Education Budget in Saudi Arabia and Iraq:

¶ … Education Budget in Saudi Arabia and Iraq:

Saudi's Education Budget

Iraq's Education Budget

Differences in the Education Budgets of Saudi Arabia and Iraq

b) Student Mobility

Education budget varies from country to country depending on the government's focus and the situation of a particular country. During the annual national budget, each country allocates a specific amount to various ministries including the education ministry in order to develop the country. The education budgets of both Saudi Arabia and Iraq are different because of the government's focus and the situation of the country. Considering the fact that Iraq is slowly regaining stability after the recent years of war, the country's education budget is far from that of Saudi Arabia. To further understand the differences in the education budget of the two countries, it's important to have an overview of the countries' education budgets.

Saudi's Education Budget:

At the end of August 2010, approximately two hundred jobless graduates from Saudi University camped in front of the Ministry of education headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. These young graduates congregated in front of this office to demand for government job opportunities with placards that were calling for the end of subjugation. Notably, this public protest reflected the nervousness and prospects that makes the reform to higher education in Saudi Kingdom a daunting prospect. The higher-education reform has been a crucial challenge in this kingdom despite of the billion of dollars that the Saudi government has dedicated to the project. The kingdom is known for its oil wealth but it has an economy that provides modest diversification as well as an overfed and underproductive public sector. Additionally, Saudi's educational system does not deliver marketable skills and capacity for creativity and free enterprise (Lindsey, 2010).

Following the public protest by jobless graduates, Saudi's five-year development plan for education was approved by the Saudi Council of Ministers which is responsible for adopting national policies. The plan proposes the expenditure of approximately $200 billion in the expansion of admission to schools and universities in addition to the significant increase of vocational training in the next five years. Earlier this year, the country allocated an estimated $36.5 billion towards education and vocational training which represents a 12.4% increase as compared to 2009. Consequently, the country is implementing huge initiatives to overhaul its education system and refurbish the current academic structure ("Saudi Arabia to Overhaul," 2010). This is also part of the country's twenty-five-year plan strategy to expand its higher education system with the aim of supporting its burgeoning growth and job market needs.

Iraq's Education Budget:

In February this year, the Presidential Council of Iraq passed the national budget for this year which is estimated to be around $71.29 billion. Since regaining its sovereignty in 2005, this year's national budget is considered as the second largest amount in the country's history. The education ministry has been allocated $4.31 billion with the food ration system accounting for a higher percentage of the budget and electricity being the major priority of the government ("Breakdown," 2010). During the war period, educated professionals were usually targeted for killing, abduction or robbery. The situation has however changed today given that the war has fallen and professors compete for posts.

While the country has allocated a minimal percentage of its budget to education, it's widely considered that one out of five Iraqis above 15 years old is illiterate. Many of the young Iraqis are falling out of the country's education system raising huge concerns because of the lack of job opportunities. According to the United Nations, between half a million to two million Iraqi children do not attend school. Additionally, education in Iraq is a key issue because of these shocking statistics and the fact that sixty percent of Iraq's thirty million population are under eighteen years. While joblessness among the youth is around thirty percent, many of Iraq's schools experience severe shortages in teaching and learning resources as well as lack of water and toilet amenities (England, 2010).

The country's education system and facilities are worse since more than one in six schools have experienced vandalism or destruction. Iraq's higher education ministry has employed 30,000 scholars for over twenty universities and forty technological institutions in addition to a support staff of fifty thousand. An estimated ninety percent of Iraq's education budget goes to salaries of these employees with negligible amounts allocated to maintenance.

Differences in the Education Budgets of Saudi Arabia and Iraq:

As the overview of the education budgets of both Saudi Arabia and Iraq reveals, Saudi Arabia allocated a record and huge amount of money to education as compared to Iraq. This huge amount of money shows a significant difference in the education budgets of the two countries. Additionally, there are other differences in the education budgets of both Saudi Arabia and Iraq which include & #8230;

Focus:

This is one of the major differences in the education budgets of Saudi Arabia and Iraq given that the focus of the allocated amount for education is different in the two countries. In Saudi Arabia, much of the allocated amount is for the development of 1,200 new schools and the conclusion of over 3,000 school buildings under construction ("Saudi Arabia's Record Budget," 2010). On the other hand, much of Iraq's money for education focuses on the improvement of higher education in the country with efforts such as rehabilitation of schools and acquiring some books ("Iraq," 2010).

As mentioned earlier, another significant difference in the education budgets of the two countries is evident in the fact that a significant amount of education money is spent on payment of salaries in Iraq. This is despite of the current situation of schools most of which are either vandalized or destroyed and only insignificant amounts are spent on maintenance. Moreover, Iraq spends a significant amount in paying salaries because it has scholars and support staffs who are twice as much as the country needs. Basically, there is a huge demand for the Iraq to adopt and implement education projects that will help in intervening in the formal, non-formal, vocational and technical education sectors ("Reconstructing," n.d.). On the other hand, Saudi's education funds are focused on the improvement of the domestic ability and capacity of education as well as the globalization of its education system ("Saudi Arabia: Education," 2010).

Student Mobility:

Student mobility within the two countries is also a noticeable difference in the education budgets of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Saudi's government has focused on internationalizing its education system and investing significant funds in developing domestic infrastructure in order to improve student mobility. In Iraq, the situation is different because a significant amount of children do not attend school and those who go to school are currently leaving schools and thus negatively affecting student mobility. The education system and budget of Saudi Arabia is geared towards boosting student mobility through benefiting both students and teachers alike.