Statistics on girls and Education in the Arab States Some eight million primary school-age children remain out-of-school in the Arab States and five million of them are girls, according to a new report published by UNESCO. However, it finds that when given the opportunity to go to school, girls tend to repeat less than boys and to complete their primary and secondary schooling more often. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2002

 
Prepared by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the Arab States Regional Report surveyed education in 19 countries - Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, as well as the Palestinian Autonomous Territories – with a total population of 270 million people, 39 percent of whom are under the age of 14.