Leave no child behind: boys’ disengagement from education: Kuwait case study

Leave no child behind: boys’ disengagement from education: Kuwait case study

programme and meeting document

Corporate author

  • UNESCO

Person as author

  • Omar, Said Ismail

Document code

  • ED/E30/IGE/2022/04

Collation

  • 61 pages

Language

  • English

Year of publication

  • 2022

Licence type

Kuwait case study Leave No Child Behind Boys’ disengagement from educationPublished in 2022 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France © UNESCO 2022 This document is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this document, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Cover photo: Nordic Studio/Shutterstock.com Designed by UNESCO ED /E 30 /I GE /2 02 2/ 04Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Acknowledgements This report is part of UNESCO’s work on gender equality in and through education aiming to document and further examine the root causes and nature of boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education in different regional contexts. It was prepared for UNESCO to support the global report on boys’ disengagement from education. The case study on Kuwait was conducted by Dr Said Ismail Omar, Education Specialist at the Gulf Arab States Educational Research Center. The study would not have been possible without the crucial support from the UNESCO Office for the Gulf States and Yemen. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Caitlin Sparks and Marciel Fernandez for their valuable assistance in conducting this study. This study was prepared under the overall guidance of UNESCO experts and consultants, namely Justine Sass, Eunsong Kim, Dr Jyotsna Jha, Dr Piotr Pawlak and Archana Purohit. Their time and effort in providing guidance and useful comments are gratefully acknowledged.4 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Table of contents Acronyms 6 Executive summary 7 Introduction 9 Study objectives 9 Study questions 9 Methodology 10 Study sites and sampling 11 Data collection and management 12 Study limitations 14 Data analysis 14 Background and overview of boys’ disengagement and disadvantage in education in Kuwait 15 Educational context 15 Gender differences in learning outcomes 17 Gender differences in grade repetition and school drop-out 19 Summary 20 Factors affecting boys’ disengagement and disadvantage in education in Kuwait 21 Individual-level factors 21 Family and peer level factors 24 School-level factors 30 Society-level factors 39 Good practices 47 Conclusion and recommendations 50 Strengthening discipline and safety procedures in boys' schools 52 Developing teaching, learning and evaluation methods 52 Expanding access to role models in boys’ education 53 Offering vocational guidance for boys at secondary education 53 Providing continuous professional development for male teachers and improving their working conditions 54 Increasing parental and community involvement in education 54 References 55 Annex 1: Characteristics of the study sites 60 Annex 2: Original plan for data collection 615 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait List of tables and figures List of tables Table 1: Study sites 11 Table 2: Total number of participants in the study 13 Table 3: Average achievement in reading by gender (Grade 4) 17 Table 4: Average achievement in mathematics and science by gender (Grade 4) 188 Table 5: Average achievement in mathematics and science (Grade 8) 18 List of figures Figure 1: Ecological model 10 Figure 2: Students and teachers in public schools in Kuwait by nationality and gender 16 Figure 3: Types of schools, students and teachers in private schools in Kuwait by nationality and gender 16 Figure 4: Proportion of grade repeaters that are male by grade (2018) 196 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Acronyms EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment ESCWA United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia FGD Focus group discussion GCC Gulf Cooperation Council GNI Gross national income GPI Gender parity index GPIA Adjusted gender parity index GSHS Global school-based student health survey IDI In-depth interview MENA Middle East and North Africa MOE Ministry of Education OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PIRLS Progress in International Reading Literacy Study SDG Sustainable Development Goals TIMSS Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study UAE United Arab Emirates UNDP United Nations Development Programme7 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Executive summary This study was carried out as part of UNESCO’s work on gender equality in and through education, which includes conducting country case studies in different regional contexts, including Kuwait, on boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education. This study aims to review the current situation of boys’ education in Kuwait in terms of participation, learning achievement and completion of education; identify the factors, both inside and outside schools, that hinder or facilitate their education; and document promising policies and successful initiatives that have a positive impact on boys’ education in Kuwait. The investigation is based on background research, including a review of existing policies and strategies, as well as interviews and focus groups with multiple stakeholders across the country. For data collection, multiple local urban and suburban/rural sites were selected and interviews with school administrators, teachers, students, and parents were conducted. In addition, interviews with individuals from educational ministries, individuals who oversee private schools, individuals who work in higher education, and individuals from the community were also interviewed. Three geographical sites were studied in detail to understand the problem of boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education in particular contexts. Al-Asema, Al-Jahra and Al-Farwaniya regions were chosen to represent urban Kuwaitis, Bedouin Kuwaitis and Arab expatriates, respectively. The study adopted the ecological systems theory approach, which considers the multifaceted and interrelated factors that influence a child’s development at the levels of the individual; family and peers; school; and community and broader society. The results of the study showed a large gender gap in education to boys’ disadvantage in Kuwait. Boys are seen to have lower levels of achievement, especially in reading, science and mathematics, higher rates of repetition, lower participation in higher education, and shorter school life expectancy, compared to girls. This gap begins to appear with the first assessment of learning outcomes at the end of primary education. As schooling progresses, this qualitative gap in achievement turns into a quantitative gap in the form of low participation rates in higher education, as a large number of boys leave secondary school and join the labour market early. The study finds that Kuwaiti, Bedouin and older boys are affected more than non-Kuwaiti, urban and younger boys. There are many underlying factors for boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education in Kuwait. At the individual-level, boys tend to have lower aspirations and motivation to learn than girls and do not take learning seriously due to excessive self-confidence and the expectation that they will be successful in the long-term despite poor academic performance. At the family- and peer-levels, family instability, insufficient family support for education, heavy reliance on domestic workers, and an impulsive peer culture that creates a desire to challenge restrictions at home and school negatively affect boys’ academic performance. At the school-level, higher rates of school violence, bullying, smoking and drug abuse in boys’ schools, low teacher efficacy and motivation, and a higher prevalence of absenteeism and cheating during exams in boys’ schools than girls’ all contribute to boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education. The study finds that society-level factors are numerous and more likely to lead to boys’ disengagement from education in Kuwait than those existing at other levels. The unique economic and social structures that formed with the emergence of oil, the resulting increase in income per capita, the prevalence of affluent lifestyles and rentier mentality (meaning that the economic returns that people receive is not related to the amount of effort they exert in work or their skills or educational qualifications, along with the domination of male-favourable gender norms are the8 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait main factors responsible for boys’ low motivation to learn, their underachievement and reluctance to complete education. The study recommends a review of the rentier economic policies on which the relationship between the state and citizens are based and the creation of a competitive environment that restores the value of education and effort in attaining economic and social returns. Concerning the education system, the study recommended six policy priorities for the Government to address boys’ poor participation and underachievement in education. This includes: strengthening discipline and safety procedures in boys’ schools; developing improved teacher, learning and evaluation methods; employing role model strategies in boys’ education; providing vocational guidance for boys at secondary education; providing continuous professional development for male teachers and improving their working conditions; and increasing parental and community involvement in education. It is hoped that this report will shift the focus on boys’ education in the country.9 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Introduction Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries have committed to eliminate gender disparities and ensure every girl and boy has the opportunity to complete 12 years of free quality primary and secondary education by 2030. While the transformative role of education in tackling unequal power relations, gender stereotypes and restrictive social norms holding girls back is well-recognised by governments, civil society organizations and development partners, how these same gender norms and expectations in society, reproduced in schools and classrooms, affect boys’ participation, learning achievement and continuation in education, is an area less well-explored. At the same time, there is increasing evidence that boys are at greater risk than girls of repeating grades, failing to complete different education levels and having poorer learning outcomes in school (UNESCO, 2018), with important implications for progress towards gender equality in education and the wider society. To further understand these trends, UNESCO commissioned five country case studies across four regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States, Latin America and Asia-Pacific). Kuwait is one of two case studies undertaken in the Arab States. Study objectives This case study has three main objectives, which align with the overarching study framework aiming to better understand boys’ disengagement from education. Focusing on Kuwait, this study seeks to: • Review the current situation related to boys’ educational participation, learning achievement and completion , with an emphasis on national and sub-national contexts and overlapping disadvantages or intersectionality of features. • Identify the structural and gender-related factors that hinder or facilitate boys’ educational participation, learning achievement and completion at the level of the individual, family and peers, community, school and broader society. • Document promising policy and programmatic initiatives, assessing what makes certain strategies work in particular contexts, and potential implications for other settings. Study questions It seeks to address the following questions in the country context of Kuwait: • What is the current situation of boys’ access to, performance in and completion of education in Kuwait? Which boys are disengaging from or disadvantaged in education in terms of age, nationality, location, social background and ability? • At what level of education do gender disparities at boys’ disadvantage appear? To what extent does this change depend on nationality, location, social background or other parameters? • What are the underlying factors for boys’ disengagement and disadvantage in education in Kuwait, at the level of the individual, family and peers, school and broader society? • To what extent has boys’ disengagement from and disadvantage in education been addressed at the national and subnational levels through policy and programme interventions by Government, community- or NGO-led interventions? If so, what have been the process, reach and impact of each of these interventions?10 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait • What are the specific factors in these policies and approaches that appear to have worked, and what elements of these factors can be potentially replicated across contexts? What have been the failure points that others need to consider in the process of adaptation or replication? Methodology The study included different methods to collect qualitative and quantitative data to answer the research questions stated above. This included: • A desk review of the literature including research, an analysis of statistical data and a review of government laws, policies and good practices to provide a macro-level understanding of boys’ education in Kuwait. • Original collection (focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews IDIs)) with boys, girls, teachers, parents and caregivers to understand relationships and processes, and how actions and interactions influence boys’ experience of education. The framework for this study borrows from the ecological systems theory approach originally developed by Bronfenbrenner (1989, 1995), which considers the multifaceted and interrelated factors that influence a child’s development including the risk and protective factors that exist at the level of the individual; family and peers; community; and school and the broader environment. This model has been adapted to fit the present research (Figure 1) based on the individual, the microsystem (in this case family and peers), mesosystem (the educational institutions) and the macrosystem (education policies, state functioning and culture). Figure 1: Ecological model Source: UNESCO (2019b, p. 6). This study also applied a complementary theoretical lens, which considers the application of gender State and society (national, state, local laws and policies, labour market, media) School (educational institutions and learning environments, school policies and teaching- learning process, teacher expectations and relationships, norms and expectations) Community (community contexts, structures and traditions) Peers (relationships, norms and expectations, networks and dependence) Family (relationship with family, norms and expectations, support and dependence) Self (Self image, expectations, aspirations) Macro Meso Micro11 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait and masculinity in boys’ disengagement from and disadvantage in education. Societal norms surrounding gender constructs are fundamental to understanding values and behavioural models that contribute to boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education. Based on this ecological approach, three sites were studied in detail considering the institutions of school, family, peers and community and their interrelationships to understand the problem of boys’ disengagement from and disadvantage in these contexts. Selecting the study sites depended on specific criteria, which are outlined below. Study sites and sampling Kuwait's population consists of three large groups: Kuwaiti urban, Kuwaiti Bedouin and non-Kuwaiti expatriates who come from other countries to work in Kuwait. Each of these population groups has distinctive features in terms of geographical location, social norms and customs related to gender issues, lifestyle and the preferred type of schools for children. To represent the three groups in the study sample, three study sites were chosen as illustrated in Table 1. Table 1: Study sites Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Name of locality (region) Al-Asema (the Capital) Governorate Al-Jahra Governorate Al-Farwaniya Governorate Social background of the population Urban Bedouin (tribes) Urban Nationality of the majority of the population Kuwaitis Kuwaitis Arab expatriates Social norms, customs and traditions Supportive perspectives on gender equality, adopting a liberal lifestyle Traditional perspectives on gender equality, adopting a conservative lifestyle Social norms vary according to the country of origin and social background School type Public and private Public Public and private Students’ nationality Urban Kuwaitis Bedouin Kuwaitis Arab non-Kuwaitis Students’ grade levels 10-12 10-12 10-12 Students’ gender Male Male and Female Male Site 1 Site 1 represents the Kuwaiti urban community. Most of the population lives in Al-Asema (Capital Governorate). Kuwaitis represent about 45 percent of the total population in this region. As an urban region, most of the Kuwaiti population in this site adopt more open social norms towards gender equality, and follow a liberal style of customs and traditions in their social life. There were 12 students from this site involved in the study: four attending public schools and eight attending foreign private schools.12 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Site 2 Site 2 represents the Kuwaiti Bedouin (tribes) community. Most of the population in this community lives in Al-Jahra Governorate. Kuwaitis account for about 34 percent of the total population in this region. As a Bedouin region, most of the Kuwaiti population there hold stereotypical views on the socially acceptable behaviour and roles for men and women, and follow conservative customs and traditions in their way of life. Two public secondary schools were selected in this site, one for boys and the other for girls. The reason for selecting the girls’ school from this site is that Al-Jahra represents the conservative community. Comparing boys’ and girls’ opinions in a conservative community helps to identify the extent to which gender norms and social customs influence boys’ education. Site 3 Site 3 represents the non-Kuwaiti Arabian community. Most of the population from this community lives in Al-Farwaniya Governorate. Non-Kuwaiti Arabs account for about 33 percent of the total population in this region. As this region is home to expatriates from different countries, the population there adopts various social norms towards gender equality and follows different customs and traditions according to their country of origin and social background. Because non-Arab expatriates are not included in this study, all nine students participating in the study from this site are from countries in the Arab States. Five were attending public schools and four attending Arab private schools. See Annex 1 for more on the characteristics and demographic information of all three study sites. Data collection and management Data collection was undertaken in secondary schools because preliminary data analysis suggested that this period was critical for boys’ disengagement from education. Data collection at the secondary level also aimed to understand the patterns occurring prior to secondary, including the situation at primary level in terms of reasons for not transitioning from primary to secondary and/or lower to upper secondary education. The school was used as a site of entry to (i) understand the school-level policies, process, practices, relationships and inter- institutional linkages, (ii) understand how wider education related policies unfold in the school, and (iii) identify the patterns of boys’ engagement and disengagement, and also the profile of boys who are disengaged/disadvantaged. The approach designed to collect original data was aimed at interacting with boys and girls to understand their experiences, aspirations and expectations. The original data collection process started with interactions in the school and then went ‘out of school’ by exploring the perspectives of researchers, experts, stakeholders and community members. A set of tools was prepared and administered to collect original data at the school and the community levels through FGDs and IDIs. These tools were created originally in English. Before being implemented, they were translated into Arabic so that they could be used with study participants whose mother tongue is Arabic. As the schools selected for the study were single-sex schools, some adjustments were made to the tools to suit this single-sex school setting. For instance, some questions in FGD with girls were changed to ask girls about their experiences at home with brothers and other male relatives instead of their male classmates at school. In addition to guides for the FGDs and the IDIs, two additional tools were used to understand the broad nature and details of the community and school (community and school profile tools). All data collection tools had consent forms, which were read out to the participants before administration, and they were told that they have the right to refuse to participate in the study. For children, in addition to their own consent, additional forms were provided for the schools to13 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait consent as caretakers. All participants had the option to opt out of the study or withdraw at any point in time. Participants were told that all of their answers would be confidential, and that all efforts would be made to ensure that any data provided could not be traced back to participants in reports, presentations and other forms of dissemination. They also were told that the discussion would be recorded, but only for note-taking purposes. A recorder was used to document discussions in focus groups and interviews. All FGDs with boys, girls, teachers and parents, as well as all IDIs with principals, were undertaken face-to-face. Eleven IDIs with key informants and community members were undertaken face-to-face, and the rest were undertaken by phone. All the original data were collected and analysed by the researcher. There were no special requirements or prerequisites to obtain research clearance for this study from the Government of Kuwait. However, to ensure transparency and accountability of the research process, UNESCO shared the scope of the research with the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Kuwait and asked for its endorsement to undertake the research in four schools in the selected sites. Endorsement from the MOE was secured with the cooperation of the Kuwait National Commission for UNESCO. However, only two principals agreed to administer the research tools in their schools. Many attempts were made to persuade some school principals in Kuwait to participate in the study, but no one agreed. Thus, only two schools, one for boys and the other for girls, have participated in the study out of the four schools originally selected. These two schools were in site 2 (Al-Jahra). Due to the challenges of reaching out to schools in site 1 (Al-Asema) and site 3 (Al-Farwaniya), an alternative approach was adopted to collect original data from these sites. Two FGDs with boys of secondary-school age were undertaken outside of school in site 1 and site 3, with the help of community-based associations. Despite many attempts, the researcher was unable to recruit teachers and parents from these two sites to undertake FGDs with them. To fill in the gaps in data, five more IDIs with community members from the two sites were undertaken. Table 2 provides information about study participants. Additional tables, found in Annex 2, provide information on the original plan for data collection tools in the three study sites, including target groups, number of participants and participants’ gender and nationality. Table 2: Total number of participants in the study Target group/tool Number of FGDs/IDIs Community profiles Participants’ gender Participants’ nationality Total number of participants Male Female Kuwaiti Non- Kuwaiti FGD with boys (inside school) 1 6 - 5 1 6 FGD with boys (out of school) 2 21 - 12 9 21 FGD with girls 1 - 10 8 2 10 FGD with teachers 2 6 9 3 12 15 FGD with parents 1 3 3 3 3 6 IDI with principals 2 1 1 2 - 2 IDI with key informants 5 3 2 4 1 5 IDI with community members 10 7 3 7 3 10 Community profile 3 3 - 2 1 3 Total 27 50 28 46 32 7814 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait In addition to the terms spelled out in the informed and voluntary consent form and followed in the research process, all notes taken during the interviews were kept strictly confidential in a locked cabinet at the researcher’s place of residence. Notes and other information obtained from the interviews that were transcribed electronically (Microsoft Word document) have also been encrypted and the file on a researcher’s laptop is protected by a password. Following the standard ethical guidelines in research, after the research was completed, where specifically requested by interviewees, any identifying information from the transcripts and notes – such as names, dates and specific locations – have been removed so that they do not reveal the identity of the research subjects. Study limitations Because of the challenges faced in reaching out to schools in site 1 and site 3, the results do not reflect the perspectives of principals and teachers in these two sites. The FGDs undertaken with boys out of schools in these two sites facilitated a general understanding of the perspectives of boys and their experiences inside and outside schools. The IDIs with community members also conveyed the perspectives of parents in these two sites. However, more investigation is needed to confirm the results drawn in this study about the current situation of boys’ education, especially in Kuwaiti urban and non-Kuwaiti regions, and the underlying factors that affect their academic performance. The current study attempted to build a complete picture of boys’ education in Kuwait, depending on all the original and secondary data collected. By delving deeper into the analysis of these data, the study managed to draw out the main themes of boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education in Kuwait. Nevertheless, this is just a step towards fully understanding all the circumstances that lead to boys’ underperformance in education compared to girls. More studies are needed to explore these broad themes and determine the extent to which they apply to the various groups of boys in Kuwait. Data analysis After all of the quantitative and qualitative data were collected, they were organized and studied using tables of analysis. The findings from the secondary and the primary data were matched to create a composite picture of the current situation the underlying factors of boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education in Kuwait, in addition to good practices and programmes.15 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Background and overview of boys’ disengagement and disadvantage in education in Kuwait This section discusses the context of boys’ education in the Kuwait. First, it describes the Kuwait’s education system to provide a basic understanding of the local educational environment. It then summarizes key trends in boys’ education in Kuwait with a focus on learning outcomes, grade repetition and school drop-out and school life expectancy. Educational context The legal framework in Kuwait asserts gender equality and the right to education for all Kuwaitis. Article 40 of the Kuwaiti Constitution states that ‘Education is a right for Kuwaitis, guaranteed by the State in accordance with law’ (Constitution of Kuwait, 1962) and ‘Education is compulsory and free of charge for all Kuwaiti children, boys and girls, from the first grade of the primary education to the end of the intermediate level’ (Law No. 25 amending some provisions of Law No. 11 of 1965 on Compulsory Education, 2014, Article 1; intermediate level refers to secondary education). However, ‘non-Kuwaitis are prohibited from enrolling in public schools; [but] there are exceptions for children of parents employed in specific occupations, such as public school teachers and healthcare workers’ (UNESCO, 2019c, p. 32). Therefore, a large proportion (about 70 percent) of the population in Kuwait is not covered by the legislative guarantees of the right to receive free education. They are the expatriate workers and their families who have started to come to Kuwait in search of work because of the high wages available following the discovery of oil in the mid-20th Century. The majority of them are from Asian and Arab countries representing 40 percent and 26 percent of the total population, respectively (Public Authority for Civil Information, 2019a). In the light of such population diversity, education in Kuwait is characterized by a diversity of educational institutions meeting the needs of these various population groups. There is public education (serving mainly Kuwaitis), private education (mainly for non-Kuwaitis), special needs education, religious education and adult and literacy education. Public education accounts for 56 percent of the total number of schools, 57 percent of the total number of students and 79 percent of the total number of teachers in the country’s education sector. A prominent feature of public education is the single-sex schools at all levels of education except pre-primary settings. This is due to the conservative nature of Kuwaiti society, which tends to separate men and women in the public sphere, along with the influence of the traditional Islamic groups that call for gender mixing to be prevented in educational institutions. Men teach in boys' schools and women teach in girls’ schools at primary and secondary education. Women also teach most boys in primary education. Therefore, female teachers make up the majority of the teaching staff at different levels of public education. Women also constitute the majority of Kuwaiti teachers. Kuwaiti men usually refuse to work as teachers for many reasons, including ‘the low wages compared to the burdens of the teaching profession ... and the lack of appreciation that teachers get from students and their families’ (Al-ramzy and Salamah, 2009). Non- Kuwaitis account for about 37 percent of teachers at all levels of public education, with most coming from Arab countries – especially Egypt, Jordan and Syria (Figure 2).16 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Figure 2: Students and teachers in public schools in Kuwait by nationality and gender Students’ nationality Teachers’ nationality Teachers’ gender Kuwaiti teachers’ gender Data Source: Central Statistical Bureau, 2018. Private education constitutes a large part of the educational sector in Kuwait, with 551 schools. These schools are divided into two basic types: Arab schools and foreign schools. Unlike public schools, the majority (74%) of private schools are mixed-sex schools for boys and girls. Most of the students in these schools are non-Kuwaiti children. The teachers are of various nationalities, with only 1.4 percent being Kuwaiti (see Figure 3). Different foreign schools use various curricula according to their affiliated countries (Mullis, et al., 2016). Figure 3: Types of schools, students and teachers in private schools in Kuwait by nationality and gender Types of schools Students' nationality Teachers’ nationality Teachers’ gender Data Source: Central Statistical Bureau, 2018. The education system in Kuwait is centralized, and decisions are made by a few people: assistant undersecretaries, district heads, managers and supervisors (Mullis et al., 2016). The Kuwaiti Government prepared a future vision for the country up to the year 2035. One of its pillars is ‘building a creative human capital’ to ‘reform the education system to better prepare youth to become competitive and productive members of the workforce’ (New Kuwait Vision 2035). To achieve this goal, many projects have been launched to improve the quality of education as a top priority for educational policy (New Kuwait Vision 2035; Supreme Council for Planning and Development, 2015). As part of these efforts, policymakers allocated considerable resources to the public education system in the belief that the greater the resources, the better the outcomes. However, the available evidence on the relationship between resources and outcomes indicates a very disappointing situation. Despite some gains in improving enrolment ratios, the education system still suffers from low school efficiency, low quality of outputs and the inability to meet the economic and 86% 14% 25% 75% 63% 37% 17% 83% 74% 14% 11% 1% 99% 27% 73% 30% 70% Kuwaiti Non-Kuwaiti Kuwaiti Non-Kuwaiti Mixed Boys Girls Male Female Male Female17 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait developmental needs of the country (Brinkley et al., 2012; Burney et al., 2013; Burney and Mohammed, 2002). The literature refers to many reasons behind the poor efficiency of the education system, including the absence of national standards for curricula; use of traditional teaching and evaluation methods; lack of national assessments to evaluate student performance in main subjects like language, mathematics and science; absence of a long-term strategy for the Ministry; and the inefficiency of educational policymakers (Al-ramzy and Salamah, 2009; Alhashem and Alkandari, 2015; National Centre for Education Development, 2013). Low teacher motivation and efficacy, and the lack of professional development programmes for educators, are seen as major challenges for improving the quality of learning outcomes and enhancing the performance of the education system (Chahine and Khan, 2015). Gender differences in learning outcomes In Kuwait, the gap between boys and girls in education is most obvious in terms of learning achievement. Based on the results of Kuwait's participation in the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development’s Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), there appears to be a substantial gender gap at the expense of boys in mathematics, science and reading achievement. Kuwait’s results in PIRLS show that the gender disparity in average reading achievement scores peaked in 2006, with a difference of 67 points in favour of girls. This gender gap decreased to 52 points in 2011 (in which sixth-grade students participated instead of fourth grade students) and then to 34 points in 2016 (Table 3). In PIRLS 2016, countries in the Arab States including Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE had the highest gender differences to girls’ advantage, ranging between 28 and 65 points (Mullis et al., 2017, pp. 35-36). Table 3: Average achievement in reading by gender (Grade 4) Subject Gender PIRLS 2006 PIRLS 2011* PIRLS 2016 Reading All students 330 419 393 Male 297 391 376 Female 364 443 410 Difference 67 52 34 Note: * Grade 6, see text above. Data Sources: Mullis et al. (2007); Mullis et al. (2012); Mullis et al. (2017). TIMSS results for fourth grade show that the average achievement of girls in mathematics and science exceeds that of boys in all years with a significant gap, especially in science. In 2007, the difference in the average achievement scores in science was 64 points at boys’ disadvantage. This gap shrank to 52 points in 2011, and then to 30 points in 2015. In mathematics, too, the gender gap at boys’ disadvantage in average achievement scores reduced from 36 points in 2007 to 35 in 2011, then to only 12 in 2015 (Table 4). In 2019, fourth grade boys scored on average 39 points lower than girls in science and 7 points lower in mathematics (Mullis et al., 2020).18 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Table 4: Average achievement in mathematics and science by gender (Grade 4) Subject Gender TIMSS 2007 TIMSS 2011 TIMSS 2015 TIMSS 2019 Mathematics All students 316 342 353 383 Male 297 323 347 380 Female 333 358 359 387 Difference 36 35 12 7 Science All students 348 347 337 392 Male 315 319 322 374 Female 379 371 352 413 Difference 64 52 30 39 Data Sources: Mullis et al. (2008a, 2008b); Mullis et al. (2012); Mullis et al. (2016a, 2016b); Mullis al. (2020). Like fourth grade, eighth-grade results in mathematics and science show that girls outperform boys in TIMSS 2007 and 2015. In 2007, the difference between boys and girls in average mathematics achievement was 22 points at boys’ expense. This gap decreased to 7 points in 2015. In science, the difference decreased by only three points, from 50 points in 2007 to 47 in 2015 (Table 5). In 2019 the gender gap in eight grade performance decreased to 35 points in science and slightly increased to 9 points in mathematics at boys’ disadvantage (Mullis et al., 2020). Table 5: Average achievement in mathematics and science (Grade 8) Subject Gender TIMSS 2007 TIMSS 2015 TIMSS 2019 Mathematics All students 354 392 403 Male 342 389 398 Female 364 396 407 Difference 22 7 9 Science All students 418 411 444 Male 391 387 426 Female 441 434 461 Difference 50 47 35 Data Sources: Mullis et al. (2008a, 2008b); Mullis, Martin et al. (2016a, 2016b); Mullis, Martin et al. (2020). As these results show, although the gender gap in achievement at boys’ expense is narrowing over time in Kuwait, it remains large – especially in terms of reading and science. According to the TIMSS 2011 Kuwait National Report (Ministry of Education, 2013), gender differences in mathematics and science achievement at the expense of boys can be explained by the fact that girls allocate more time for studying mathematics and science, and they like learning those subjects more than boys. During FGDs with boys, teachers, and parents, as well as IDIs with principals, experts and community members, boys’ underperformance in education compared to girls was seen as a well- known and widely discussed phenomenon in Kuwait. Even boys themselves acknowledge this problem, and girls notice it through the family context. Most girls who participated in the study stressed that their performance in education is better than that of their brothers and other boys in their family circle.19 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait 80% 70% 66% 66% 68% 60% 55% 57% 57% 60% 60% 52% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Grades This large gender gap in learning outcomes in Kuwait, and other countries in the Arab States, has been described by the World Bank (2013) as a ‘learning crisis for boys in the region’. The underperformance of boys in this region represents ‘a phenomenon on a scale not seen elsewhere in the world ... The message from these assessments of student achievement could not be clearer. Education systems in the Middle East and North African [MENA] region are not meeting the learning needs of boys. The inefficiencies and costs associated with this loss of learning are substantial, spanning from economic to social’ (El-Kogali and Krafft, 2020, p. 150). Gender differences in grade repetition and school drop-out Low achievement is usually associated with high repetition and drop-out rates. Available data on repetition in Kuwait indicate that most repeaters in all grades are boys. In 2018, boys constituted 57 percent of repeaters in primary education, and 64 percent of repeaters in lower secondary education (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2019). During the period from 2005 to 2010, repetition rates among boys were significantly higher than girls in all educational levels (Faris et al., 2012). By 2020, boys represented 58 percent of repeaters in primary education and 66 percent of repeaters in lower secondary education (UIS, 2021). Repetition rates are higher among Kuwaitis than non- Kuwaitis (Al-ramzy and Salamah, 2009). Data for all previous years, from 2000, confirm this phenomenon without exception (Ministry of Education, 2017). The gender gap at boys’ expense in repetition rates widens particularly at the end of primary education and the beginning of intermediate (lower secondary) education. Statistical evidence shows that the gender gap at the expense of boys in Kuwait begins to emerge at the end of primary education and the beginning of intermediate (lower secondary) education. Repetition rates, for example, are highest in primary education in the fourth grade, in which tests are first rolled out. In lower secondary education, repetition rates increase in the sixth grade, and gradually decrease in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. At the secondary level, repetition rates in the tenth grade are higher than in other grades (Faris et al., 2012). Figure 4 shows that the repetition gender gap in at boys’ expense widens at the end of primary education and the beginning and end of secondary education. Figure 4: Proportion of grade repeaters that are male by grade (2018) Data Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2019 (proportions calculated by the author). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Primary Secondary % o f m al es20 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait As in many countries in the Arab States, a large number of boys in Kuwait drop out before or after secondary education, which leads to lower participation rates of boys in higher education compared to girls. The gap at boys’ expense is most apparent in higher education: in 2020, the gross enrolment ratio in high education was 43 percent for young men compared to 82 percent for young women (UIS, 2021). The gender parity index for Kuwaiti students’ enrolments was 1.84 at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training and 3.18 at Kuwait University during the academic year 2006-2017 (Central Statistical Bureau, 2018, pp. 130-133). This is why girls outperform boys in the number of expected years of schooling in Kuwait, which is 15.2 years for girls and 13.2 years for boys (UNDP, 2020). This is a wider gap compared to 2017 data when school life expectancy was 14.3 years for girls compared to 12.9 years for boys (UNDP, 2018, p. 34). Summary This study finds a large gender gap at boys’ expense in education in Kuwait. This gap is not related to access to education, but rather to academic performance and completion of education. There are no obstacles preventing boys and girls from attending school, and there is no significant gender gap in enrolment rates in the early stages of education. However, the disparities begin to appear as the education process progresses. Girls show a clear advantage over boys in learning achievement and participation in the advanced stages of education. The main problem lies in the education system’s inability to retain them at the advanced levels of education. In summary, the manifestations of the gender gap at boys’ expense can be summarized as follows: • Lower levels of achievement among boys, especially in science and reading and, to a lesser extent, in mathematics • Higher rates of grade repetition among boys • Significantly lower levels of participation in higher education among boys • Decreased expected years of schooling and school life expectancy among boys.21 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Factors affecting boys’ disengagement and disadvantage in education in Kuwait This section considers the factors contributing to boys’ disengagement and disadvantage in education, considering the ecological model and the micro-, meso- and macro-system level. Individual-level factors Low levels of aspiration A personal characteristic that negatively affects boys’ education is their low level of future aspirations. The principal of the boys’ school in Al-Jahra region stated that most of the boys in the school have no ambitions and are not seriously considering their future. In contrast, the principal of the girls’ school in Al-Jahra said, ‘Girls come to us from the tenth grade and say I want to be a doctor, engineer or teacher. They are more ambitious than boys, and they have more specific future goals compared to boys’. One female teacher in an FGD said, ‘We feel that the girl has goals in education, but the boy often does not have a clear goal, and his ambition level is low. The Kuwaiti boy usually says if I do not succeed in the school, then I will join the army or the police’. During FGDs with boys and girls, girls often expressed having clearer future goals than boys and greater preoccupation with their future careers: ‘We have more ambitions than boys because they can join any job, but we cannot’, said a girl in Al-Jahra region. Another girl said, ‘Boys just want to pass the tests, and they have no ambition or goal after that, so they don't care about education’. In Al-Asema and Al-Farwaniya regions, some boys expressed their inability to determine their future career because they lack information about occupations. Indifference and low levels of motivation A teacher in Al-Jahra region spoke about this, ‘repetition for some boys has become an ordinary thing. A student in grade 12 repeated this grade for three years. When I talked to him, he said I am not in a hurry’. It seems that this indifference not only affects the performance of boys but also affects the performance of teachers and their motivation to work. A teacher in Al-Jahra region described his feeling towards this problem, ‘When the boy is interested in education, the teacher will care more about him, but when you enter the classroom and find that 90% of boys are not paying attention to you and not interested in learning, what should you do?’, he asked. Interviewed principals and teachers pointed out that Kuwaiti boys lack the motivation to learn. According to the principal of boys’ school in Al-Jahra region: ‘In recent years, there has been a significant decrease in the motivation of boys to learn, and a widespread indifference among them. The boy says, even if I do not complete education, I will join the army or the police and receive a higher salary than that of those who complete higher education. This trend is widespread among a large number of boys, especially in the Bedouin regions’.22 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait This was confirmed by the IDIs and the FGDs. According to an interviewed expert, who is also a former official in the MOE, the wealthy conditions in Kuwait are one of the main factors for boys’ lack of motivation to learn and underperformance: ‘The boy now gets everything he wants while he is still in the secondary school, such as car and mobile phone. This reduces his motivation to learn and decreases his ambition to complete education. Even housing and marriage costs are provided by the family without any effort on the part of the boy. This is one of the main reasons for boys’ disengagement from education in Kuwait’. According to this expert, ‘This applies only to Kuwaitis. As for non-Kuwaitis, the availability of financial resources is a positive factor that helps their children to learn’. Another educational expert agreed with this opinion: ‘The Non-Kuwaiti boy must get an educational qualification to find a job, while the Kuwaiti boy is usually not interested in his future because he believes that everything will be prepared for him, especially that at the age of 18, he gets a car and a private housing’. Therefore, ‘the motivation of non-Kuwaitis to learn is higher than that of Kuwaitis, and they have a greater sense of responsibility and eagerness to learn. Kuwaiti boys have no living challenges that push them to strive to learn’, said an educational expert. Kuwaiti boys in Al-Asema region emphasized that non-Kuwaiti boys usually outperform Kuwaitis. One of them attributed this to the fact that non-Kuwaiti boys make more effort in learning: ‘Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti boys have the same capabilities, but non-Kuwaitis work hard while Kuwaitis do not’, he said. All other boys agreed with this view during the FGD. Another boy pointed out that private school boys work harder than public school boys ‘because they pay money for their education’. Lack of access to benefits provided to Kuwaitis through the rentier state is also further outlined below. Laziness and carelessness Laziness and carelessness were characteristics of boys described by many during the data collection process. As described by one community member, ‘Boys in our society live in a state of great carelessness. The boy nowadays says I want just to succeed with the least degree, join the army or the police, and get a large salary without getting tired’. The teachers in Al-Jahra region saw this as having a significant impact on the academic performance of boys in Kuwait, where boys neglect to do homework, do not bring in school materials, have high rates of absenteeism the day prior to the weekend, and prior to and following official holidays. Talking about this, a boy in Al-Jahra region said, ‘After four days at school during a week, we feel tired and we must take a rest’. In Al-Asema region, too, a boy expressed his extreme dissatisfaction with waking up early to go to school every day, ‘The start hour of the school day must be delayed. Why do we wake up from sleep every day at six o’clock in the morning? We should relax and not wake up until 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning’, he said. Another boy objected to the length of the school day, ‘The school day hours must be shortened so that we can pay attention to learning’. When the boys in Al-Jahra region were asked about the main reason for their underperformance compared to girls, they pointed also referred to laziness. ‘The school does everything for us, but boys are lazier than girls’, said one of the boys. When asked about the reason behind boys’ repetition, one boy said, ‘The reason is laziness, and the absence of support from someone who follows the boy with interest and tells him to study hard’, said one of the boys. There was broad agreement among participants in this study that girls, in general, are not as lazy and careless as boys. One expert said, ‘Girls are more persistent in learning and spend more time in studying than boys’. A community member confirmed this, “The girl is more serious than the boy in23 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait education. When the girl feels that she is performing badly in a particular subject, she asks her family to bring her a private tutor to help her learn this subject at home. On the contrary, boys usually do not want to do any work; they want to succeed with the minimal effort’. He also stressed, ‘Jealousy is one of the girls’ basic traits. When a girl sees that her partner is better than her, she feels jealous and this feeling gives her an impetus to learn. As for the boy, if he sees his colleague surpasses him, he mocks him, saying that he is tiring himself in vain’. These stereotypes about innate ‘basic traits’ can hold both girls and boys back, and require further consideration. Overconfidence Self-confidence is a positive personality characteristic. However, when it is excessive, it can lead to laziness, inaction and not taking matters seriously. This problem appears to be one of the factors responsible for the poor academic performance of boys in Kuwait compared to girls. One expert explained: ‘Boys have more self-confidence than girls, so they make no effort to study… Girls have a constant desire to prove themselves, because they care more about their self-image than boys, and are therefore keen to excel. We notice that the motivation of girls to learn is greater than boys because succeeding in school for a girl is an important element in the formation of her self-image, but the boy has other areas through which he can prove himself’. This theme came up often among girls in the study. One girl in Al-Jahra region said, ‘Boys have excessive self-confidence, arrogance, self-inflation, and feel that no one can defeat them’. Another girl asserted that the cause of all the problems faced by boys is ‘their excessive self-confidence’. This unrealistic positive self-image, excessive self-confidence and the feeling that everything will be fine regardless of their educational results all have negative consequences on boys’ academic performance, as they think that they do not need to work hard to prove themselves. Analysis of TIMSS studies have found that boys’ demonstrate higher levels of