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lack of female teachers is one of the factors resulting in low enrolment and retention of girls in schools, particularly in higher grades when parents tend to object to male teachers

The sector also suffers from a lack of efficiency and effectiveness in using limited financial resources and weak management capacity.

DA has provided assistance for development of all education system sub-sector

both building on the success of the Basic Education Expansion Project of 2001-2007

The Secondary Education Development and Girls Access Project provides a platform to address broader sector governance and management issues by bringing together the Ministries of Planning, Finance, Civil Service and Insurance and Local Officials to jointly sign a Protocol of Participation in this Project.

men is also part of the Education For All Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI). FTI focuses on increasing access of children to primary education in line with the MDG target of achieving universal primary education, and its interventions target the most remote areas in the country where no other IDA project, government intervention or donor project has gone before

Increase in enrolment in primary education to 87 percent in 2008-09 from 68 percent in 1998-99.Gains in girls’ enrolment were even higher with an increase to 78% in 2008-09 from 49% in 1998-99, reducing by half the gap with male enrolment

The Education sector in Yemen is one of oldest and largest sectors of IDA investment in Yemen.

otal Bank financing for the five projects amounts to US$133 million, comprising Basic Education Development Project (US$68.66 million), Secondary Education Development and Girls Access project (US$20 million), Fast Track Initiative – Phase III (US$20 million), Second Vocational Training Project (US$ 15 million), and Second Higher Education Project (US$13 million).

he basic education sector in Yemen is characterized by a high degree of donor harmonization. Education receives a large share of the comparatively small amount of Official Development Assistance per capita recipient (just US$13 in 2006).

The Yemen Country Status Report set the stage for the development of a national vision for education. The national vision is to be developed in coordination with line ministries and aims to develop the foundations for a national education system that is linked to the labor market

Cost-sharing is a “shift of the burden of higher education costs from being totally borne by the government or the taxpayer, to being shared with parents and students”

This raises the  question, to what extent can this cost-sharing policy preserve equity in enrollment and improve the quality of higher education in Morocco? The obvious answer is that this policy is causing more harm to Moroccan higher education.

With fewer than 1 in 10 Syrian refugees ages 15, 16, or 17 enrolled in secondary school or technical/vocational education, the risk of losing a generation of skilled professionals is very real

its oil is of poor quality, and ISIS is likely having trouble transporting it.

ISIS is only capable of moving its oil by truck, suggesting that the group hasn't mastered the use of northern Iraq's oil pipeline system.

Some experts have estimated that ISIS brings in up to $3 million in revenue each day.

Ben Lando of Iraq Oil Report told the Post that ISIS's daily revenue might actually be as low as $250,000 a day.

Iraqi fields "are so small and the crude of such poor quality that international companies did not bid to develop them

ISIS, which nearly seized a refinery outside of Baghdad in June, is interrupting the one industry that makes Iraq viable not just as an economy, but as a political unit as well.

In 2012, the International Energy Agency predicted a nearly 500% increase in Iraqi oil revenue by 2020, and concluded that revenue would double during that period even in a worst-case scenario:

its ability to disrupt Iraq's leading industry denies the country of much of its economic potential while degrading vital infrastructure.

locked into the cities and towns

they f

had to compete

Palestinians

Iraqis

Syria was already a refuge

March 15, 2011

small group gathered in the southwestern town of Daraa to protest against government failure to help them

government saw them as subversives.

He ordered a crackdown

And the army,

responded violently.

Riots broke out

attempted to quell them with military

what had begun as a food and water issue gradually turned into a political and religious cause.

interpretation of Islam

the Syrian government is charged with using illegal chemical weapons

All observers agree that the foreign-controlled and foreign-constituted insurgent groups are the most coherent, organized, and effective

astonishing as they share no common language and come from a wide variety of cultures

slam has at least so far failed to provide an effective unifying force

all the rebels regard the conflict in Syria as fundamentally a religious issue

pwards of $150 billion

a whole generation of Syrians have been subjected to either or both the loss of their homes and their trust in fellow human beings.

How the victims and the perpetrators can be returned to a “normal life”

First, the war might continue.

Second, if the Syrian government continues or even prevails, there is no assurance that,

t will be able to suppress the insurgency.

Third,

Syria will remain effectively “balkanized”

Public schools are completely the responsibility of the Education Ministry

bout 92 percent of students attend public schools.

ublic schools are divided into two types: local Arabic schools and experimental schools.

Experimental schools a

public schools that offer their curriculum in a foreign language.

ational Institutions Schools

hese schools are institutions that are not privately owned but are related to national institutions and administrations.

hich are semi-private schools with high language standards and school fees close to private school fees.

ed by social institutions, not individuals

mbassy Schools

hese are schools that are not connected to the Ministry of Education in any way

embers of the student body are mainly from the nation of their respective embassies and follow their own curriculum.

since these schools do not offer the courses required by the ministry in Arabic, Religion and Social Studies, Egyptian universities are not likely to admit students from these schools.

