In the past several years, many developing nations, but especially Arab countries, have come to identify a good education system as a cornerstone of economic progress. The urgency for education reform in the Arab world has been manifested in the various initiatives aimed at improving the quality and quantity of education, especially with a rising young population that represents a majority in many countries of the Arab world. Recent years have witnessed many Arab countries making efforts to develop and implement comprehensive education-reform programs that can result in a skilled, knowledge-based workforce in line with socioeconomic goals.
Recent debates on how best to develop the quality of human capital trace back to Article 26 of the United Nations General Assembly’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We draw from this article and postulate the following education framework for the Middle East, based on internationally proven best practices. This framework combines three major dimensions central to education reform: