Bahrain Educational Statistics and Information

Bahrain is a small country located in the Persian Gulf near Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain is a member of the Gulf States which also includes Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman. These countries are predominantly Islamic and share similarities but differ in the area of education.

In 1975 the Gulf States established the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS). This bureau has semi-annual meetings to discuss current programs and teachings in the Gulf States schools. This organization keeps all of the Gulf States synced in what they are teaching their children and unites the countries together in their beliefs. Because of this bureau many of the countries have similar statistics in education measures, but each country is still unique in their literacy rates and even how long each child will stay in school.

Bahrain has an overall literacy rate of 89.1%, which ranks 1st among the Gulf States and 50th in the world. The literacy rates include adults over the age of 15. The United States literacy rate for adults over 15 years of age is 99%. For ages 15-24 in Bahrain, the literacy rate is 97% which displays improvements in education in this area. The average number of years that an adult living in Bahrain has been educated is 6.1 years, which ranks 50th worldwide. The United States leads this category with an average of 12 years that every adult has been educated in schools. Bahrain has two universities who combined have enrollment of under 10,000 students.

In Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE) the governments have taken extreme measures to increase their countries educational wellbeing such as paying for students to study abroad, and offering free school including at the college level. Bahrain does not pay for students who wish to study abroad, and only the wealthy families have the means to send their children to attain a higher education outside of Bahrain.

Although the country does not offer to pay for students who wish to study abroad, they have made great strides to improve their education and offer women a great opportunity to become educated as well. Schools are segregated by sex, as many other middle eastern countries have also done. Women have had schools in the country since the late 1920's. "Women account for (62-70%) of the total university students, which means there is a gap between the two genders in this educational level." (Statistics on Bahraini Women, Pg.9) The percentage of women to men enrolled in Bahrain's Universities is a tribute to their efforts to educate both men and women. The reasoning behind the numbers can be attributed to Bahraini men dropping out of school to take on a job and women waiting to marry until a later age so they can go to college.

Sources:1. "Countries and their Cultures". EveryCulture.com. 2007 Advameg. Inc. http://www.everyculture.com/index.html
Bahrain: http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Bahrain.html

2. "Statistics on Bahraini Women". http://www.scw.gov.bh/media/pdf/statistics-Bahraini-Women.pdf. 26pp. 7/11/2009