and Saudi Arabia) but are

at risk of not achieving it in secondary

education.

• Only two countries have been able to

halve illiteracy rates among adults

(Kuwait and Qatar) and two others would

be able to do so by 2015 (Bahrain and

Oman).

• Even though progress in pre-primary

participation has been relatively high,

most of the countries started from

very low enrolment rates. Six countries

have reported high enrolment rates

above 50% including Bahrain, Kuwait,

Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar and the United

Arab Emirates. Five other countries

have doubled the GER value since 1999

and/or raised its value above 20%:

Algeria, Jordan, Oman, Sudan and

Tunisia. Palestine is above this range

but experiencing a continious decrease

in GER.

• Quality education is of high concern in

the region. In all fourteen countries that

participated in TIMSS 2007, the majority

of their eighth grade students failed to

perform at least at the intermediate

international benchmark in mathematics

and in sciences. The top country in this

group was Jordan where 35% of grade

8 students performed at least at the

intermediate level in mathematics and

56% in sciences. Saudi Arabia had the

lowest performance level of the group in

mathematics and Qatar in sciences.

According to the observed trends since

1999, unless appropriate policies are

implemented, the expected overall EFA goals

achievement by 2015 can be characterised

into four patterns:

• Only Bahrain and Kuwait are expected

to achieve the three EFA time bound

targets: universal primary education

(goal 2), gender parity in primary and

secondary education (goal 5) and halving

adult illiteracy rate (goal 4) by 2015.

Both countries have also achieved great

progress in pre-primary participation

(goal 1).

• Other countries will miss one of the

three time bound goals: Qatar will miss

the gender goal; Egypt, Jordan, Syria

and the UAE the literacy goal; Oman the

UPE goal;

• Five other countries will achieve just one

goal: Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco,

Saudi Arabia and Tunisia will only

achieve universal primary education

(goal 2).

•


36

CHAPTER 2 Issues and Challenges in Education in the Arab States

37

CHAPTER 3Issues and Challenges in Education in the Arab States

All the countries of the Arab States region have

shown concern for, and displayed impressive

political commitment towards, the achievement

of the six Dakar EFA goals. This commitment is

reflected in the increasing instances of sectoral

reform as well as the levels of spending on

education in the region, which now average

4.9% of the gross national product (GNP) and

about 15% of total government spending in

2007. These levels of spending are somewhat

higher than those in comparable developing

countries and are at similar levels to those of

high performing Asian economies.

In some important respect, this investment has

paid off. Since Dakar in 2000, there has been

an increase in primary education enrolment in

all countries, more girls have been included in

schooling (mainly in Egypt, Morocco, Yemen),

there has been a decrease in the illiteracy rates

(Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia), national

strategies have been developed for ECCE

3


38

(Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi

Arabia and Syria), and educational reforms

aiming at improving the quality of education

are under implementation (Egypt, Lebanon,

Oman, Syria and the United Arab Emirates).

Progress towards achievement of the six

EFA goals, however, has been uneven in the

region. This is, perhaps, only to be expected

in so diverse a region which includes both

high income countries such as Kuwait, Qatar

and the United Arab Emirates and low income

countries such as Djibouti, Mauritania and

Yemen, as well as post-conflict countries,

such as Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian

Autonomous Territories and Sudan.

Despite the diversity and the uneven

progress, it is possible to draw some general

conclusions on issues and the challenges

facing the region with regard to achieving

the Six EFA Goals by 2015:

3.1 National EFA Fatigue; donors, national counterparts and organisations exhausted

In addition to relevant national policy

recommendations that serve to improve

access to and quality in education in the Arab

States, there is a need to review aspects of

the EFA coordination mechanisms used by

UNESCO and other agencies and donors.

There is considerable donor and national

actor fatigue apparent in several countries,

especially in those where achievement

of the goals looks slim; there has been

commitment by donors to support those with

credible plans which have not materialised

to the detriment of the process and expected

results of the programming. UNESCO needs

to lead the way in terms of the national and

regional coordination of efforts and available

resources such as effective practices, the

promotion of credible research and data

collection, and the improved dissemination

of practical lessons learned. By seeking to

implement more catalytic interventions in

order to rejuvenate the efforts of the Member

States, UNESCO can facilitate synergy in

terms of the development or enhancement

of platforms to support national and

regional advancement. In order to achieve

this, UNESCO in the Arab Region needs

to strengthen the culture of coordination

and cooperation both regionally and sub-

regionally between counterparts and donors.

3. 2 Slow progress and low quality in ECCE programmes

Progress towards the EFA Goal 1 has been

slow, especially with regard to reaching

marginalized populations. Universalizing

and improving the quality of ECCE remains

a considerable challenge for governments in

the region. Good-quality early childhood care

and education (ECCE) enhances children’s

physical well-being, cognitive and language

skills and social and emotional development,

and contributes to the realization of the

other EFA goals by laying the foundations for

subsequent education.

