|
Bahrain Bahrain -- Society
Education
Bahrain has the oldest public education system in the
Arabian
Peninsula. The system was established in 1932 when the
government
assumed responsibility for operating two preexisting
primary
schools for boys. Subsequently, separate facilities for
girls and
various secondary programs were established. Since the
1970s,
education has been one of the largest current government
expenditures. Despite the intensity of government efforts,
however, the literacy rate for adult citizens was only
about 75
percent as recently as 1985. The literacy rate for 1990
was
estimated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and
Cultural Organization to be 77 percent for adults (82
percent for
males and 69 percent for females). Nevertheless, literacy
levels
among Bahrainis born since independence in 1971 were high
because
an estimated 70 percent of primary and secondary
school-age
children attended school.
In the 1986-87 academic year, 88,152 students attended
139
public schools (see
table 13, Appendix). Education in the
public
system, which included six-year primary schools,
three-year
intermediate schools, and three-year secular secondary
schools,
is free. Students receive supplies, uniforms, meals, and
transportation to and from school at no charge. Almost all
children in the six- to eleven-year-old age-group attend
primary
school, and about two-thirds of all twelve- to
fourteen-year-olds
are enrolled in intermediate schools. However, there was a
significant drop-out rate, especially for girls, after the
completion of intermediate school. In the 1986-87 academic
year,
only 41 percent of fifteen- to seventeen-year-olds
attended
secondary schools.
In addition to the public education system, there are
fortyeight private and religious schools, including the United
Statesoperated and accredited Bahrain International School,
which
offers classes from primary school through secondary
school.
There were 5,000 teachers in 1988, of whom 65 percent were
native
Bahrainis. Egyptians constituted the largest group of
foreign
teachers.
In 1927 the first group of Bahrainis to receive a
university
education enrolled at the American University of Beirut in
Lebanon. The first institution of higher education in
Bahrain,
the Gulf Polytechnic, was established in 1968 as the Gulf
Technical College. In 1984 Gulf Polytechnic merged with
the
University College of Art, Science, and Education (UCB),
founded
in 1979, to create a national university offering bachelor
of
arts and bachelor of science degrees. During the 1991-92
academic
year, more than 4,000 students, one-half of whom were
women,
studied at the two campuses of UCB/Polytechnic.
Bahrain had three additional institutions of higher
education
in 1993. The College of Health Services, established in
1976,
offers various medical technology and nurses' training
programs.
The Hotel and Catering Training Center offers
postsecondary
vocational courses in management and culinary arts. The
newest
institution, the Arabian Gulf University (AGU), was
established
outside Ar Rifaa in 1984 and funded by the six member
countries
of the GCC. Construction of AGU facilities, however, was
delayed
by the decline in oil revenues experienced by all GCC
states in
the mid-1980s. The first faculty, the College of Medicine,
opened
in the fall of 1989 and provided medical education for
fiftyeight aspiring physicians. The projected completion date
for the
AGU campus is 2006; officials anticipate that AGU will
accommodate 5,000 students annually, once the university
becomes
fully operational.
Data as of January 1993
|