Private Schools

rivate schools edcuate just 8 percent of students.

creditation to offer other kinds of diplomas, including the British General Certificate of Secondary Education, the International Baccalaureate and the French Baccalaureate.

ther schools are privately owned but offer a national curriculum.

issionary and Religious Schools also teach the national curriculum but have a religious mission.

They do not have a special license, are legally national schools and are subject to Egyptian laws.

Finally, although Qatar has a high per capita income, the national investment in education was small. Teachers received low pay and little professional development, many school buildings were in poor condition, and classrooms were overcrowded.

he most fundamental need was for clear curriculum standards oriented toward the desired outcomes of schooling. The new system’s curriculum, assessments, and professional development would all need to be aligned with these clear standards

AND presented three governance options to the Qatari leadership for discussion: (1) a Modified Centralized Model, which upgraded the existing, centrally controlled system by allowing for some school-level flexibility with or without parental choice of schools; (2) a Charter School Model, which encouraged variety through a set of schools independent of the Ministry and which allowed parents to choose whether to send their children to these schools; and (3) a Voucher Model, which offered parents school vouchers so that they could send their children to private schools and which sought to expand high-quality private schooling in Qatar.

Qatar now possesses curriculum standards in Arabic, mathematics, science, and English for all 12 grades — and these standards are comparable to the highest in the world.

These tests and surveys were then upgraded and repeated in 2005 and 2006 as part of the ongoing accountability system. The tests are the first standardized measures of student learning available in the Arabic language.

otential school operators responded enthusiastically to the call to open the new schools.

from a pool of 160 initial applicants; all 12 opened under three-year renewable contracts. In 2005, 21 additional Independent schools opened, and in 2006, 13 more opened.

Increased expertise is needed in Qatar’s teaching workforce and among the Institutes’ staff. Non-Qatari specialists are likely to be required in the future, but it is important that they find the means to transfer knowledge to Qataris to build local human resources.

The four principles of the reform — autonomy, accountability, variety, and choice

The emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates recently adopted a strategy of public financing for private providers of education that is similar to that of Qatar. Also, the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council praised Qatar’s initiative, especially its curriculum standards. Since these standards are the foundation for teaching, learning, and accountability, the Secretary General’s praise, motivated by concern throughout the region about preparing students for later life, represents a major endorsement of the approach taken in Qatar.

The Taliban has already been successful with this approach on other fronts. Their attacks on polio aid workers have proven effective in disrupting the country’s entire public health system

Together with Jishnu Das of the World Bank, we have been researching Pakistan’s education sector for nearly 20 years.

Girls in particular have benefited from this school boom: more are in school than ever.

Research shows that the education debate in Pakistan is similar to the education debate in any other country: parents grapple with a choice of schools based on the usual set of considerations: Which of the schools nearby is best? How much should we pay? Is our child getting the best quality education?

But education is a unique service – not only because it involves a country’s most precious resource, its children – but also because, by increasing human capital, it strengthens the state not only in the present, but in the future.

As we speak, many schools are announcing temporary closure of facilities in the aftermath of the latest attack

Though girls’ enrollment and primary education completion rates in Yemen have increased substantially over the last decade, the gender disparity remains severe

To address the disparity, in 2007 the Yemeni government, with funding from the World Bank’s Fund for the Poorest Countries (IDA), launched a rural female teacher contracting scheme and has since trained 550 teachers, 525 of which have become certified.  Under an additional project, funded by the Global Partnership for Education, 490 teachers have completed the training program.

A conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, designed to help girls in grades 4-9 in disadvantaged communities in selected governorates, has been effective in encouraging parents to allow girls to attend school.

he cash stipends are conditional on maintaining no less than 80% attendance and a passing grade, with an allowance to repeat the grade only once

Under Yemen’s second basic education development project, approved under a $66 million IDA grant in February, the government  will recruit, train and deploy an additional 700 female teachers in rural areas and continue its conditional cash transfer program for girls’ education, to extend service to an additional 25,000 students.

eeting these lofty goals will require a range of initiatives—repairing infrastructure and building new facilities, providing sufficient learning materials, narrowing teacher-student ratios, and addressing gender disparities—especially in rural areas, where underfunding and conflict have compounded the problems facing schools ther

Mohammad bin Mohammad, a school teacher in Erman Primary School in the Ans area of Dhamar governorate, which accommodates 110 children from first to sixth grade, says many of his students are forced to take their lessons sitting on the ground. “Students don’t study in proper classrooms. Let alone having enough labs, chairs or tables,” he said.

Addressing security concerns and providing necessary infrastructure are fundamental prerequisites, but staffing and improving access to education for girls remain high on the agenda.

Government expenditure on bonuses amounts to YR60 million ($279,000) for the current fiscal year, and is expected to reach 271,696 employees nationwide working in the education sector, according to the Ministry of Education.

In areas where female enrolment and retention in school is significantly lower than the national average, the government also offers conditional cash transfers to families to encourage them to allow their girls to attend school.