Modern education was introduced into the Middle East in the early 19th century through several channels. Rulers in both Egypt and the Ottoman Empire (1300–1922) established new military and civilian schools to teach people the skills required to build modern states. In Iran, too, rulers opened new schools, though on a much smaller scale. Many missionary and foreign schools were also established, especially in the Levant. These modern institutions affected only a small percentage of the people, however; the mass continued to receive a traditional education in the Islamic schools. Colonialism and its consequences
Following World War I and the destruction of the Ottoman Empire, new states emerged, which—with the exception of Turkey and Iran—fell under French or British control. Although the new countries inherited educational institutions of various size, each needed to build a new educational system, either from scratch or by expanding a small existing system. Each country sought to use education to provide the skilled manpower required for national development and to socialize its diverse population into feeling loyal to the new state. Educational expansion was pursued everywhere, but the particular pattern of change was profoundly affected by the nature of the political regime, particularly by colonial status. In Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, educational policy reflected French interests. In Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq, British policy prevailed. Both colonial powers shared similar goals: to preserve the status quo, train a limited number of mid-level bureaucrats, limit the growth of nationalism, and, especially in the case of France, impose its culture and language. Accordingly, they limited educational expansion, particularly at the higher levels, even though the demand continued to grow.
Private, foreign, and missionary schools were favoured everywhere as alternatives for the upper classes to the inadequate public schools. The public systems were centrally administered. Their curricula were usually copied from the British or the French and thus were of limited relevance to local needs; the numbers and quality of teachers were seldom adequate; and dropout rates were high. Few modern schools were to be found in the Arabian Peninsula. Only in Lebanon and in the Jewish community in Palestine (which developed its own educational system) were significant numbers of students enrolled in modern schools. Elsewhere only a small percentage of the populace (including a few women) received a modern education.
Upon achieving independence, the Middle Eastern countries nationalized the private schools, which were regarded as promoting alien religions and cultures, and greatly expanded educational opportunities, especially at the upper levels. Egypt, for example, in 1925 nationalized a small, poor private institution (founded in Cairo in 1908) and made it into a national university and subsequently opened state universities in Alexandria (1942) and ʿAin Shams (1950). The newly independent countries also sought to equalize educational opportunities. Iraq provided free tuition and scholarships to lower-class students. Syria, in 1946, made primary education free and compulsory. Jordan enacted a series of laws calling for free and compulsory education and placed strict controls on foreign schools, especially the missionary ones.
Despite their importance, these reforms did not transform education. The schools in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, for example, continued to be characterized by rigidity, formalism, high dropout rates, and limited relevance to national needs. Moreover, rapid population increases often offset the educational gains, especially in Egypt. Egypt also could not overcome the existing fragmentation of its educational system. Its modern system was divided into schools for the masses and schools that provided access to the higher levels for the elite. Both types coexisted uneasily with the traditional Islamic schools, which ran the gamut from rudimentary primary schools to the venerable al-Azhar University.
Countries with strong nationalist leaders were more successful in modernizing education. Kemal Atatürk" class="md-crosslink">Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey, who was determined to create a modern state, initiated a dramatic program of social and cultural change in which education played an important role. He closed the religious schools, promoted coeducation, prepared new curricula, emphasized vocational and technical education, launched a compulsory adult education project, established the innovative Village Institutes program to train rural teachers, and, in 1933, reorganized Istanbul University into a modern institution staffed mainly by refugees from Nazi Germany. Later, Istanbul Technical University also reorganized and Ankara University was established.
Reza Shah Pahlavi followed similar policies in Iran, albeit to a lesser degree, for he was a reformer rather than a modernizer and ruled a country that had been largely isolated from modern influences. He integrated and centralized the educational system, expanded the schools, especially the higher levels, founded the University of Tehrān (1934), sent students abroad for training, moved against the Islamic schools, promoted the education of women, and inaugurated an adult education program. Nevertheless, the Iranian educational system remained small and elitist.
After World War II new leaders came to power, including Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt in 1952, Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia when it became independent in 1956, and the revolutionary government that deposed the monarchy in Iraq in 1958. They began to make major administrative and social reforms and adopted educational policies similar to those of Atatürk. Bourguiba’s reform plans called for universal primary education, an emphasis upon vocational training, expansion of the higher levels, incorporation of the Qurʾānic schools into the modern system, and the promotion of women’s education.
Tunisia, like the other French possessions in North Africa, had to face yet another educational challenge—nationalizing a system that was designed to socialize students into French culture. Arabicization, the substitution of Arabic for French as the language of instruction and of texts and syllabi representing Arab concerns for ones developed to meet French needs, presented many difficulties. Most teachers were qualified to teach only in French, and appropriate texts were not available. When Algeria and Morocco gained independence from France they adopted similar policies and encountered the same problems, which were expensive and difficult to overcome.
Egypt’s President Nasser also sought to transform society and culture. He integrated and unified the Egyptian educational system by bringing the religious schools under secular control and by transforming al-Azhar University, long a centre of Islamic learning, into a modern institution. The old elementary system, which provided access to further education only for urban students, was abolished, and major curricular and other reforms were implemented. All public education was made free, and strong efforts were made to universalize primary education, to upgrade technical and vocational education, and to improve the quality of education generally.
These important reforms did not always produce the anticipated results. Nasser failed to devise a coherent educational strategy that paid adequate attention to the systemic implications and the fit between educational expansion and developments in other sectors. Tunisia, too, despite large investments, was unable to coordinate educational expansion with the needs of the economy. The second half of the 20th century