The sorry state of education in Arab countries is of one of the major barriers to economic development and social change, so the publication of the first Arab Knowledge Report – a joint project by the UNDP and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation – is potentially an important milestone. Its aim is to address "the state of knowledge, in all its dimensions, in the Arab region".

On education, it echoes earlier criticisms from the World Bank and the Arab Human Development Reports:

Despite having spent five percent of its GDP and 20 percent of its general budgets on education over the past 40 years, over one third of the adult population in the Arab region is unable to read and write. Some 60 million Arabs remain illiterate, two thirds of them women. Furthermore, only a few Arab countries will be able to meet the universal primary education goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. 

Close to nine million primary school-aged children in the Arab countries do not attend school, and among those who do, over a large number do not pursue education beyond the basic level, hampering economic growth and sustainable development in the region as a whole.

Moreover, the quality of university education is problematic ... Often, it lacks emphasis in specialized science and modern techniques, including the most up-to-date communication technology. As a result, the region lacks a critical mass of highly skilled professionals equipped with the ability to innovate and capable of answering the needs of the marketplace.

I haven't had time to read the full report yet (I hope to comment on it later) but the Daily Star in Lebanon has some more nuggets. It highlights the general preference for military spending over education spending (11.9% of GDP on the military versus 3.6% on education in Oman, for example).

I devoted a whole chapter of my book, What's Really Wrong with the Middle East, to the education/knowledge problem and a remark by Adel Abdellatif of the UNDP, quoted in the Daily Star, broadly reflects my own conclusion: that the main issue is not money but "fear of the possible results of any educational reforms". Developing minds and allowing people to think outside the box is a prospect that Arab regimes find very scary.