Iraq Launches National Education Strategy

By John Lee.

The World Bank has recently published the National Education Strategy for Iraq 2022-2031 or also referred to as Iraq National Education Strategy (INES). Although issued in September 2024, the report covers the period from 2022 to 2031.

According to a press release, the new document reflects on current challenges and presents a way forward for the education sector in Iraq.

The National Education Strategy's mission is to:

"Strengthen educational institutions for community partnership, and building systems that promote scientific and creative thinking, ensure the quality of outputs to meet the needs of the labour market, and contribute to building a diversified knowledge economy in line with the requirements of sustainable development."

It is organised as follows:

• Chapter 1 introduces the purpose of the INES and describes its development process
• Chapter 2 provides key information on the context
• Chapter 3 gives an analysis of the education sector
• Chapter 4 outlines the strategy's vision, mission, and core values
• Chapter 5 describes sector priorities and key programmes.
• Chapter 6 provides the cost and financing framework for the INES
• Chapter 7 outlines the monitoring and evaluation, and coordination and implementation framework of the INES

Macro-economic projections

Three parameters allow for the estimation of funds available for the education sector during the implementation of the INES 2022-2031:

1. the evolution of the GDP for Iraq with an average increase of 3.3% up to 2031;
2. the share of government expenditures as a share of GDP which is expected to remain at 35%; and
3. the share of education as a percentage of total government which is expected to increase from almost 10% to 16% by 2031.

Based on these assumptions, the total public spending for education is expected to increase from around 11 trillion IQD in 2019 to around 19 trillion IQD in 2031 (in 2019 constant dinars), accounting for 5.6% of GDP.

Key education targets

The INES 2022-2031 defines several key targets as outlined below:

• Increase school readiness among pre-primary children by increasing enrolment from 10.7% GER (2018/19) to 30% by 2031, including through increasing the share of private provision of KG to 25%.
• Ensure universal completion of primary education by 2025 compared to around 83% in 2018/19.
• Ensure universal completion of intermediate education by 2028 from around 62% in 2018/19.
• Increase GER for preparatory education (academic) to reach 68%/66% (male/female) by 2031 from 47%/46% in 2018/19.
• Expand vocational education at preparatory level to accommodate a significantly higher number of students (GER 14%/13% by 2031 compared to 7%/3% in 2018/19) who can enter the labour market after completing grade 12 or access technical training in higher education, considering the needs of the national economy.
• Ensure a controlled expansion of higher education with 82% of academic preparatory graduates (compared to 100% in 2018/19) and 50% of Vocational preparatory graduates projected to enter universities and colleges by 2031, while keeping current levels of private provision at 25%.
• Improve teaching and supervision conditions by reducing class sizes in KG and primary education (from 64 to 30 at KG, from around 40 to 35 at primary), keeping class sizes of 35 students at secondary level but increasing class sizes at Vocational Schools to 30.
• Increase the number of students participating in non-formal education programmes from approximately 70,000 to 300,000; and
• Improve internal inefficiencies by regulating repetition, reducing the teacher class ratio, applying new teacher allocation regulations, and increasing the number of teaching hours.

Click here to download the full report.

To browse our comprehensive library of reports on Iraq, click here.

(Source:  World Bank)