self-confidence in science compared to girls, although they score lower than girls in these subjects (Ministry of Education and World Bank, 2009, p. 52). These same results were found in a study by the Ministry of Education in Oman and the World Bank (2012) in the analysis of the gender gap at boys’ expense in Oman: ‘Despite their poor results in (TIMSS 2007), boys do not lack self-confidence in their abilities to learn’. The study concluded, ‘These unrealistically optimistic self-assessments may encourage a culture of complacency, which is inconsistent with the aim of raising standards’ (Ibid, pp. 82-84). Literature confirms the negative impact of over self-confidence on the academic performance of boys (Warrington and Younger, 2000; Weaver-Hightower, 2003), as ‘boys apply themselves less because they are overconfident and they tend to underestimate the difficulty in succeeding in "light" subjects, or they are more confident that they can be successful in the long term despite poor academic performance’ (Jha and Pouezevara, 2016, p. 6). Location and poverty less of an issue than in other contexts As compared to other contexts where boys’ disadvantage is a concern (UNESCO, 2022), geographic location and poverty status do not appear to be of a driving factor for boys’ disengagement in education in Kuwait. Geographical location is less important because there are no remote or rural areas in Kuwait. In general, no students in Kuwait need to walk long distances to reach school. Therefore, geographical location does not represent an obstacle for boys in terms of accessing school. As studies have shown, ‘geographical location appears to have a limited effect on efficiency of schools’ in Kuwait (Burney et al., 2013, p. 375).24 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Like location, poverty is not considered to be an obstacle for boys to access and complete education in Kuwait. Kuwait is an oil-rich country, and its people enjoy a high standard of living. According to many experts and community members interviewed, Kuwait has high and middle-income families but no low-income ones. The gross national income (GNI) per capita in Kuwait amounted to $70,524 (2011 international dollars using PPP rates) (UNDP, 2018, p. 22), which is the second-highest GNI per capita in the gulf region after Qatar and one of the highest in the world. Therefore, there are no ‘poor’ Kuwaiti boys to be disadvantaged in and disengaged from education. While poverty is a driver for boys’ disengagement from education, for depriving many boys of education in various societies around the world, ‘ wealth’ in the Kuwaiti case, not poverty, is an underlying factor for boys’ disengagement from education. Given the rentier policies pursued by the state, the high standard of living for all citizens and the availability of all the financial resources required to secure current and future life, Kuwaiti boys do not have any kind of future challenges and see that they do not need education to ensure their future. Thus, learning becomes a great effort that exceeds the returns, so they lose the enthusiasm to learn. While non-Kuwaiti boys are generally much less wealthy than Kuwaiti boys, they have higher levels of achievement, lower rates of repetition and fewer discipline and safety problems in schools than Kuwaiti boys according to most participants in the study. This suggests that affluence, rather than poverty plays a role in boys’ disengagement. A ‘cumulative weakness’ As seen in the previous chapter, the difficulties experienced by boys in education usually begin in early stages of education, and then worsen over time. The principal of the boys’ school in Al-Jahra region complained of a ‘cumulative weakness’, which he saw affecting boys’ ability to continue education at the secondary level: ‘Boys who graduate from primary and intermediate education are weak and lack basic skills’. He mentioned an example of poor reading and writing skills among boys, ‘Some boys come to me in the tenth grade without having the ability to read and write, even one word they do not know how to be written’. He pointed out that, at the beginning of each academic year, about 400 new boys are enrolled in the tenth grade in his school, ‘only about 20 boys of whom have an excellent degree (more than 90%) in the intermediate education certificate’. This poor prior achievement leads to the inability of some boys to continue learning in the advanced stages of education, and hence the gender gap widens as children proceed through the education levels. Another expert participating in the study attributed boys’ low participation in higher education to their realization that they do not possess the basic competencies that qualify them to study at this advanced stage of education. Girls, on the other hand, do not seem to have the same ‘cumulative weakness’ problem as boys. The literature confirms the importance of prior achievement as an underlying factor for the gender gap at boys’ expense in the higher levels of education (see Abdulla and Ridge, 2011; Broecke and Hamed, 2008). Family and peer level factors Many studies find that students’ attitudes towards education in Kuwait are ‘greatly influenced by factors associated with parents and peers’ (National Centre for Education Development, 2013). These factors include unsupportive parents; family instability due to divorce, polygamy or family quarrels; the low cultural level of parents; parents’ expectations of their children; some parents’ wishes for their children to marry early (Faris et al., 2012; Ministry of Justice, 2014); children’s physical and psychological abuse by parents and others (Al-Fayez, Ohaeri and Gado, 2012); and the high dependence on domestic workers brought in from abroad (Almahana and Alanazy, 1998; Alqamlas, Aboshanab and Gaber, 2016). These are other factors are further explored below.25 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Insufficient support to education Insufficient support by parents for their children’s education was a factor believed to negatively affect academic performance. In the FGDs and IDIs in schools in Al-Jahra region, a clear difference emerged between boys’ and girls’ schools in terms of principals’ and teachers’ estimations of the level of family support for education. As voiced by the principal of the boys’ school: ‘The role of parents is very negative. We organize two meetings every semester for parents to attend school and discuss the educational performance of their sons and the problems they face. I have about 1,000 students in the school, meaning that 1,000 parents are supposed to attend, but unfortunately, only about 20 parents attend. We feel that parents are not interested in their sons’ education’. One of the teachers shared the following example: ‘One of our teachers summoned a boy’s father to discuss his son’s learning difficulties. The father sent his secretary instead of coming himself to the school’. In contrast, the principal of the girls’ school stated that she holds weekly meetings with parents, and that ‘a good number of parents participate in these school meetings’. She also indicated that there is a parents’ council in the school, and that she is keen to activate this council and involve parents in discussing the education of their daughters. Some female teachers have indicated that family support for girls’ education may be greater than for boys. In the FGD with boys in Al-Asema region, 9 out of 12 boys mentioned that their parents attend parents’ meetings at the school. However, some said that their parents only attend if they got low marks in tests. One community member mentioned that the boys’ school in his region has more than 800 students, but only about 50 parents attend the parents’ meeting. Another community member attributed the insufficient support of parents to their children's education to the social customs of Kuwaiti families: ‘The Kuwaiti family is usually very busy with social visits that consume a great amount of time. Most fathers are busy in attending diwaniyas(*) from the evening until one o'clock after midnight on a daily basis. This consumes most of the father’s time and definitely leads to poor follow-up of his children's school affairs. Likewise, wives are preoccupied with social occasions such as morning tea, afternoon tea, familial visits and attending parties. This leads to neglecting children's education and affects them negatively’. Another explained: ‘The most common problem today is that parents do not care about their children. In the past, parents of many educated people today were illiterate, but they were more committed to following their children's education. Today, however, the father comes from his work, takes lunch, then goes to the diwaniya, and returns late at night without knowing anything about his children. Today most young men have cars and have a lot of money in their pockets. We see them sitting in their cars very late at night, and parents do not know anything about them’. * Diwaniya is a separate hall or room in one side of the house to receive guests, neighbours and friends to discuss current events and exchange views in spare time. The main doors of the diwaniya are kept open all day long. Diwaniya is considered a fundamental part of Kuwaiti social life, especially for men (Kuwait Government Online, 2020)26 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Some experts also pointed to the negative impact of modern digital technologies in terms of weakening family ties, and how this has negatively affected boys’ performance in education. As one described, ‘social communication at home does not exist now. You may find five members of one family sitting together without talking to each other, as each of them is busy looking at his mobile phone. Sometimes they talk with each other through instant messaging programs while they are sitting together at the same place. The problem is that the lack of communication within the family demotivates boys and affects negatively on their performance in the school’. Because this pattern of weak familial support for children's education is related to the social and economic context that characterizes the lifestyle of Kuwaiti families nowadays, it does not apply to the non-Kuwaiti families. This is what an expert referred to when he said, ‘The non-Kuwaiti parents are more involved in following up their children’s education. The non- Kuwaiti father does not have a diwaniya, and he has no interests other than his work and his children. He cannot buy a car for his son or provide him with a private apartment as Kuwaiti fathers do’. This was confirmed by the FGD with the non-Kuwaiti boys in Al-Farwaniya region. Eight out of nine boys mentioned that their parents are keen to attend the parents’ meetings at the school. When asked about their evaluation of their parents' support for their education, all boys confirmed that their parents are very interested in following up their educational activities. Nevertheless, some experts have argued that family support for children’s education has no relation to nationality or economic status. Rather, they see that it is related to the educational and cultural level of parents. One interviewed community member disagreed with this view, ‘The level of parents’ education is not related to how much they support their children’s education. Many parents have a high level of education but they do not care about their children, while many uneducated parents are greatly interested in helping their children in education’, she stressed. As for the parents themselves, they emphasized during the FGD that they provide full support for the education of their children, both boys and girls. Heavy reliance on domestic workers A distinctive characteristic of the Kuwaiti family's lifestyle is the high dependence on domestic workers brought in from foreign countries. Statistics show that the number of domestic workers in Kuwait has reached 686,919 workers. This number constitutes 24 percent of the total labour force in Kuwait and 48 percent of the total Kuwaiti population (Public Authority for Civil Information, 2019b). Some studies indicate that most Kuwaiti families assign the duty of socializing their children to foreign domestic workers. This causes many problems for children including: the spread of values of dependency and indifference, poor skills in Arabic language as a result of relying on communication with domestic workers who do not speak Arabic well and the weak relationships between parents and children as a result of children’s dependence on domestic workers to meet their needs (Almahana and Alanazy, 1998; Alqamlas et al., 2016). These problems caused by the high dependency on domestic workers should be taken into account as potential factors for Kuwaiti boys’ poor academic performance at schools. Low parental expectations of boys Parents participating in this study indicating having no differential expectation of their sons and daughters. Boys in the study sites also confirmed this; however, girls’ opinions were different. As one said, ‘Our parents are more optimistic for us than for our brothers, and they care more about us. My father always sits with me and says that he expects a good future for me. He always says you27 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait will make me proud, and I trust you and your abilities’. Another girl said, ‘My father expects a better future for me than for my brother’. The principal of the boys’ school in Al-Jahra region noticed that parents have low expectations of boys. The principal of the girls’ school in this region expressed a similar view, ‘parents’ concern for girls is greater than for boys, their expectations of girls are higher than their expectations of boys, and the level of emotional support for girls is greater than for boys because girls are more committed to education and more eager to learn’, she said. Parental expectations for boys were mixed in the interviews with experts. One said, ‘When the boy's performance is bad, the father told him that he just wants him to succeed and he will buy him everything he wants. He does not encourage him to get the full mark or become one of the outstanding students. His maximum ambition is that his son just succeeds’. Another shared, ‘We have now reached a stage where the father says to his son, Do what you like, but do not cause troubles for me ... Study or do not study, succeed or do not succeed, this will work for you.’. In the FGDs that took place with the non-Kuwaiti boys in Al-Farwaniya region parents’ expectations of them seemed so high that they might exceed the aspirations and capabilities of the boys themselves. According to one of those boys, the biggest challenge that faces him is ‘the parents’ pressure’. He explained, ‘They want me to join a certain college which needs a high score, and I am not good at school. They keep pressuring me and I know that my performance level is weak. This causes a psychological problem for me and I can do nothing’. Two other boys acknowledged that they have the same situation. These boys, who are Egyptians, attributed their parents’ high expectations to the fact that they have to get a degree close to 100% in the general secondary certificate in order to be able to join a suitable college in Egypt, where there is strong competition among students for places in the top colleges. ‘My father expects me to get a degree not less than 100% so that I can join the faculty of medicine’, said an Egyptian boy. In the FGD with the parents in Al-Jahra region, an Egyptian mother said, ‘For us, as Egyptians, if my son gets a degree less than 99% in the secondary school certificate, he will not find a place for him in public universities in Egypt, and we will have to enroll him in a private university with high expenses’. As such, the Egyptian parents' expectations of their sons are very high. This strong competition for places in higher education does not exist in Kuwait, where a student can join the faculty of medicine, for example, at Kuwait University with a percentage of 85% of the total score (Kuwait University, 2019, p. 20). This may be a reason for the relatively low expectations Kuwaiti parents have of the learning outcomes of their children. They do not need to get full marks or very high degrees in order to achieve their academic goals and career aspirations. This was confirmed by a Kuwaiti teacher in the Al-Jahra region, ‘Our students in Kuwait can join any college with a low degree and with the minimum effort. Therefore, boys do not need to tire themselves in learning’, she said. Another Kuwaiti teacher said, ‘I am guaranteeing that my son will join whatever college he wants with the least degree’. Therefore, the low level of competition for places in higher education may reduce Kuwaiti parents’ expectations of their sons’ achievement, which negatively affects their academic performance and motivation to learn, compared to non-Kuwaitis. Family instability Family instability, including divorce, violence, psychological and health problems and deaths in the family can also adversely affects children's education and broader well-being (Ministry of Justice, 2014). One study among a stratified random sample of Kuwaiti secondary school students (Al-Fayez et al., 2012) found that 18 percent reported experiencing psychological abuse at least six times in the past 12 months by their mothers, 15 percent by their father and 18 percent by others. Child28 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait abuse was significantly associated with parental divorce, diminished quality of life and self-esteem, high scores on anxiety/depression and difficulty with studies and social relationships. Psychological abuse by mothers was the most important predictor of depression, anxiety and self-esteem issues. Good quality of parental relationship seemed a protective factor (Al-Fayez et al., 2012). All participants in FGDs and IDIs agreed that family instability negatively affects boys' education. However, it was noticed that both boys and girls were unwilling to talk about private family problems and their impact on their education. This should be understood in light of Middle Eastern cultures, which denounce the disclosure of family secrets. Parents also spoke about the importance of family stability for boys’ education, without going into details about what is happening in the home. Socialisation processes Gender disparity in education at boys’ expense has also been explained in terms of the pattern of socialization prevalent in Kuwaiti society, where the socialization process of boys differs from that of girls. An expert pointed out that, ‘There are discriminatory gender norms in the Kuwaiti society. The boy can go outside, spend a long time in the evening with his friends, and travel outside the country, and this negatively affects his academic performance’. Restrictions on girls’ mobility means that girls often spend more time learning and doing school homework (Faris et al., 2012). This was articulated by many girls in the study: ‘We have time to study because we sit at home more than boys. Boys in free time leave the house, but for girls, there are limits in the issue of leaving the house’, said one of the girls. Another girl said, ‘It is difficult to leave the house on my own, but the boy can go out freely and meet his friends outside the house. This is normal for him’. Another girl emphasized, ‘Social traditions are more restrictive towards the girl, but this works for her benefit in education’. This was also confirmed by parents in the study. In this context, one of the parents said, ‘Boys are busier than girls; the girl is locked up at home with her family, so she tries to spend her time studying’. Another parent added, ‘The family in the Arab Muslim community gives the boy more freedom than the girl, so he can go out with his companions, go camping, and attend in the Diwaniya’. Another expert suggested, ‘The chances of moral deviation for boys are greater than for girls. They travel outside the country more than girls. They also enjoy more freedom to leave the house with comrades, which gives them a greater opportunity to contact with bad companions. As for girls, they spend most of their time indoors, which gives them more opportunities to focus on studying’. ‘Girls have a lot of free time, so they study more than boys. As for us, we have many distractions such as trips and meeting visitors in the Diwaniya’, said one of the boys. However, one of the mothers added another dimension to this issue, as the boy does not only have the freedom to leave the house at any time, but his sitting at home to study is a socially undesirable behaviour according to the customs of the Bedouin society. She explained: ‘In Al-Jahra community, it is a shame to say that my son is sitting at home to study. It is better to say that he went to visit his uncles or went anywhere, rather than saying that he locked himself up at home to study’. Other parents who participated in the FGD agreed with this view, and one of them affirmed, ‘Yes, in our community, boy’s isolation at home to study is a strange behaviour’.29 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait This example clearly shows how gender norms negatively affect boys’ education in Kuwait, especially in the conservative Al-Jahra community. In such a conservative community, the masculine view that women’s natural place is the home, while men exercise their roles outside the home, prevails. Although women in Al-Jahra community, like the rest of Kuwait’s regions, go out to work, hold positions and exercise various social roles, inherited social traditions are still active in the collective mind, and people still use them to distinguish between socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. According to these traditions, it is not proper for a boy to ‘lock himself up’ at home ‘like a woman’, even if it is for studying and learning. Therefore, the discriminatory gender norms around patterns of socialization may affect the gender gap in education to the detriment of boys. As one expert said, ‘There is a common phrase repeated by many parents to their sons, which is: Your sister is better than you ... This is really true because the girl is in front of him most of the time, does not go outside the home so much, and succeeds in the school’, he said. Effects of peer groups Results of the IDIs and the FGDs showed that all study participants (experts, community members, principals and teachers) agree that peer groups negatively affect boys’ education. As for the boys, in the three study sites, they said that there are always good friends and bad friends, and that the both types of friends affect them. They also expressed their enjoyment of the time spent with friends outside the school. Although girls have acknowledged that friends sometimes have a negative impact on them, they confirmed that the negative impact of friends on boys is much greater than on them. A girl tried to explain the difference between boys and girls regarding the effect of peers: ‘Boys are affected negatively by their friends more than girls. For boys, friends always want to be like each other. If they are bad boys and one of them is doing well at school, they say no, he must be bad like us. Girls say the opposite: if my friend does well at school, I should do better than her because we as girls feel jealous of each other, but boys do not have this jealousy. They say to the good boy either to be bad like us or to get out of our company’. Another girl from the Al-Jahra region talked about an incident facing a boy in her extended family: ‘One of my relatives was outstanding at school and his friends were not. When he wanted, one day, to go out with them they refused, saying, you are not like us go away, we do not study, why you trick us and study? They do not want to include in the peer group a boy who is better than them at the school. Since then, the boy has hated studying’. When asked, ‘Why did not he go and search for friends who are good at school like him?’, all girls confirmed that high-performing students usually struggle to make friends in that way. When boys asked about the qualities of the leader of their peer groups, the responses of boys in the three study sites included qualities such as courage, strength and recklessness, but it did not include the quality of ‘doing well at school’. The culture of peer groups is not usually concerned with high academic performance, because it depends on breaking free of constraints, whether at home or school. Consequently, boys in Kuwait may pay less attention to education, either to imitate their peers or to preserve their position in the friendship group.30 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait School-level factors Unsafe school environments Within the school environment, the prevalence of violence and bullying, lack of discipline and the high level of behavioural problems among students are possible factors for the poor academic performance of boys in Kuwait. According to the TIMSS 2011 Kuwait national report, the largest percentage of fourth-grade students attend schools with discipline and safety problems (such as unexplained absence, lateness, riots, cheating, vandalism, verbal abuse, theft and so forth). These discipline and safety problems, in addition to the bullying behaviours, were found to be significantly related to the low level of achievement in mathematics and science (Ministry of Education, 2013). Abdulsalam, Al Daihani and Francis (2017) found that ‘peer victimization (bullying) is a universal phenomenon with detrimental effects’ in Kuwaiti intermediate schools. According to the 2015 Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS), 52.9 percent of boys, compared to 28 percent of girls, were in a physical fight and 59.5 percent of boys compared to 50.4 percent of girls were seriously injured one or more times during the past 12 months. There were also 33.2 percent of boys, compared to 27.8 percent of girls, who were bullied on one or more days during the past 30 days. Kuwait recorded 9.5 on Students Bullied at School Scale, falling in the category of countries whose students being bullied ’about monthly’ (Ministry of Education, 2013). According to a report by UNESCO, the Middle East has the third-highest prevalence of bullying in the world, with 41.1 percent of students who report they were bullied at least once in the past month (UNESCO, 2019b, p. 5). The annual report of the MOE’s Department of Social and Psychological Services revealed that there were 21,805 cases of verbal abuse and physical attack against teachers and students inside schools during the academic year 2016- 2017 at various educational levels. The report pointed to 19,467 cases of verbal abuse and physical attack by students against their colleagues in all educational levels, including 10,090 cases in boys’ schools, compared to 9,377 cases in girls' schools. Physical attack cases on students reached 4,994 cases in boys’ schools; the highest rate of which was at the primary schools (3,309 cases), then the intermediate schools (1,274 cases) and then the secondary schools (400 cases). Girls' schools recorded 3,471 cases of physical attack (2,001 cases in the primary schools, 818 cases in intermediate schools and 606 cases in the secondary schools) (Academia Magazine, 2018). These statistics show that verbal abuse and physical attack cases by students against their classmates are more prevalent in boys’ schools than in girls' schools, especially in primary and intermediate schools. In a study aimed at examining gender differences and bullying in Kuwaiti schools, based on a sample drawn from 9th and 10th grades, boys were found to be significantly more involved in direct bullying than girls, while girls were indirectly victimized more than the boys (Alsaleh, 2014). Abdulsalam et al. (2017) examined the prevalence and factors of bullying among grades 7 and 8 students in Kuwait. They found that peer victimization (bullying) is a universal phenomenon in Kuwaiti intermediate schools with detrimental effects. Children with physical disabilities and one or both non-Kuwaiti parents or children with divorced/widowed parents were more prone to violence. intervention programme and improvement in the students’ adjustment to the school environment to control bullying behaviour in Kuwaiti schools. The results of the original data collected through FGDs and IDIs are consistent with the results of the previous statistics and studies on the prevalence of violence in Kuwaiti schools - especially boys' schools. The principal of the boys’ school in Al-Jahra region said, ‘Violence inside the school is very widespread and we suffer from it severely, to the point that we sometimes call the police to settle the quarrels among boys’. He pointed out that violence and bullying are more prevalent among tenth grade students, and decrease gradually as students move to eleventh and twelfth grades. In his opinion, violence is more prevalent among Bedouin than urban boys because tribal affiliations31 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait increase the spread of quarrels among Bedouin boys. When a fight erupts between two boys from two different tribes, the other boys join the fight in defence of the boys of their tribe. According to the principal, some disputes between boys begin on social media, and then quickly turn violent within the school. Another cause for the spread of violence in boys’ schools is the widespread drug abuse that increases students' aggressiveness. The principal highlighted the negative impact of these behaviours on boys’ academic performance in his school. The principal of the girls’ school in Al-Jahra region said, ‘Bullying and violence are not widespread in our school, only a few girls affected by these behaviours’. She mentioned that the school had organized a campaign called “Stop Bullying”, which included conducting seminars to raise awareness among girls about the danger of this problem. Female teachers acknowledged that there are some problems related to violence and bullying in the school. They pointed out that school violence is more prevalent among tenth-grade students compared to other grades, Kuwaiti girls compared to non-Kuwaitis and Bedouins compared to urban. However, they stressed that the prevalence of violence in girls' schools is much lower than in boys’ schools. Through FGDs with boys in Al-Asema and Al-Farwaniya regions, it appeared that violence and smoking were less prevalent in their schools compared to Al-Jahra schools. One of them argued that bullying is often related to the new places to which students move, such as moving to a new school or new class. According to one community member: ‘We suffer from widespread violence in schools which has a great impact on our children. I hear daily complaints from my children about violence and insults by their classmates in their schools. I believe that the reason for this is the inefficient school management. Among the other causes are the family disputes that cause psychological disorders for boys. These disorders reflect on boys’ behaviours in school and on their educational performance’. Some community members also talked about the negative impact of the media and electronic games on increasing rates of violence in boys’ schools: ‘The most popular electronic games among boys are those that are based on violence’, said a community member. Another community member argued that evil characters portrayed in movies and TV series have become role models for boys, ‘Therefore, we see that the characters depicted on the boys’ school bags are evil characters that associated with violence, because the role model for boys is the evil person, not the good one’. Another community member attributed the higher prevalence of violence in boys' schools, compared to girls’ schools, to ‘the rough nature of males in the desert society’, and to the socialization process of boys: ‘Our male community in Kuwait is a rough or cruel community, a desert community that depends on imposing domination by force. Therefore, boys always group around the strongest and most bullying student. Unfortunately, parents promote this tendency, the father says to his son when he returns from school: you must assault any boy who assaults you, instead of saying if a boy assaults you, inform the school administration. That is why you see violence prevalence strongly in boys' schools’. Physical school environment Other aspects of the school environment play a positive role in facilitating boys’ engagement in education including facilities, equipment and materials. Principals have affirmed their keenness to provide an ‘attractive school environment for students’ as one of the most important tasks they seek to achieve. This was also confirmed by the field observations conducted in the two schools studied in Al-Jahra region. Each school had a modern building; sports fields for football, basketball and volleyball; a multi-purpose covered hall; a theatre; computer and science labs; and a library. Each school also32 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait had enough toilets for students and teachers, and a cafeteria to sell snacks to students. All classes were equipped with smart boards, computers and projectors. There were separate rooms for teachers in different departments. In general, the two schools looked clean, attractive and well furnished. Therefore, it can be said that the schools’ physical environment in Kuwait is one of the facilitating factors for boys' education. During the FGDs, boys and girls expressed their admiration for the school environment and praised the availability of all required facilities and materials. In this context, a boy talked about the time spent in the school, ‘Frankly, we enjoy it because the school is attractive to students and we practise many activities’. Nevertheless, it seemed that the availability of equipment and activities is not enough to make some boys enjoy school, as shared by one boy in the Al-Jahra region: ‘I think that there is no student in Kuwait who loves school due to activities and facilities. Loving something is an internal belief. Facilities and activities have nothing to do with loving the school because if you do not like education from within yourself, you will not enjoy anything from outside’. Expatriate teachers One of the distinguishing features of education systems in most of the Gulf countries is the great dependence on expatriate Arab teachers. In Qatar, for example, ‘they made up about 87% of teachers in government schools in 2013. In the UAE, 90% of teachers in government boys’ schools and 20% in girls’ schools were expatriate Arabs in 2010/11’ (UNESCO, 2019c, p. 42). The lack of job security of those teachers and the salary gap between them and the national teachers may negatively affect the quality of their teaching (Ridge et al., 2014). Expatriate teachers account for about 37 percent of the total teaching staff in public schools, and about 99 percent of the total teaching staff in private schools in Kuwait. In boys' schools, the percentage of expatriate teachers accounts for about 38 percent of the total number of teachers in public primary education, 55 percent of teachers in intermediate education and 67 percent of teachers in secondary education (Central Statistical Bureau, 2018). According to Ridge (2014, pp. 90-91), with the expansion of access to education in the Gulf countries, and the opening of local colleges of education, more of the country’s women than men are enrolled in these colleges to work as teachers. This has created a situation characterized by the presence of girls’ schools that are almost entirely staffed by Kuwaiti female teachers, and boys’ schools where most teachers are expatriate Arab men, although both types of schools have the same curricula and receive the same financial inputs. Given that everything is largely equal in public schools for boys and girls, except teachers, examining the impact of the large number of expatriate teachers on boys’ education is logical. Men represent only 17 percent of all Kuwaiti teachers. Al-ramzy and Salamah (2009) indicated that the reluctance of Kuwaiti men to work as teachers is due to the low wages compared to the burdens of the teaching profession and the lack of appreciation for teachers within society. Through IDIs, community members explained why Kuwaiti men choose not to work as teachers: ‘Kuwaiti men do not work as teachers because they realize that the teaching profession is a difficult profession, which requires daily effort and preparation. The Kuwaiti man does not want to do effort, he wants to work in an office job where people come to him asking for services, so that he feels that he has social power.’ Traditional stereotypes around gender roles are still prevalent among Kuwaiti people. Although many Kuwaiti families have started to rely more on women’s financial support, the idea that women should be dedicated to the domestic sphere remains the predominant belief in society. Many discriminatory33 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait stereotypes overemphasize the role of women as wives and mothers. According to one community member, ‘Women like the teaching profession because it is more appropriate to women’s nature. It also agrees with the conservative nature of Kuwaiti society, where many parents do not want their daughters to work in jobs where mixing between men and women exists. Schools in Kuwait provide for women a single-sex work environment. Another point is that the woman who works as a teacher will be better able to help her children in studying, and the working hours, vacations and summer holidays will be common between her and her children’. In a study on expatriate teachers and the quality of education in the GCC countries, Ridge et al. (2014) stated that the main cause of Arab teachers migrating to work in the Gulf countries is to earn money. According to the study, most expatriate teachers in these countries lack job security, receive lower salaries and have less training compared to national teachers, which negatively affects the quality of their teaching. The study found that the working conditions of the expatriate teachers and the policies related to them are failing to achieve the kind of student outcomes sought by governments of the Gulf countries. Expatriate teachers are often blamed for the low quality of education in Kuwait. Nevertheless, the interviewed experts did not attribute boys’ underperformance to expatriate teachers, as to the inefficiency of all teachers due to limited professional development programmes. Irrespective of the efficiency issue, boys’ education can be affected by expatriate teachers in two ways. First, there is a large gap in salaries and job benefits between Kuwaiti and expatriate teachers, which frustrates and demotivates expatriate teachers, leading to negative impacts on their performance. This was evident through the FGDs with teachers in in Al-Jahra region, most of whom were expatriates. One of them summarized their feelings by saying, ‘The expatriate teacher is asked to do everything, but nothing is given to him’. Second, the relationship between boys and expatriate teachers does not seem to be good. Expatriate teachers have complained that boys do not respect them and interact with them in a humiliating way. Because teachers seemed to suffer greatly from this problem, it took up a large amount time during the FGD. One of the expatriate teachers started by saying, ‘The main problem is the lack of respect for teachers by students, especially the expatriate teachers. This is part of the prevailing culture in Kuwaiti society, through which Kuwaitis look at other nationalities as inferior to them’. Another expatriate teacher recounted a disturbing situation: ‘Once, one of my students met me in the street outside the school and started calling me by my nationality, which he considers an insult”. However, one community member argued, ‘Students’ problems with teachers are general problems that Kuwaiti and expatriate teachers share’. It seems clear that there is a problem in the relationship between many teachers and boys. This is confirmed by official statistics, which documented 2,171 cases of verbal assault and 167 cases of physical attacks on teachers by students during the academic year 2016-2017 (Academia Magazine, 2018). Teachers in Al-Jahra region complained that the educational authorities did not take decisive measures to deal with this problem, ‘The rules and penalties of school discipline are not applied on students in many cases. Most of these rules and penalties are against teachers more than students’, a teacher said. Boys' account of their relationship with teachers confirms that rifts in this relationship. This was evident in FGD with the boys in Al-Jahra region, where one of them said, ‘Some teachers treat us as if we are brothers, others treat us badly, and in this case you either attack the teacher or you become silent and get hurt emotionally’. Another boy complained, ‘Teachers do not take into account students' family circumstances’ when there is a problem in the family that affects their willingness to learn. Boys also complained that teachers use scores as a means of punishment. In Al- Farwaniya region, a boy stated, ‘Some teachers treat us with oppression’. However, the most worrying aspect was that most teachers have low expectations of boys’ performance, which affects boys greatly. This was evident through the FGDs with both teachers and boys. This is confirmed by34 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait an incident described by a boy in Al-Jahra region: ‘A few days ago, a teacher came to me and said: Why do not you leave the school and join the police? Why do you tire yourself in completing education? These words broke my heart and caused me great frustration’. On the contrary, in the FGD with the girls in Al-Jahra region, girls talked positively about their teachers. Their only objection was ‘the use of scores as a threatening method’. The principal of the girls’ school confirmed, ‘The students’ relationship with teachers is excellent’. While some female teachers spoke of some problems, these did not seem to be as severe as in the boys' school. However, there was agreement among the teachers on ‘the decline of teacher’s status in society’, and that this is a primary cause of declining the quality of education. One expert interviewed expressed it as follows, ‘Teachers in the past used to appreciate the profession of education as a sublime message, but now the matter is different. Teachers have become more in pursuit of money through private lessons’. One community member talked about the decline in the status of the teacher in recent years: Most parents have negative views about teachers, whether they are Kuwaitis or expatriates. Some parents do not view the teacher as a professional who has a sublime message, but rather as a worker who works in the service of their children. Therefore, they do not respect teachers, and this negatively affects their motivation and performance’. Teachers’ efficacy Considering the fact that most boys in Kuwait are taught by male teachers, can the academic advantage of girls over boys be attributed to the better efficacy of female teachers compared to male teachers? The literature indicates that (male and female) teachers in Kuwait mainly use traditional, teacher-centered methods that depend on memorization and rote learning (see Alhashem and Alkandari, 2015; Chahine and Khan, 2015; National Centre for Education Development, 2013). This was also confirmed by the experts interviewed, who did not accept the idea that female teachers have better teaching skills than male teachers. However, some of them pointed out that women may possess some personal characteristics that help them to perform better than men in the classrooms: ‘Each female teacher is always keen to be better than her colleagues, unlike male teachers who do not care about that’, said an expert. Another expert agreed with this opinion, and added, ‘The female teachers are more committed to the instruction, more concentrating, more enthusiastic and do greater effort in work than the male teachers’. This has been confirmed by Ridge (2014, p. 104) who sees ‘a strong reason to hypothesize that female teachers in general are far more enthusiastic about teaching and far more likely to invest more of themselves in their work than many of their male counterparts, particularly because a teaching career is not considered low status for women’. Therefore, she argues that ‘boys across the region receive an education that is far from engaging or motivating’ (p. 104). Although male teachers did not accept the advantage of female teachers in teaching skills, they acknowledged that female teachers make a greater effort at work and give out detailed instructions. Female teachers also rejected the idea of their advantage in efficacy over male teachers and attributed the better results of girls’ schools compared to boys’ schools to the school administration of girls’ schools, which is ‘stricter and more interested in implementing instruction than administrations of boys’ schools’. The principal of the girls’ school confirmed this, highlighting the importance of the school administration in motivating teachers and improving the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning processes inside the school. She also argued that girls’ schools in Kuwait are more interested in extracurricular activities than boys' schools, which is good for improving girls’ performance.35 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait The literature highlighted the lack of professional development opportunities for teachers in Kuwait (See Chahine and Khan, 2015). This was confirmed by interviewed experts who considered the lack of teacher training in Kuwait as a major reason for boys’ underachievement. When teachers themselves were asked, they indicated that professional development activities are very limited and mainly take the form of workshops, model lessons and meetings organized as technical supervision of each school subject. The principals indicated that they rely on more experienced teachers to transfer their expertise to new teachers. In all cases, there are no training courses or activities related to the issue of gender equality in either boys or girls' schools. It has been clear through FGDs with teachers and principals that this topic is not among the training priorities for teachers and has not been addressed in any of the professional development activities inside or outside schools. Therefore, it can be said that the lack of continuous professional development for teachers, and the absence of any training courses on gender issues, are possible factors behind boys’ disadvantage in education in Kuwait. School absenteeism As explored above at the level of the individual, school absenteeism appears to be a prevalent phenomenon in different settings. Boys in Al-Jahra region reported being absent from school three to seven days a month. Boys in Al-Asema reported one to four days a month, but more than half of the boys who participated in the study from Al-Asema region are studying in foreign and bilingual private schools, which have significantly lower rates of absenteeism than public schools. In Al- Farwaniya region, boys’ accounts about absenteeism differed significantly from Al-Jahra and Al- Asema regions. The boy who has the highest rate of absenteeism mentioned that the rate is one day per month. It was clear from the discussion that their families reject the principle of school absenteeism When absent, boys do many things: ‘I try to find out who of my friends are absent and go out with them, or I go camping with my family’, said one of the boys. Another boy said, ‘I go out with my friends to a coffee shop or a mall’. ‘I sit in the diwaniya and my neighbours come and start talking together’, said another boy. It seemed that boys do not face major objections from parents about their school absences: ‘My parents give me the freedom to choose to go to school or not as long as I bear the consequences of my choice. I think staying at home in front of their eyes is better than escaping from the school without telling them’, a boy said. It seemed from boys’ accounts that they do not see school absenteeism as a problem, and do not see that it affects their learning outcomes. When asked to what extent absenteeism is prevalent in his school, the principal of the boys’ school in Al-Jahra region said: ‘Absenteeism is a very prevalent phenomenon in Kuwait. On Thursday, for example, most students are absent in all Kuwaiti schools and all educational levels, especially in secondary schools. I will give you an example of our school, out of the 1,100 students, only 300 students attend on Thursday. They look at Thursday as part of the weekend. Unfortunately, we discovered that some teachers encourage students to be absent. This phenomenon represents a major challenge to education in Kuwait’. Through the FGD with girls in Al-Jahra region, school absenteeism was found to be less prevalent among girls than boys. Girls reported that their school absenteeism rate ranges from one to four days a month. However, they also confirmed that Thursday is their most common day of absenteeism. When asked about the main causes of absenteeism from school, their answers differed significantly from boys. The list of causes included illness, study pressures and the need for rest, not having important lessons and the need to study for exams. When absent, most of them spend time at home studying and preparing for exams. The principal of the girls’ school in Al-Jahra region36 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait acknowledged the prevalence of absenteeism in girls’ schools as well, especially in the days leading up to the exams. However, she stressed, ‘Absenteeism in boys’ schools is more prevalent than in girls’ schools because they do not apply the regulations of absenteeism’. Most of the community members interviewed emphasized that school absenteeism is more prevalent among Kuwaitis than non-Kuwaitis, and in the Bedouin regions more than the urban. Some of the community members see that ‘many school administrations and teachers encourage students to get absent from school’. Others indicated that the family bears a large part of the responsibility for the prevalence of absenteeism in Kuwaiti schools. Therefore, it was also important to know the parents’ point of view about their children's absenteeism. In FGD in Al-Jahra region, patents confirmed the problem of students’ weekly absenteeism on Thursdays and emphasized that boys are absent from school more than girls: ‘Mostly, Thursday here is an off day, meaning that school absenteeism rates may reach 4 days per month, especially for male students’, said one of the parents. When asked about the main reason for absenteeism, parents suggested that the primary reason is that ‘students get tired of studying and need to take rest, especially at the end of the week’. Most of them said that their children often sit at home when they do not go to school. A study on the prevalence of school absenteeism in the Gulf found that it is very prevalent in all Gulf countries, especially before and after official holidays. According to this study, school absenteeism in the Gulf countries leads to many negative effects including low level of achievement, high rates of repetition and drop-out, spread of laziness and indifference among students, high level of educational wastage and declining education system efficiency (Gulf Arab States Educational Research Center, 2018). Therefore, the prevalence of absenteeism in Kuwait may be a potential factor behind boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education. Cheating culture Another widespread phenomenon in Kuwaiti schools is cheating in exams. It became clear through FGDs and IDIs that this problem is an essential factor of boys’ underperformance in education in Kuwait. All the experts who participated in the study confirmed the prevalence of this phenomenon, to the extent that it has become normal practice for boys at all levels of education. An expert argued that cheating in exams is the main reason for boys’ low participation in higher education: ‘The success of most boys in education is a false success due to cheating. I believe that the main reason for the poor participation of boys in higher education is this false success. The student knows that his capabilities are weak and he cannot succeed without cheating, and he cannot continue education at the university level in this way, so he leaves the secondary school and joins the military and police positions’. The principal of the boys’ school in Al-Jahra region seemed very concerned by ‘the transformation of cheating into a semi-systematic practice in Kuwaiti schools’, saying: ‘The phenomenon of cheating strongly affects education. For a long time, we have suffered from cheating in exams. The boy asks nowadays why should I study? At the end of the year, the exam questions will come solved to me. Even the good student says that this is not fair, I exhaust myself in studying and my classmate gets the exam question solved and gets the full marks by cheating, while I am overstraining my head and cannot get the full mark like him. So some of them started to give up and say, I will also use the easy way to succeed by cheating’.37 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait He strongly objected to the measures taken by the MOE to address this problem, which mainly depends on what is called the ‘rotation policy’; that is, the transfer of school principals during the exam periods to other schools, for fear that they collude with students in their schools and become lenient with them in cheating practices. About this policy, the principal said: ‘If the ministry says we do not trust the principal and transfers him to another school…they do not address the problem of cheating, because the root of the problem is in the community itself. The parent, instead of urging his son to study, buys him devices that help him cheat...Unfortunately, exam questions are leaked from the MOE press, and solved, then distributed via websites shortly before the exam. This is a big problem, and they are addressing it in the wrong way.’ The boys in Al-Jahra region talked frankly about cheating . They emphasized that they all seek to cheat in exams whenever possible, and that cheating is not a new experience for them, but rather a practice they have become accustomed to since the beginning of their education. Said one boym ‘Frankly speaking, we are brought up with cheating from primary and intermediate schools. If I had been well educated from the beginning, I would not need to cheat now. I am now studying but I need to cheat to succeed, because that is what I am used to, if I had become accustomed to studying and making effort in learning, I would now be outstanding at school’. When asked about the reason why this practice is so prevalent, one boy said, ‘The main reason for the prevalence of cheating is the teachers. During exams in the intermediate school, they used to give us the answers to the questions in exams, and so we are used to cheating’. One of the boys from the Al-Jahra region addressed the educational officials, saying: ‘You brought up the student from the primary to the intermediate school on cheating. Does it make sense, when the student becomes at the secondary school, that you say cheating is forbidden? Where were you from the beginning? I now know that I will cheat on the exam, so why should I study?’ Girls in Al-Jahra region have expressed completely different positions than boys regarding exam cheating. Although they admitted that they resort to cheating at times, they stressed their dissatisfaction with the spread of the phenomenon: ‘I would not be happy with my degree if it was through cheating’, said one of the girls. Through discussion, it became obvious that they have not the chance to cheat easily because of the measures taken by the school administration to prevent cheating. They strongly object to these measures because it causes them stress before the test. It also turned out that they know the extent to which cheating is prevalent in boys' schools. When asked if they know any of their male relatives who rely on cheating in the exams, most of them confirmed that their brothers do this: ‘My brothers depend mainly on cheating so that they are not studying’, said one of the girls. The teachers in boys’ school in Al-Jahra region confirmed the widespread cheating in schools, but blamed the students and parents for this. One of the teachers said, ‘Once, a student told me that he goes to the exam without knowing in which subject he will be tested, he just open the mobile phone and copy the answers ... Unfortunately, parents sometimes buy cheating tools for their children like micro headphones’. Female teachers in the girls’ school agreed with the view that parents are partly responsible for widespread cheating in schools. They also confirmed that cheating is more prevalent in boys’ schools than in girls’ schools. However, they acknowledged the existence of cheating in girls' schools as well, but girls’ school administrations and teachers do not allow it.38 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Through FGDs in Al-Asema and Al-Farwaniya regions, it became clear that cheating in exams is also widespread among students there, albeit at a lower rate. Eight of the twelve boys interviewed in Al- Asema region reported that they were prepared to cheat in exams if given the opportunity. However, they claimed that they do not rely solely on cheating for success. According to their accounts, their school administrations seemed more assertive in dealing with exam cheating. One of the boys said, ‘If the teacher finds a mobile phone with a student, he takes the exam paper and expels him from the test committee’. Nevertheless, some boys in Al-Farwaniya region confirmed, ‘school administration and teachers sometimes overlook exam cheating practices’. Most of the boys expressed their willingness to cheat ‘if the test questions are difficult’. However, some boys demanded, ‘Cheating should be prevented by all means in order to distinguish between diligent and non-diligent boys’. All the interviewed community members agreed that exam cheating is widespread in Kuwaiti schools, and most of them emphasized that ‘parents have no objection to their children’s cheating in exams’. Most of the interviewed community members indicated that cheating in exams is more prevalent in boys than girls’ schools, and in Bedouin regions than urban. They also drew attention to the role of modern technology in increasing the spread of cheating in exams: ‘After half an hour from the test starting, answers to the test questions are spread through smartphones’, said a community member. Certain community members believed that ‘some school administrations neglect exam cheating to improve school results in front of the officials’, and one of them claimed that ‘some school administrations are doing mini-examination committees for some children of relatives and friends to help them cheat in exams’. One interviewed community member pointed out, ‘The boy who cheats and succeeds in cheating feels ecstasy and victory and feels that he is smarter than others, whether those who succeeded by making effort in learning or those who failed to succeed. The boy now considers that cheating is a kind of savvy and intelligence’. Therefore, a community member argued that cheating has become a ’prevalent culture’ in Kuwait: ‘Cheating has become an integral part of our societal culture, not just a phenomenon that is widespread in society. The boy feels that cheating in exams is an inherent right for him. In many cases, the school administration gives instructions to teachers to disregard cheating in exams. The evidence that cheating has become a culture in our society is that the MOE does not trust school principals and rotates them during the testing period’. Some community members interviewed confirmed the idea of ‘cheating culture’ by referring to the issue of forged certificates, which have received widespread media coverage in Kuwait (Al-Anbaa, 2019; Al-Jazeera Net, 2019; Al-Qabas Electronic Journal, 2018). In that situation, ‘Many young people went to study abroad and got PhDs by money without learning anything, and returned to Kuwait to take positions’, as described by a community member. The literature has also addressed the phenomenon of cheating in the Kuwaiti schools. For example, Al- Kandary (2010) explored the causes and forms of this phenomenon from the perspective of students of the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. She found that about 92 percent of students believe that the phenomenon of cheating is widespread at all the educational levels in Kuwait. According to college students, they are accustomed to the behaviour of cheating in exams in the previous educational levels, and this is the main reasons for their cheating in higher education too. It was found that the fear of failure in the tests, and the desire to get a high degree, are the main causes for cheating from the perspective of students of the College of Basic Education.39 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait The MOE has attempted to address the phenomenon of cheating in exams in several ways. In addition to applying the policy of ’principals’ rotation’, the MOE asked principals to strictly apply the exam regulations. It issued Ministerial Decree No. 21 of 2018 regarding the violation of the exam regulations, which outlined the measures that should be taken in the event of exams regulation violations, and the penalties to be applied to students violating these regulations. These penalties are graded in severity according to the type of violation, including student's dismissal from school and cancelling his exam scores in all academic subjects (Ministry of Education, 2018). However, cheating in exams is still a common practice in Kuwaiti schools. Many boys still depend on cheating as an easy way to pass the exams instead of exerting effort in learning. Therefore, it is a potential factor of boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education in Kuwait. Society-level factors Rentier state Minnis (2006) pointed out that the high oil revenues in the Gulf countries have led to ’higher per capita incomes, affluent lifestyles, and rapid modernization’, but they have also lead to fragile state institutions and weak educational systems. Within the framework of the rentier policies of these countries, citizens have enjoyed ‘extensive cradle-to-grave welfare systems consisting of free education, subsidized housing, free medical care, and guaranteed public employment’. However, these policies have many negative effects, including ‘disdain for work and lack of interest in formal learning’. These effects are related to what is called ‘rentier mentality’, a term that refers to ‘the disjunction in the popular mind between work and education and between income and reward’, meaning that the economic returns that people receive is not related to the amount of effort they exert in work or their skills or educational qualifications. Minnis argues that the prevalence of this rentier mentality is one of the main factors for the poor educational performance of students in the Gulf countries (Ibid, p. 976). Because of the prevalence of this rentier mentality in Kuwaiti society, young men became ’not interested in education; they cavalierly expect a government job regardless of what or how much they learn’ (Brinkley et al., 2012, p. 35). According to the National Centre for Education Development (2013, p. 130), a large number of school administrators, teachers, parents, students and MOE officials believe that the wealth resulting after the emergence of oil has created conditions of comfort and affluence among many Kuwaitis. This affluence has led to a feeling of self-satisfaction and complacency about the current educational performance among many students, making them unwilling to make the necessary effort to learn. Therefore, many students ask, why should we study? Their conviction is that education is not necessary to secure the demands of their future life. A female teacher in Al-Jahra region said, ‘The state guarantees everything for the boy. Therefore, his future is 100% guaranteed, and so he does not need the education to guarantee his future’. This was confirmed by another teacher, ‘For most Kuwaiti boys, education is not essential ... The job for them is guaranteed regardless of their level of education. When a boy knows that the state will provide him with the job and most of the services he needs, why should he exhaust himself in education? So we don't feel that boys are motivated to learn’, said the teacher. This rentier mentality was evident through FGDs with Kuwaiti boys in Al-Jahra and Al-Asema regions. The majority of these boys do not see that there will be any future challenges that may face them: ‘Of course, there are no challenges; the government provides us with everything, even if you have nothing, the government will help you’, said a boy in Al-Asema region confidently. Moreover, many boys expressed their unwillingness to go to school. One of them described going to school as ‘harmful’, and added, ‘The school is an enormous effort that has no benefit. I can learn only to a certain educational level. I do not need to go to school for all these years. Therefore, they should40 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait provide us with basic information only to graduate from school early and join work’. However, it appeared that some boys have no patience to wait until they graduate from education to earn money, so that one of them demanded the government to provide them with ‘school subsidies like university students’. The importance of education for boys also decreases due to the prevalence of patronage and favouritism in Kuwait, which is a distinctive feature of rentier states and tribal societies. In a society where the individual can easily enjoy great economic and social privileges through patronage and personal relationships, education becomes a waste of effort and time. It seems that the boys in Kuwait are fully aware of this fact, which kills the motivation of many of them to learn. Boys in FGDs suggested that patronage and favouritism, not education, have become the best way to get their share of the income. This is well-articulated by one boy from Al-Asema region: ‘I am now doing well at school, and I outperform all other students. However, after graduation, an uneducated person can come by and take my place in the job, despite that I have a better education than him. This causes me great disappointment ... Therefore, I am now seeking to make friends from all fields, so that when someone brings a mediator or a patron, I can also bring my acquaintances whom I can rely on to get my rights’. Many community members spoke about the role of wealth and affluence in reducing the interest of Kuwaiti boys in education compared to non-Kuwaitis. One of them explained: ‘Kuwait is an affluent society, in which the boy does not feel the importance of education in achieving his aspirations. Therefore, he does not say, for example, that I must do well in the school in order for my father to buy me an electronic gaming device because he already has an electronic gaming device before the school year begins. By contrast, in Al-Farwaniya you see the Egyptian, Syrian or Somali boy strives at school and gets the full marks because his father told him that if he did well in school he would buy him a laptop or an electronic games device…Unfortunately, this spirit does not exist for Kuwaitis, so you see Kuwaiti boys have indifference and are not interested in learning’. Although both Kuwaiti boys and girls share the same affluent conditions, the negative impact of affluence on boys appears to be greater than its impact on girls. Girls have their own reasons for paying attention to education to ensure their future. Unlike boys, education for girls is an important factor in securing their future, in terms of both having a better opportunity for marriage and financial independence. Therefore, girls are more motivated to learn than boys. This was confirmed by many participants in the study. ‘The girl says to herself that I must learn, graduate from school and depend on myself, not on a husband, a father or a mother. A day may come when everyone gives up on me. Therefore, girls’ awareness of the importance of education is greater than the awareness of boys, and their eagerness to learn is greater than that of boys. Furthermore, when the girl graduates, fields of working are limited for her in the labour market, but for the boy there is a wide range of work opportunities’. This was confirmed by an interviewed expert, ‘The future is guaranteed for boys more than girls. Therefore, boys feel more secure than girls, and they do not have future challenges that may push them to make a greater effort in education’, he said. Perhaps this feeling of security arising from affluence and the policies of the rentier state is one of the underlying factors responsible for boys’ disengagement from education in Kuwait.41 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Labour market One of the most influential factors affecting educational choices for boys in Kuwait is the relationship between education and the labour market. The nature of this relationship is determined by several variables, the main one being the rentier logic that guides Government policies at the economic and social levels. In Kuwait, as in other oil-rich Gulf States, there is an implicit social contract whereby rulers reward political compliance and educational attainment with life-long, high-paying jobs in the public sector that require little effort from workers. In addition to the low productivity that this social contract entails, it promotes what is called ‘entitlement