Drawing on the National EFA Mid-terms

reports and UNESCO Beirut’s recent Survey

on assessing the progress of ECCE in the

Arab States, there are serious challenges

hampering progress towards achieving EFA

Goal 1 such as: (i) the lack of awareness at

the community and the decision–making

levels of the importance of ECCE and its

39


future impact on the growth of the child’s

mental, physical, emotional and social

development; (ii) the concentration of early

childhood services in the private sector and

few services provided by the governments

and often with high operating costs; (iii) the

lack of a single entity responsible for the

planning and implementation and apparent

lack of coherence and co-ordination of

ECCE policy and legislation; (iv) the failure

to provide ECCE services to the poor and

marginalized children and children with

special needs; (v) the shortage of specialized

academic programmes as well as limited

number of in-service training for its staff;

(vi) the focus of most ECCE programmes on

the child’s ability to read and write at the

expense of other skills; (vii) the deficiency in

the measurement tools and weaknesses of

follow-up quality control measures.

3.3 Unbalanced and slow trends in primary education delivery

Access to primary education is still

unattainable is some Arab States despite

the steadily increasing number of children

entering schools since 1999. There are an

estimated 6.2 million out-of-school children

in 2008. Access to primary schooling

continues to be a critical challenge in some

countries, such as Djibouti, Iraq, Mauritania,

Palestine, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and

Yemen. There are also significant disparities

within countries, with an estimated 30% of

rural children being out-of-school compared

with 18% of those living in cities and towns.

3.4 Low quality education system

Achieving quality in education is reliant

on several components that are lacking

in several countries in the Arab States. In

general there is a lack of clearly defined

standards that are required to promote a

culture of quality within national education

provision. In specific terms however, teacher

training and professionalisation is poor or

of low quality in many countries. Moreover,

many Arab governments have failed to initiate

research to support the development of

tailored educational policy that corresponds

to the needs on the ground. In addition,

there is a lack of effective coordination in

the implementation of proposed strategies

between the central and local government,

as well as a poor degree of synergy between

the private and public sector.

3.5 Globalization and the division between education systems and market requirements

Significantly, many of the education systems

that exist across the Arab region are out-

dated and ill-equiped to prepare young

people for the labour market. Moreover,

the curriculum analysis made in the

UNESCO-Beirut 2007 Quality Study found

that the curricula still ignore modern world

development requirements such as the

environment, population and current issues

(Iraq, Lebanon), or which focus on theoretical

knowledge at the expense of practical and

analytical or critical skills (Yemen). Internet,

computers and other technology rarely

form a component of public education in

Arab countries which sets it at a decided


40

disadvantage for future global and regional

market requirements. In addition, teaching

and learning materials often assume a

narrow and traditional approach that can fail

to stimulate creativity or interest in learning.

3.6 Demographic change

The Arab States region has one of the largest

“baby boomer” cohort in the world with a

large number of women of childbearing age

due to high fertility rates in the past. The

future demand for education will increase

as the young population is predominating in

the population pyramid (MENA Development

Report 2010). The region will continue to

have one of the highest percentages of youth

in the world. Despite the current decline in

fertility in most Arab States, there is still

high fertility in poor rural areas and often

associated with high illiteracy rate and low

quality of life and would result in an increase

in the number of school-aged children . An

example of this can be seen in Yemen, where

women have an average of 5.4 children which

is contextualised against the backdrop of low

female literacy rates. The primary school-

age population is expected to grow at a rate

of 6.2% in the region and it is estimated that

the 0-14 age group will make up close to

32% of the total population in 2015. This high

demand for education in the coming years

will structure the governmental resource in

poorer Arab States and is likely to influence

negatively the enrollment rate1.

3.7 Increasing number of displaced and refugee children

Recent internal and international conflict and

instances of occupation have led to a significant

increase in the number of displaced refugee

and children. The region has the highest

number of refugee and displaced population

(almost 5 million Palestinians, 2 million

Iraqis and more than 1.6 million internal

displaced Iraqi population, and thousands

of internal displaced families in Yemen and

Lebanon). This is affecting negatively the

educational services and the educational

delivery systems in the host countries as well

impacting extremely detrimentally upon the

lives, social development and educational

opportunity and achievement of children

trapped in situations of displacment and

conflict.

