Limitations of Middle Eastern Educational System in Democratic Governance

Education is an unexamined force contributing to the uprising of Middle Eastern people in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, and Israel. Newspapers tell of a young Tunisian fruit seller, Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire because he was no longer able to provide for his family. And although newspapers presented political and economic explanations, the fact that the fruit seller held an engineering degree is barely mentioned. He was one among millions of young Middle Easterners with degrees and no jobs. Likewise, history texts on the region have the word “education” mentioned but not necessarily discussed on 26 out of 400-plus pages (Hourani 1991; Goldschmidt 2002; Pappé 2010). A single statement by Stewart (2009) states, “The often low quality of education throughout the region undermines the regional competiveness in the global economy” (p. 147). The author has no more statements on education or why it is of such low quality.