Education in Yemen
School facilities and educational materials are of poor quality, classrooms are too few in number, and the teaching faculty is inadequate.
In the strategic vision for the next 25 years since 2000, the government has committed to bring significant changes in the education system, thereby reducing illiteracy to less than 10% by 2025.
According to Yemen's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2002, basic education is still unable to provide for all children of schooling age (6–14).
Primary and intermediate schools existed in each small township of Steamer Point, Crater, Shaikh Othman, etc.
[3] Recently, Government of Yemen launched an exercise to improve communication and coordinate policies among the three ministries so as to have a more integrated vision for education.
After a long discussion, it was admitted as Basic Education Expansion Program (BEEP) by the World Bank and implemented with about 60 million US dollars.
This program specifically aimed at increasing rural girls' enrollment in the first six years of basic education by improving of access, quality, and capacity building.
BEDP involves the construction and rehabilitation of schools (grades 1–9), including latrines, hygienic hand washing and drinking water facilities, boundary walls and laboratories, and the procurement of laboratory equipment (including chemical materials) for grades 1–9.
[15] The government held a series of consultative meetings and workshops with civil stakeholders to build ownership among citizens.
Over 400 male and female citizens who were representative of the Women's Committee, Teachers, Union, and Parents' and Students' Councils from both the central and local levels participated in the meetings.
[13] The monitoring of implementation of the BEDS was operated by an Inter-ministerial Steering Committee (ISC) and guided by a Technical Team (TT).
The responsibility for the actual activities and implementation of the BEDS were carried by Ministry of Education where accounts for authorities and organization at decentralized level.
[16] The implementation of the BEDS was greatly influenced by economic situations such as a decline in oil prices, damage to agriculture due to drought, and a decline in external support.When these main resources of national economy were harmed, Yemen's economy did not possess the ability to continue implementation of the plan.
[18] The objective of this Declaration is to harmonize strategies and effectively allocate all government and donor resources for basic education.
Through this partnership, the implementation of the BEDS gained strong sponsors and has shown remarkable progress.
[16] After the G8 Summit in June 2002, Yemen was invited to participate in the Education For All: Fast Track Initiative (EFA: FTI).
Yemen faces rapid increase of population and needed additional funds to expand their educational strategy.
FTI supported basic education mainly in the governorates of Al-Baidha, Dhamar, Hodeidah and Hajjah and part of this grant was allocated to the governorates of Al-Jouf, Shabowah and Lahej.The task forces were established to strength and facilitate the implementation between the government and donors.
A deputy ministers' committee has been established in the central ministry and local education department for building a capacity in the area of educational administration and for policy making among the administrative staff.The involvement of the local government's officials contributed to reflect their voices in making policy and brought them a serious incentive for the implementation of the plan.
These projects contributed to improve enrolment rate in the basic education level (6–14 years) up to 72% for boys and 42% for girls in 1999[21].
[15] Thanawiya examinations' results are very important for getting into university and the required score varies depending on each faculty.
In 2001, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research was established to meet the demand for social development.
[16] The higher education in Yemen still has a long way to go, despite high investment in this level the staff-student ratios are not favorable, equipment and learning resources are very poor; high absenteeism among professors; no systematic process to review and update the curricula; shortage of laboratories and computers for engineering students.
The private sector is also very small and limited to offering certain types of training and skill development programs.
[17] There is a need to expand a number of employment opportunities in the country with increased public, private collaboration.
The new ministry is trying to improve its management system to be more effective through the National Vocational and Technical Education Strategy.
[18] Unemployment is a major problem that needs to be dealt with as the population grows and education system struggles to keep up with the new demands in the labor market.
The tradition of early marriage in rural areas hinders girls' schooling and leads to high drop out rates.
Also, negative social attitudes towards girls' education, and a lack of female teachers contribute to low female enrollment[21] The limited number of schools, employment opportunities, overcrowding and a low quality of education discourages families from sending their girls to school.