3.8 Geography and gender – a double-disadvantage

Despite the fact that the Gender Parity Index

has been achieved for half of the countries

in the region in primary education,

enrolement in several Arab States is faced

by geographical and urban–rural inequality

in education. Rural areas, such as those in

Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan, tend to

have vast tracts of land with low population

density that can mean long and often

dangerous journeys to school, particular

for girls. The combination of discrimination

and poor services to rural areas means that

several hundreds of thousands of children

are excluded from any type of formal

education services.

Arab MDG Report 2010.14

41


3.9 Limited educational opportunities for children with special needs

Children with special needs are often some

of the most marginalized and least likely

to attend school in the Arab States. This

is particularly the case for LDCs where

resources are limited and so schools have

less chances of adaptation for disability,

special training, special needs assistants,

equipment and inclusive curriculum. Without

a culture of inclusion, the available resources

are also not used to the fullest potential in

ensuring that all children are welcomed into

the folds of the formal education system.

3.10 Limited and unstructured non-formal education programmes

Several countries have introduced pilot

projects and innovative initiatives aiming

to promote learning and develop life-skills

among young and adult learners. There is

an urgent need to improve the monitoring

of supply and the demand in non-formal

education at national levels.. There are

inadequate non-formal and supplemental

programmes and insufficient support

from NGOs and the private sector. Further

research on the under-lying circumstances,

the needs and strengths of the region’s out-

of-school children needs to be undertaken

in order to establish effective methodologies

through which to better reach out to and

education children outside the formal school

system. Progress in improving educational

achievement and bridging gender and

geographical disparities depend not only

on providing education but on addressing

barriers that prevent some children from

starting or completing schooling, such as

poverty, child labour, HIV/AIDS, remote

geographical location, poor infrastructure,

ethnicity, women’s low social status and lack

of parental education, civil conflict, natural

disasters and violence.

3.11 High illiteracy rates and cycles of educational exclusion

Arab countries have over 60 million adults

with difficulties in basic literacy. The number

of illiterate adults in this region is estimated

to have increased from 1990 by one million

of which more than two-thirds are women.

If Education for All is to be achieved,

breakthroughs must take place in these key

countries of the region. A carefully-designed

strategy and implementation policy is

required for meaningful post-literacy and

continuing education to become a reality.

The narrow concept of literacy must be

broadened to include knowledge of basic

life-skills and enhanced competencies.

Functional literacy must provide to the

learner an avenue for renewed self-belief

and most importantly self-advancement.

Hence, initial literacy teaching must have

strong follow-up for retention on the one

hand and imparting life skills on the other.

As aforementioned, significant gender gaps

continue to exist in adult literacy rates

with more than 80% of mothers of out-of-

school children facing literacy difficulties

themselves. This underlines the importance

of providing practical and tailored

educational opportunities for as many young

and adolescent girls as soon as possible and

encouraging them to complete as much of

their education for their own sake as well as

for the advancement of their future families.


42

43

CHAPTER 4Policy Recom-mendations

Despite progress achieved in all Arab States

toward the achievement of the EFA Goals

in 2015, some countries will still face the

challenge of not achieving the goals before this

deadline. There is an urgent need for key policy

actions in order to accelerate the progress and

to remove the remaining barriers. To respond

to the challenges and meet head–on the issues

related to accessibility, affordability, cultural/

social demands, curricular relevance and

quality of education in the Arab States, the

following policy recommendations which are

drawn from lessons learnt and good practices

from the region are deemed to be useful for

inclusion within the agendas of the Ministries

of Education:

4


44

• Rejuvenate the EFA National Group in

each Member State. This is crucial for

national coordination as well as regional

and sub-regional cooperation. UNESCO

as lead agency should lead the way in re-

grouping the partners and revitalising

the national and regional network of EFA

National Groups.

• For expanding ECCE accessibility

and quality, national governments in

the region are called upon to develop

a coherent and well-coordinated

national ECCE strategy to implement

programmes which are accessible to all

pre-school aged children, particularly

the disadvantaged and marginalized.

Appropriate ECCE programmes for

children in the 0-3 age range could be

developed in partnership with relevant

ministries and organisations, such as

the Ministry of Health and the Ministry

of Social Affairs. The aim should be

to provide quality programmes which

focus on the whole child’s development,

with an emphasis on learning through

interaction which encourages parental

and local community participation rather

than on teacher-based instruction alone.

There should be free provision of these

programmes for children from poor

families in order to encourage those who

stand to benefit most from such early

inclusion in education. Alternative, cost-

effective ECCE delivery mechanisms

(such as parenting ECCE programmes,

ECCE local community service, day-

care programmes, home-based ECCE

approaches etc..) should be developed

in order to expand coverage. The private

sector should be encouraged and

supported to provide delivery of ECCE

programmes through providing free

training, free curriculum development

and supervision.

