Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Table 14: Regional literacy rates and gross enrolment in primary and the upper stage of basiceducation 2007 (or the closest two years) in the Arab region and the other regions of the worldRegionLiteracy rate(%)Gross enrolment ratio inprimary education (%)Gross enrolment ratio inthe upper stage of basiceducation (%)Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female TotalNorth America andWestern EuropeCentral and EasternEurope99 99 99 101 101 101 104 103 10399 96 98 98 96 97 90 89 89Latin America and theCaribbean92 91 91 120 116 118 100 104 102Central Asia 99 98 99 101 99 100 96 93 95East Asia and the Pacific 96 91 93 110 108 109 92 92 92Arab countries 82 62 73 102 92 97 85 77 81South and West Asia 75 54 64 111 105 108 70 62 66Sub-Saharan Africa 71 54 62 101 89 95 43 34 38Source: Database of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, http://stats.uis.unesco.org/ on 25 February 2009.Table 15: Ratios of gross enrolment in upper secondary and tertiary education and average school lifeexpectancy in the Arab countries and the other regions of the world 2006 (or the closest two years)RegionGross enrolment ratio in uppersecondary education(%)Gross enrolment ratio intertiary education(%)Male Female Total Male Female TotalSchool lifeexpectancy(years)North America and WesternEurope98 98 98 60 80 70 15.8Central and Eastern Europe 88 83 85 53 66 60 12.8Latin America and the Caribbean 70 79 74 29 34 31 13.1Central Asia 87 81 84 24 26 25 11.1East Asia and the Pacific 58 59 58 25 24 25 11.0Arab countries 55 53 54 22 22 22 10.1South and West Asia 43 35 39 12 9 11 8.3Sub-Saharan Africa 27 21 24 6 4 5 7.3Source: Database of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, http://stats.uis.unesco.org/ on 25 February 2009.284 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009