Bahrain: Introductory country profile
This briefing provides an introduction to Bahrain's politics, human rights, trade, and international relations. It also signposts further reading.

A Westminster Hall debate on the United Nations International Day of Education will take place on Thursday 23 January 2025, from 1:30pm. The debate was scheduled by the Backbench Business Committee and will be led by Bambos Charalambous MP.
United Nations International Day of Education 2025 (278 KB , PDF)
In 2018, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as the “International Day of Education”. It said education:
plays a key role in building sustainable and resilient societies and contributes to the achievement of all of the other Sustainable Development Goals; it increases the productivity of individuals and strengthens the potential for economic growth, develops the skills needed for decent work, develops the professional skills needed for sustainable development, including in the fields of water and sanitation, green energy and the conservation of natural resources, helps to eradicate poverty and hunger, contributes to improved health, promotes gender equality and can reduce inequality, and promotes peace, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
The UN General Assembly resolution called on all states to help meet sustainable development goal (SDG) four, to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
The SDGs were adopted in 2015 and are intended to be met by 2030. Both Conservative and Labour governments have acknowledged global progress on many of the SDGs has stalled and greater global efforts are required to ensure they are met.
For 2025, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has named the day’s theme as “artificial intelligence (AI) and education: preserving human agency in a world of automation”. It says AI raises “critical questions about how to preserve, redefine, and, ideally, elevate human agency”.
The UN publishes annual reports on global progress on the sustainable development goals. The most recent was published in June 2024. Progress on a selection of indicators on education are summarised below. Note that some of SDG data is incomplete.
While the proportion has risen in Europe and North America, from 2000 to 2019 the proportion of children and young people achieving minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics at primary level fell across the globe:
In sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion achieving a minimum level in mathematics fell from 16% to 11% and in reading from 34% to 30% across the same period.
At lower secondary level, proficiency increased in both mathematics and reading globally (note there is no data for sub-Saharan Africa):
Declines were reported in both Oceania (excluding New Zealand and Australia) and the eastern and south-eastern Asia world regions.
Completion rates of education has increased across the globe at all levels:
Variations, however, remain between global regions. The lowest completion rates at primary range from 67% in sub-Saharan Africa and 68% in Oceania to 100% in Europe and North America. At lower secondary level, 45% of girls complete their education in least developed countries compared to 43% of boys.
There is substantial variation in access to infrastructure by schools:
UNESCO’s global monitoring report for 2024/25 said that globally 251 million children were out of school. This has fallen from 390 million in 2000. Of those in 2024/25, 129 million were boys and 122 million were girls. Factors driving this included poverty, social norms against educational participation and armed conflict:
Globally, 251 million children, adolescents and youth are out of school, with a reduction of just 1% since 2015. The out-of-school rate is 33% in low-income, 19% in lower-middle-income, 8% in upper-middle-income and 3% in high-income countries […]
conflict also takes a major toll on education development. The primary completion rate has increased four times faster in Togo than in Yemen, two countries that were at the same level in 2006.
When assessing academic performance, the monitoring report also said that globally “socioeconomic status has a more significant impact on academic disparity than gender” on several measures:
In reading, only 54 students from the lowest [income] quintile reach the minimum proficiency level for every 100 students from the highest quintile; in mathematics, the ratio is 47 to every 100 students […]
Disparities by wealth are particularly wide in literacy rates, including in low-income countries. In a sample of 30 low- and middle-income countries, there are 53 adult males from the poorest 20% of households that could read a simple sentence for every 100 males from the richest 20% of households who could do so.
The report also notes that median public expenditure spending on education has fallen from 4.4% of gross domestic product in 2015 to 4% in 2022, representing a total of US$5.8 trillion. The value of overseas aid for education reached a high of US$16.6 billion in 2022, representing 7.6% of global aid. It noted spending levels were insufficient to meet the increase in enrolment rates:
any increases in the prioritization of education in low-income countries are neither uniform nor large enough to compensate for the 24% increase in enrolment levels (from pre-primary to tertiary education) since 2015. In middle-income countries, the deprioritization of education coincides with an 8% increase in enrolment and is only possible to maintain with higher out-of-pocket spending by household.
UNESCO also reports that globally there has been a shortage of qualified and interested candidates for teaching positions in upper and high-income countries and a shortage of teaching positions in low and lower-middle income countries.
In addition to the above, there are further issues affecting educational participation and attainment, including:
United Nations International Day of Education 2025 (278 KB , PDF)
This briefing provides an introduction to Bahrain's politics, human rights, trade, and international relations. It also signposts further reading.
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