• In tandem with the broadening of

enrolment and access levels at pre-

primary stages, there needs to be

a concerted effort to ensure that

expansion is coupled with quality

control. In increasing access, countries

need to begin the process of localising

international standards of safety

and quality in ECCE through the

establishment of quality standards and

the relevant monitoring and certifying

board to follow through on the application

and use of such standards.

• For securing school enrolment and

retention at primary level, national

governments should work to eliminate

additional or hidden school fees by

reducing indirect costs associated with

transport, uniforms, textbooks, and

other informal fees needed to make

education accessible to the poorest

children who would otherwise be unable

to attend. Financial stipend programs

can be foreseen for poor families as

incentives for encouraging them to send

their children to school.

• For vulnerable groups, special incentives

must be given by way of breakfast

clubs, mid-day meals, take-home food

packs and other nutritional or medical

services, particularly in rural areas.

Governments need to focus efforts on

45

CHAPTER 4 Policy Recommendations

improving delivery of such incentives

with community participation and

greater transparency in order to ensure

that corruption is avoided and that the

children and their families who benefit

from these services are supported as

much as possible.

• Governments need to institutionalize

non-formal education within the Ministry

of Education. The adoption of flexible

modalities could bring education

within the reach of the many million

marginalized children living in remote

and disadvantaged urban areas, such as

slums and refugee camps, as well as in

rural areas with low access and transport.

Such approaches include mobile school,

satellite schools, one classroom schools

and multi-grade teaching.

• For children who remain out-of-

school and for those who are pushed

out of the system through poverty or

discrimination, governments need to

put in place a set of systems to identify

at children at risk and support those

who have already dropped out. Risk

prevention activities as well as follow-up

in the community needs to be initiated

and developed. Accelerated learning

process and new learning opportunities,

catering to school-aged children and

adolescents must also be developed

and implemented by national bodies in

collaboration with NGOs, the community

and local stakeholders. These programs

must be accredited and recognized by

government and employers and enable

children to return to school or facilitate

entry to the labor market in the future.

• Infrastructure and culture of schools

must cater to disabled children and an

inclusive environment must be created

to welcome all children into schools.

This is an urgent and basic necessity in

recognizing the right to education of all

children.

• Although the region has made credible

progress in tackling illiteracy levels, the

scale of the problem is such that literacy

improvement requires a determined

political will to mobilize the whole

society including appropriate ministries,

the non-state sector, universities,

students, part-time teachers and trained

volunteers, particularly in rural areas.

Policy-makers need to explore how to

create bridging links between formal

and non-formal education, to rethink

the role of ICT so that it impacts not

only on knowledge and skills but, more

importantly in this context, on how it can

promote social inclusion and how to link

literacy programmes to national poverty

strategies.

• Ministries of Education in the region

are invited to collaborate in improving

teaching and learning practices.

Attention must be given to the use

of active and cooperative pedagogic

practices which places the learners

at the center of the teaching/learning

processes (child-centred approaches).

This means teachers are called to move

away from traditional teaching to open-

ended instruction and enquiry-based

learning.


46

• There is a need for revision of educational

content in order to ensure that national

curricula is up-to-date and reflective

of modern globalised issues. There is

a need for the right mix between the

incorporation of new subjects related to

health, human rights, environment and

the core subjects. Given that there is a

positive correlation between instruction

time and student achievement, policy

makers in the region are advised to

pay attention to the broadly agreed

benchmark of 1,000 effective hours of

schooling per year.

• The use of continuous and reliable

assessment that can be implemented in a

timely manner is essential to improve the

quality of education. It is recommended

that the use of assessment tools be varied,

flexible, and continuous. These could take the

form of, for example, teacher observation,

reports or the use of portfolio or project-

orientated assessment.

• There is a need to rethink the pre-service

and in-service training of teachers as

well as improving working conditions.

Best practices must be adopted and

ongoing professional support should

include an incentive structure that lets

teachers see the benefit of improving

their practices and encourages schools

to put better learning at the heart of

their educational vision. Motivating

teachers is not easy when funds are

low and classes are often large and of

varying ability – governments need to

ensure that there are incentives to drive

teachers performance forward; these

can be teachers’ awards, recognition,

food or transport allowances or other

incentives as well as the establishment

and celebration of teachers’ day – all

can serve to improve the motivation of

teachers in completing their work.

• Improving school conditions and

ensuring good training for head teachers

will influence the quality of education

provided. Investment in working with

head teachers will serve to prioritize

the decentralization of knowledge and

management training. Investment

in school administrators will ensure

the production of effective schools

and encourage them to increase their

participation in the development of their

communities.

47

List of References

Barro, Robert J. and Jong-Wha Lee. 2010. A new data set of educational attainment in the

world, 1950-2010, Working Paper 15902. Massachusetts, National Bureau of Economic

Research.

