Arab leaders have pledged to improve the quality of their elementary and secondary schools, teachers, and students, and to do more to evaluate their progress, reports The Peninsula Qatar newspaper. During a regional summit in Doha, education ministers discussed the shortcomings of their education systems and the need to meet global academic standards. The two-day event was organized by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, the World Bank, and the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization.

At the meeting, the ministers were presented with international assessments showing that young people in the Arab world leave school with literacy and mathematics skills below the global average, and with a poor command of the critical thinking and communication skills sought by employers. Represented at the conference were Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, the Palestinian National Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.