Expectations and Aspirations

Over centuries, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been the birthplace of some of the world's greatest civilizations. Despite recent setbacks, the region once again can become an engine of intellectual, economic, and social progress for individuals as well as societies. To succeed, education must regain its role as the main driver of knowledge, skills, and innovation. Unleashing the Potential of Education in the Middle East and North Africa highlights two missing factors that have held back the region's educational potential. First is the lack of a “push” at the outset of educational systems to build solid foundations for children's learning. Continued underinvestment in early schooling has resulted in weak and delayed acquisition of literacy, numeracy, and socioemotional skills from which it is difficult to catch up. The second factor is the lack of a “pull” on education systems from the labour market and society to demand the skills that would enable children to succeed later in life. This missing pull factor creates a cycle in which labour markets, society, and educational systems focus on credentials rather than on skills. Overcoming these obstacles of the missing push and pull is well within the control of countries' policy makers, stakeholders, and individuals. The report lays out a road map to modernise education in MENA to meet the hopes and aspirations of the region's people and governments. To address these push and pull factors, countries will need to strengthen their focus on learning rather than on memorising and develop all students' foundational skills for continued learning. Countries urgently need to develop skills required by labour markets. Societies need to shift to valuing skills over credentials. Making these changes will help to unleash the potential of education to lead to peace and shard prosperity in the twenty-first century.