IAE. 2008. TIMSS 2007 International Mathematics & Sciences Reports: Findings from IEA’s

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study at the Fourth and Eighth Grades.

TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Lynch School of Education, Boston College.

OECD. 2010. PISA 2009 Results: What students know and can do. Paris, OECD

UIS. 2010. Montreal, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UIS.

UNESCO. 2007. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007: Strong Foundations – Early Childhood

Care and Education. Paris, UNESCO.

UNESCO. 2010. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010: Reaching the Marginalized. Paris,

UNESCO.

UNESCO. 2010. Innovations in ECCE

UNICEF. 2005. Progress for Children, A report card on gender parity and primary education,

Number 2. New York, UNICEF.

United Nations, League of Arab States. 2010. The Third Arab Report on the Millennium

Development Goals 2010 and the Impact of the Global Economic Crisis. New York, United

Nations.

World Education Forum. 2000. Dakar Framework for Action. Education for All. Meeting our

Collective Commitments. Dakar, Senegal, 26-28 April.


48


49

CO

UN

TRY P

RO

FILES


50

ALGERIA

KEY EDUCATION INDICATORS5

Participation in Education, 2009

Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)

Combined (ISCED 1-6) (-3)

Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x

Literacy Rates, 2009(-3)

Data Source1. United Nations Statistics Division (2008)2. UNPD estimates (WPP: The 2008 Revision)3. The World Bank (EDI, 2009)4. UNDP Human Development Report (2010)5. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2010)(-/+ n): previous or beyond reference year

Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)

Tertiary (ISCED 5-6)

Secondary (ISCED 2-3)

Primary (ISCED 1)

Pre-primary (ISCED 0) (-1) 23

108

31

74

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.94

1.4

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

Female

Male

Total 73

81

64

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 92

94

89

0 20 40 60 80 100

Background Information

Total Area (sq. km)1 2,381,741

Total Population, 2009 (thousands)2 34,895

Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 1.51

Life expectancy at birth, 2005-2010 (years) 2 72.3

Infant mortality rate, 2005-2010 (‰)2 31.1

GDP per Capita, 2009 (current US$)3 4,029

Human Development Index, 20104 .677

Public Expenditure on Education

Indicator 2009

% of GDP 4.3(-1)

% of total government expenditure 20.3(-1)

Education Quality, %

Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 28 28 23

% of repeaters in primary 9 12 11

% of repeaters in secondary 14 23 16

Universal Primary Education, %

Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Adjusted net enrolment rate in

primary89 92 95

Gross intake rate to last grade of

primary80 85 90

Survival rate to last grade of

primary- 91 93(-2)

Transition from primary to

secondary general education77 72 91(-2)

Programme Orientation

DATA NOT AVAILABLE

51

BAHRAIN



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)

Pre-primary (ISCED 0) 59

107

96

85

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.98

1.04

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Female

Male

Total 91

92

89

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 100

100

100

0 20 40 60 80 100


Total Area (sq. km)1 750

Total Population, 2009 (thousands)2 791







Indicator 2009

% of GDP 2.9(-1)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 19 18(+1) -


% of repeaters in secondary 5 8(+1) 4


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary99 99 99


primary97 99 103


primary- 92 99(-5)



Programme Orientation, 2009

Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment 76%

TVET

Enrolment

24%

COUNTRY PROFILES


52

ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT


Participation in Education, 2009(-2)

Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)

Combined (ISCED 1-6)

Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)

Pre-primary (ISCED 0)16

100

29

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.95

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Female

Male

Total 66

75

60

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 85

88

82

0 20 40 60 80 100


Total Area (sq. km)1 100,200



Life expectancy at birth, 2005-2010 (years) 2 70

Infant mortality rate, 2005-2010 (‰)2 35




Indicator 2009

% of GDP 3.8(-1)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 25 23 27(-2)

% of repeaters in primary - 6 3(-2)

% of repeaters in secondary - 7(+2) 7(-5)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 88 95(-2)


primary- 89 95(-2)


primary- 99 97(-3)


secondary general education- 84 -


DATA NOT AVAILABLE

53

COUNTRY PROFILES

IRAQ



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


103

51

64

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.84

0.75

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Female

Male

Total 78

86

69

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 82

85

80

0 20 40 60 80 100








Human Development Index, 20104 -


Indicator 2009

% of GDP -

% of total government expenditure -


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


% of repeaters in primary 16(+2) 10 17(-2)

% of repeaters in secondary 33(+2) 28 21(-2)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary76 88 88(-2)


primary58(+2) 56 64(-2)


primary- 49 67(-6)


secondary general education64(+2) 73 -

Programme Orientation, 2009(-2)

Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

90%

TVET

Enrolment

10%


54

JORDAN



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


97

88

41

78

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary

1.01

1.04

1.11

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Female

Male

Total

92

96

89

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 99

99

99

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 28(-2) 20(+3) 20(-6)

% of repeaters in primary 5 1 1(-1)

% of repeaters in secondary 7 1 1(-1)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 95 94(-1)


primary101 95 100(-1)


primary- 97 99(-3)




Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

85%

TVET

Enrolment

15%

55

COUNTRY PROFILES

KUWAIT



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1) (-1)


95

90

29

75

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.98

1.03

2.36

0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4

Female

Male

Total95

95

93

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 98

98

99

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP 3.8(-3)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009



% of repeaters in secondary 12(+1) 10 6


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary47 93 93(-1)


primary57(+1) 99 93


primary- 94 97(-1)


secondary general education95(+1) 97 100(-1)


Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

96%

TVET

Enrolment

4%


56

LEBANON



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


103

82

53

81

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.98

1.11

1.19

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

Female

Male

Total 90

86

93

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total

99

99

98

0 20 40 60 80 100




Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 .83






Indicator 2009

% of GDP 1.8

% of total government expenditure 7.2


Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 15(-2) 14 14

% of repeaters in primary - 9 9

% of repeaters in secondary - 8 9


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 93 91


primary- 100 83


primary- - 93(-1)


secondary general education- - 86(-1)


Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

71%

TVET

Enrolment

29%

57

COUNTRY PROFILES

LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


110

93

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary

0.95

1.17

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Female

Male

Total 88

95

81

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 100

100

100

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary - - -

% of repeaters in primary - - -

% of repeaters in secondary - - -


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- - -


primary- - -


primary- - -


secondary general education- - -


DATA NOT AVAILABLE


58

MAURITANIA



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)

Pre-primary (ISCED 0)

102

24

4

50

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 1.06

0.89

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Female

Male

Total

57

64

50

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 67

71

63

0 20 40 60 80 100







GDP per Capita, 2009 (current US$)3 921



Indicator 2009

% of GDP 4.0(-1)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009


% of repeaters in primary 18 15(+1) 3

% of repeaters in secondary 15 14(+2) 11


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 62 77


primary33 51(+1) 70


primary- 61 82(-1)




DATA NOT AVAILABLE

59

COUNTRY PROFILES

MOROCCO



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x

Literacy Rates, 2009


Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)


Secondary (ISCED 2-3) (-2)



107

56

13

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary (-2)

Primary 0.92

0.86

0.88

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Female

Male

Total

56

69

44

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 80

87

72

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP 5.6 (-1)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009





Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary57 71 90


primary48 54 84


primary- 75 78(-1)




Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

95%

TVET

Enrolment

5%


60

Occupied Palestinian Territory



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


79

87

46

75

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 1.00

1.07

1.31

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40

Female

Male

Total

95

97

92

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 99

99

99

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary - 38 28


% of repeaters in secondary - 3 2


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 99 78


primary- 101 82


primary- 99 99(-2)


secondary general education- 97 97(-1)


Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

94%

TVET

Enrolment

6%

61

COUNTRY PROFILES

OMAN



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


75

88

27

66

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 1.01

0.97

1.15

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Female

Male

Total 87

90

81

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 98

98

98

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP 3.9(-3)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009



% of repeaters in secondary 9(+1) 10 2(-2)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary70 83 72(-1)


primary74(+1) 83 80(-1)


primary- 92 100(-2)


secondary general education78(+1) 95 97(-2)


DATA NOT AVAILABLE


62

QATAR



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


106

85

10

57

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary

0.99

1.47

6.31

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Female

Male

Total 95

95

93

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 98

98

98

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009



% of repeaters in secondary - 5(+6) 3


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary92 95 98


primary71 87 109


primary- - 97(-2)


secondary general education87 96(+1) 100(-1)


Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

98%

TVET

Enrolment

2%

63

COUNTRY PROFILES

SAUDI ARABIA



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


99

97

33

81

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.96

0.86

1.23

0 0.4 0.8 1.2

Female

Male

Total

86

90

80

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 97

98

96

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP 5.6(-1)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary - 11 11

% of repeaters in primary - - 4

% of repeaters in secondary - 7(+6) 4


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 85 86


primary- - 95


primary- 96 96(-1)


secondary general education- - 96(-1)


Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

99%

TVET

Enrolment

1%


64

SUDAN



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


74

38

38

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.9

0.88

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Female

Male

Total 69

79

60

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 85

89

82

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 34 - 38

% of repeaters in primary - 11 4

% of repeaters in secondary - - 3(-1)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 42(+1) -


primary- 36 57


primary- 77 93(-2)




Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

96%

TVET

Enrolment

4%

65

COUNTRY PROFILES

SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


122

75

66

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.96

0.99

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Female

Male

Total 84

90

77

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 94

96

93

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP 4.9(-2)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009





Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary93 95 97(-7)


primary89 86 113


primary- 87 93(-1)




Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

79%

TVET

Enrolment

21%


66

TUNISIA



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)

Combined (ISCED 1-6))

Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x


Data Source1. UN Statistics Division (2008)2. UNPD estimates (WPP: The 2008 Revision)3. The World Bank (EDI, 2009)4. UNDP Human Development Report (2009)5. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2010)(-/+ n): previous or beyond reference year

Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)

Pre-primary (ISCED 0)

107

92

34

78

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.98

1.08

1.49

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6

Female

Male

Total78

86

71

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 96

98

97

0 20 40 60 80 100




Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 .98






Indicator 2009

% of GDP 7.1(-2)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009


% of repeaters in primary 20 18 8(-1)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary94 96 100(-1)


primary74 90 93


primary- 87 94(-2)




Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

90%

TVET

Enrolment

10%

67

COUNTRY PROFILES

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)

Tertiary (ISCED 5-6) (-1)


Primary (ISCED 1)


105

95

25

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary (-1)

Secondary

Primary 0.99

1.01

2.05

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Female

Male

Total90

90

92

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 95

94

97

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP 1.2

% of total government expenditure 23.4


Indicator 1991 1999 2009





Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary99 81 98


primary103 81 100


primary- 90 100(-3)




Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

99%

TVET

Enrolment

1%


68

YEMEN



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)

Tertiary (ISCED 5-6) (-2)

Secondary (ISCED 2-3) (-4)



85

46

10

54

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary (-1)

Secondary (-4)

Primary (-1) 0.8

0.49

0.42

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Female

Male

Total 61

79

43

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total83

95

70

0 20 40 60 80 100










Indicator 2009

% of GDP 5.2(-1)



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary - 22 -


% of repeaters in secondary - 9 6(-1)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary- 56 73(-1)


primary- 54 61


primary- 80 59(-5)




Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

98%

TVET

Enrolment

2%

69

COUNTRY PROFILES

Regional Profile of the Arab States

KEY EDUCATION INDICATORS

Participation in Education, 2009(-1)4

Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x

Literacy Rates, 2005 - 20094

Data Source1. United Nations Statistics Division (2008)2. UNPD estimates (WPP: The 2008 Revision)3. UNDP Human Development Report (2010)4. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2010)5. EFA Global Monitoring Report (2010)(-/+ n): previous or beyond reference year

Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


96

68

21

65

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary*(-2)

Secondary

Primary

0.92

0.92

0.96

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00

Female

Male

Total 81

63

72

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 91

84

87

0 20 40 60 80 100



Total Population, 2009 (thousands)2 341, 542

Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 10.60-.83 (2.17)

Life expectancy at birth, 2005-2010 (years) 2 75.7-56.6 (72.8)

Total Fertility rate, 2005-2010 (children/woman)2 5.30 -1.86 (2.89)

Infant mortality rate, 2005-2010 (‰)2 72.8-5.9 (19.4)


Public Expenditure on Education5

Indicator 2009

% of GDP 4.0(-2)


Education Quality, %4

Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary - 23 22(-1)

% of repeaters in primary - 8 3.2(-2)

% of repeaters in secondary - 4 8(-1)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary4 - 77 86(-1)


primary4 - 72 85(-1)


primary5 - 90 94(-3)


secondary general education5 - - 88(-3)

Programme Orientation, 2009(-1)4

Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

87%

TVET

Enrolment

13%


70

Jordan, Lebanon, OPT, Syria


Participation in Education, 2009(*)

Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x

Literacy Rates, 2005-2009(*)

Data Source1. United Nations Statistics Division (2008)2. UNPD estimates (WPP: The 2008 Revision)3. UNDP Human Development Report (2010)4. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2010)(-/+ n): previous or beyond reference year

Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


100

85

46

77

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.99

1.06

1.1

.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20

Female

Male

Total 99

99

99

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 95

88

91

0 20 40 60 80 100


Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 28-15 (25)$ 38-14(25)x 28-14(18)x

% of repeaters in primary - 9-1(4) 9-1 (5)

% of repeaters in secondary - 11-1 (6) 9-1 (4)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Adjusted net enrolment rate

in primary-

99-

93(95)

94-78

(91)#

Gross intake rate to last grade

of primary-

101-

86(98)

113-82

(92)

Survival rate to last grade

of primary-

99-

87(94)

99-

93(96)(-1)


secondary general education-

97-

69(97)+

99-

86(96) (-1)



Total Area (sq. km)1 290, 994


Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 3.26-0.83(3.10)

