Education in Syria

Education In Syria

With a growing population, Syria has a good basic education system. Since 2000 the Government of Syria has significantly increased the expenditure on education. Also as government is the main source for financing education at all stages, the proportion of total government expenditure jumped from 12.6 percent in 2000 to 15.7 percent in 2005, bringing it closer to the average share of education expenditure in the MENA region of 18.3 percent. The total expenditure in the education sector doubled between 2000 and 2005 from SYP 35 billion in 2000 to 72 billion in 2005. During this period, the share of education expenditure to GDP increased from 2.7 percent to 4.3 percent.

Syria ranked 105 out of 179 countries on Human Development Index in 2006.Syria is also one of the few Arab countries that have achieved the target of universal primary education. It is showing remarkable progress in achieving other MDG targets: the gender gap in enrollment is small, with gender parity index of enrollment at primary level at 95 percent and 96 percent at the secondary level in 2007. Literacy rate is estimated at 82 percent in 2004 which is also higher than the average for MENA and lower middle income countries (LMIC ). Literacy among youth (15 to 24) stood at 92.5 percent in 2004.