Life expectancy at birth, 2005-2010 (years) 2 74-72 (73)

Total Fertility rate, 2005-2010 (children/woman)2 5.09-1.86(3.21)

Infant mortality rate, 2005-2010 (‰)2 22.0-16.0(18.5)


Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

81%

TVET

Enrolment

19%

Countries not included in data* Jordan x Lebanon # Syria $ oPt

71

COUNTRY PROFILES

Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco,Tunisia



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x

Literacy Rates, 2005 - 2009(*)

Data Source1. United Nations Statistics Division (2008)2. UNPD estimates (WPP: The 2008 Revision)3. UNDP Human Development Report (2010)4. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2010)(-/+ n): previous or beyond reference year(*) Calculated using median figure

Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


107

92

30

74

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary0.95

1.08

1.44

0.00 0.40 0.80 1.20 1.60

Female

Male

Total

94

89

92

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 81

58

73

0 20 40 60 80 100


Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in

primary28-25(28)+ 28-23 (26)+ 27-17 (25)+

% of repeaters in primary 20-9 (11)x + 18-6 (12)+ 11-3 (10)+

% of repeaters in secondary 20-14 (16)x + 23-19 (22)x + 17-16 (16)x +


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


in primary

94-57

(89)x +

96-71

(90)+

100-

90(95)+

Gross intake rate to last

grade

80-48

(74)x +

90-54

(87)+

95-84

(94)+


primary-

99-75

(89)+

97-78(94)(-1)+


secondary general education

77-43

(76)x +

81-

68(72)x+

91-82

(82)x+

Programme Orientation, 2009(1)x+

Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

93%

TVET

Enrolment

7%


Total Area (sq. km)1 5, 753, 441


Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 1.81-.98 (1.51)


Total Fertility rate, 2005-2010 (children/woman)2 2.89-18.0 (2.38)


Human Development Index, 20103 .755-.567 (.677)

Countries not included in data# Algeria x Egypt x Lybia $ Tunisia


72

Bahrain, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, UAE



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)



Primary (ISCED 1)


102

93

30

75

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.99

1.02

2.21

0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50

Female

Male

Total 98

98

98

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total 98

98

98

0 20 40 60 80 100


Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 28-11 (18)# 25-13(15)+# 16-9 (11)+

% of repeaters in primary 9-3 (5)# 8-3 (3)# 4-1 (2)

% of repeaters in secondary 12-5 (9)# 10-7 (9)# x 6-2 (4)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


in primary

99-47

(92)#

99-81

(93)#

99-72

(98)#


of primary

103-57

(74)#

99-81

(87)#

109-

80(100)#


primary-

94-

90(92)X#

100-96

(98)


secondary general education

96-78

(87)#

99-95

(96)#

100-96

(99)

Programme Orientation, 2009**




Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 10.652.08(2.28)





Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

98%

TVET

Enrolment

2%

Countries not included in data* Bahrain # Saudi Arabia $ UAE * Oman x Qatar

73

COUNTRY PROFILES

Priority Countries: Iraq, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen



Gro

ss E

nro

lem

en

t R

ati

o (

%)


Ge

nd

er

Pa

rity

In

de

x



Ad

ult

(%

)Y

ou

th (

%)

Tertiary (ISCED 5-6)x


Primary (ISCED 1)


95

42

9

50

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary 0.87

0.82

0.37

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00

Female

Male

Total87

75

83

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Total79

55

65

0 20 40 60 80 100


Indicator 2009

% of GDP -



Indicator 1991 1999 2009

Pupil/Teacher ratio in primary 45-2 5

(34)$ 47-22 (25)+ 39-17 (38)$

% of repeaters in primary - 15-10 (11) 17-3 (5)


Indicator 1991 1999 2009


primary-

88-56

(62)+

88-73

(77)+


of primary-

56-36

(53)

70-57

(63)


primary-

80-61

(69)

93-

59(75)(-1)


secondary general education-

84-35

(76)-

Programme Orientation, 2009x$

Upper

Secondary

General

Programmes

Enrolment

93%

TVET

Enrolment

7%




Population annual growth rate, 2005-2010 (%)2 2.86-2.17 (2.30)





Countries not included in data# Iraq x Mauritania x Sudan $ Yemen

UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States – Beirut Cite Sportive – Bir Hassan P. O. Box: 11-5244 Beirut – LebanonTel: +961 1 850 013 /4 /5 Fax: +961 1 824 854 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.unesco.org/beirut

EFA R

egio

na

l Rep

ort fo

r the A

RA

B STA

TES 20

11

EFA RegionalReport for the ARAB STATES

2011


ARAB STATES 2011

efa regional report for the arab states 2011 · 2014-10-08 · efa regional report for the arab...

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