culture’ in society (Barbuscia and Saba, 2020), where young people expect a large financial return from the labour market without the need to make efforts in education or achieve higher education qualifications. Because of this rentier culture explored above, boys are not worried about finding a job after leaving school - regardless of their qualifications or level of education. Social mobility in the Gulf States is not necessarily related to educational attainment. Therefore, boys are not interested in education, as they do not need to do well in school to find opportunities in the labour market. However, for girls, the situation is different. They have to do well in school in order to find opportunities outside of school, as they face obstacles in the labour market for economic and sociocultural reasons (Alphonso, 2018; Brinkley et al., 2012, p. 35). Many reports highlighted what is called ‘a gender equality paradox’ in the Arab region and Gulf States, where the impressive achievements of women in the education field have not yet translated into commensurate participation in economic and political life (Dunlop, Schreiber and Attar, 2015; Seikaly, Roodsaz and Van Egten, 2014; World Bank, 2013). Labour force participation rate for men aged 15 years and older is 84.1 per cent, compared to 47.4 per cent for women (UNDP, 2018, p. 38), with the majority of women in the working-age population outside of the labour force. The literature points out many benefits that give Kuwaiti men an advantage over women in the labour market. These benefits include dominating a larger proportion of the senior leadership positions (Public Authority for Civil Information, 2019c), receiving higher wages (UN Women, 2015), enjoying exclusive governmental family subsidies that do not include women and benefiting from a wider range of job opportunities available in the labour market (World Bank, 2013). The literature shows that the gender gap in education at boys’ expense can be explained in the light of the benefits that men enjoy in the labour market, which increases the economic returns of education for women compared to men (OECD Development Centre, 2014; World Bank, 2013, pp. 102-103). It is worth noting that there is nothing legally prevents young men from entering the labour market after finishing intermediate education in Kuwait. According to the Law No. 21 on Children Rights, 2015, Article 47, and The Law No. 6 of Labour in the Private Sector, 2010), Article 19, ‘It shall be prohibited to employ persons who are below the age of 15 years’. According to Article 20 of the Labour Law, the employment of children from age 15 to 18 is allowed, provided that ’They shall not be employed in industries or professions that are, by a resolution of the Minister, classified as hazardous or harmful to their health’. Article 48 of the Children Rights Law adds that children’s employment ‘should not deprive them of their right to education’. In practice, however, boys can drop out of school and join the labour market after intermediate school age without any legal consequences. Therefore, the important questions are: what are the job opportunities and benefits that attract most boys, not girls, to joining the labour market early at secondary-school age? Also, what drives most girls, not boys, to continue their education at the university level and not join the labour market early? The literature indicates that there are many advantages enjoyed by Kuwaiti men in the labour market compared to women. For example, Kuwaiti men comprise 64.2 percent of legislators, senior officials and corporate managers, compared to 35.8 percent of women ( Public Authority for Civil Information, 2019c). There is a gender pay gap at the expense of women in Kuwait, as women earn42 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait 66 percent of the pay for equal work in Kuwait (UN Women, 2015). Besides, the state provides public sector employees with ‘extremely generous’ family subsidies, but only to husbands. Women are excluded from these subsidies even if only the wife works in the public sector. Educated women also claim that the conservative nature of society restricts their career opportunities (OECD Development Centre, 2014, p. 9). According to some literature (such as OECD Development Centre, 2014, p. 9; World Bank, 2013, pp. 102-103), men’s enjoyment of these benefits in the labour market lures them to leave education and enter the labour market early, while it pushes girls to pursue higher education in order to obtain higher-paying jobs with university qualifications. This partly explains the increase in girls’ access to higher education compared to boys. Boys have incentives to enter the labour market with secondary qualifications only and depend on seniority for wage growth over time. Meanwhile, the gender gap in wages and benefits prevents girls from leaving education to start at low-paid, entry- level jobs—especially as they may expect to retire before reaching more senior-level positions. Therefore, most of them decide to continue their education at the university level. The study participants confirmed that work fields and job opportunities available for boys in the labour market are greater than those available for girls. This motivates girls to make a greater effort in education and to continue university education to ensure access to a good job opportunity in the labour market: ‘The ambition of girls in education is greater than that of boys because their chances of finding a job are less than those of boys’, said an expert. A girl from Al-Jahra region clearly expressed this view, ‘The boy can work anywhere, but the girl needs a better certificate in order to get a good job’, she said. This was also confirmed by one of the parents who said, ‘Young men or boys in the Gulf guarantee the job anywhere and with any educational qualification, but the girl has the ambition to become a doctor or an engineer’. Female teachers also agreed with this view, ‘Job opportunities are more available for boys than for girls’, they said, pointing out that this is one of the causes that increases girls' motivation to learn and pushes them to complete higher education. Job opportunities in the army and the police attract a large number of boys, especially in the Bedouin regions. Many study participants considered this to be a potential reason for boys’ low participation in higher education in Kuwait. According to one expert, ‘Job opportunities are available to boys even if they do not complete higher education or even secondary education, especially in military sectors that do not require high certificates. This negatively affects boys’ aspirations and motivation to learn. They now prefer shorter ways to get a job instead of completing education. This, of course, is not the case for girls’. The principal of the boys’ school in Al-Jahra region said, ‘Some boys leave the school at the beginning of the secondary education and join the army or the police to get a salary’. This was also confirmed by the teachers. Parents indicated that joining the military represents a kind of social prestige for the boy and his family, especially in Al-Jahra Bedouin community. However, they admitted that this reduces the boys’ motivation to learn and prevents them from completing education, ‘If the boy’s ambition is just to join the army or the police, he will not tire himself in learning’, said one of the parents. Through the IDIs with community members, it became clear that joining the army or the police both represent a kind of social prestige in the Bedouin community: ‘The officer according to our social norms is better than the doctor’, said a community member and added, ‘Workers in the military sector can provide services to people so that they become popular within the community’. Another community member indicated that the oil sector is also one of the fields that attract young men to work instead of completing higher education:43 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait ‘Boys leave education after secondary school and join jobs in the oil sector with very high salaries. There are annual job opportunities in the oil sector, and the salary of those who join the oil sector with a secondary degree is equivalent to the salary of those who work in other government sectors with a university degree. Therefore, boys do not see a benefit in continuing higher education. After the oil sector, comes the military sector, which attracts large numbers of boys, especially the Bedouin boys’. These job opportunities for boys in the military and oil sectors are available to girls only within very narrow limits, and therefore do not affect their completion of education, as is the case for boys. Some community members also argued that one of the reasons for the low enrolment rates of boys in higher education in Kuwait is that more boys than girls travel abroad on scholarships. Thus, it is clear that the pull factors that attract many boys to leave education and join the labour market early include the labour market benefits enjoyed by men and their ease in finding well-paid jobs in various sectors without the need for high educational qualifications (especially in the military and oil sectors). Therefore, these structural factors related to the labour market are among the most important reasons for the low participation of boys in the higher levels of education in Kuwait. Education and marriage The determination of girls to pursue higher education is not only driven by the desire to secure a high-paying job that compensates for the gender disparity in wages and job benefits, but also because education and the type of job a girl gets is very important to enhance her chances of marriage and secure her future in marital life. This was highlighted by a large number of participants in the study. According to a community member, ‘A girl who does not have a high certificate or a job is not attractive to get engaged for marriage’. This represents a major problem for the girls, especially in Kuwaiti society, in which the woman is the one who has to wait for a man to propose marriage. The boys, by contrast, enjoy the freedom to choose a wife, and they have many options. This was confirmed by experts, ‘Unlike boys, girls’ chances to marry are more related to education. Young men prefer to engage women who have a job, especially in the field of teaching’, said an expert. In the FGD, teachers agreed with this opinion, and highlighted that ‘Girls have a greater motivation to learn than boys because education is important for their marriage’. In the FGD, girls emphasized the importance of education and a suitable job in having a good opportunity to marry and to secure their financial future after marriage: ‘For girls, education is more important than boys. A boy can get married without an educational certificate, but for a girl, the certificate is essential for her to get married’, said one of the girls. According to girls’ accounts, they are well aware of the major challenges that they may face if they do not complete their education and find a good job that provides them with a financial income. One of the girls said, ‘The educational certificate and the good job are backings for me to rely on, and become independent from the husband, so education is a support for the girl in the future. Therefore, education supports the girl in the future, so that she does not need anyone and can depend on herself’. This worry about ensuring a future through education is not only a concern for girls, but also their parents. In Gulf societies, ‘mothers in particular advocate for their daughters to pursue higher education as an insurance policy for the future. With an education, women are less dependent on their husbands for financial support and in the case of divorce or abandonment’ (Abdulla and Ridge, 2011, p. 3). In the FGD in Al-Jahra region, a father said, ‘If my son does not complete his education, I will not be as worried about him as my worry about my daughter if she does not complete her education’. One of the participating mothers also confirmed this, ‘Education for a girl guarantees44 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait her independence in the future’. The same idea was expressed by a female teacher in the girls’ school in the Al-Jahra region: ‘Education protects the girl in the future, especially in the closed, Bedouin community of Al-Jahra region. The girl does not have many options; either she does well in education and achieves for herself, or she marries without her choice, and this will be like a sword hanging over her neck’. Nevertheless, the importance of education in ensuring the future of girls in their marital life is not only related to securing financial independence, but also to ensuring freedom of movement and improving quality of life and social relations after marriage. Therefore, some literature explains why girls continue to pursue higher education, despite the lower economic returns and the lower wages compared to boys, because higher education is not only an opportunity for girls to acquire skills and knowledge, but rather it is a means of emancipation from restrictions (Abdulla and Ridge, 2011, pp. 4-5). This was obvious through the FGDs and the IDIs, ‘Higher education for a girl is a breath’, said a community member. One of the parents explained: ‘The girl is usually keen to continue education to secure her future and freedom, to be financially independent, and to make friends outside the home. She does not want to be locked up in the house after marriage; rather, she wants to have friendships’. A female teacher expressed the same idea in another way: ‘The father says to his son, if you do not succeed in education, then I will send you to the army. As for his daughter, he says, if you do not succeed in education, you will sit at home, so the girl starts caring about education so that she can get a job and do not get stuck at home’. These accounts reveal that there are strong motivations among girls and their families to complete education, obtain a university degree and then find a high-paid job, in order to ensure good marriage prospects and financial independence from the husband after marriage, freedom of movement and friendships outside the home. These strong motivations are not relevant for boys, especially in the Eastern male-dominated society, in which men have complete freedom to choose a wife, manage the family budget, move freely, make friends and enjoy the exclusive job benefits in the labour market. Therefore, boys do not feel that there are future challenges related to marital life that require being equipped with a good education, as is the case for girls. This partly explains boys’ lower motivation to learn and underperformance compared to girls in Kuwait. Education and reputation ‘Social and cultural norms dictate the ‘dos and don’ts’ of individual everyday conduct’ (World Bank, 2013, p. 13). In Middle Eastern societies, these socio-cultural norms are particularly influential in shaping perceptions and guiding behaviours related to reputation and honour. In these societies, the idea of ‘reputation’ is more related to women than to men. Although this implies a disparity in gender norms, it is considered one of the factors that help girls outperform boys in achievement and completion of education. A girl’s good educational results boost her social reputation and make her a source of pride for her family and a sign of a good upbringing. This gives girls a strong motivation to learn, compared to boys. It was striking during the FGD with girls in Al-Jahra region that they often repeated the words ‘reputation’ and ‘honour’ in the context of the importance of education for girls. For example, one of the girls said, ‘In our society, the boy is free to do what he wants, but for the girl, they always say45 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait this is wrong, you must keep your reputation and succeed in the school’. Another girl said, ‘Number one for the girl is her reputation, honour, and morals, then her education and having a high certificate’. One community member interviewed indicated that: ‘The failure of the boy in education does not raise signs of exclamation in the community. It is said, for example, that he failed because he goes outside the house a lot with his friends. By contrast, the failure of the girl in education raises suspicions, because she is sitting at home most of the time, and her failure raises doubts regarding her reputation, especially in the Bedouin regions. So the psychological impact of the failure of the girl on her parents is greater than that of the boy’. ‘The father is always concerned about his daughter more than his son, as it is usually said that the boy ‘carries his defect’, while the girl's defect affects her reputation and the reputation of her family’, said a community member. That is why the family in the Gulf communities takes measures to preserve the reputation of the girl, which include monitoring her continuously, restricting her movement and relationships outside the home, and raising her to abide by social norms and traditions. All these measures give girls some personal traits that boys do not have to the same extent, such as discipline, obedience, fear of being punished and sensitivity to criticism. These personal traits play an important role in increasing girls’ concentration, interest and seriousness in learning, as well as their eagerness to succeed and excel in education, compared to boys. This was also evident in the girls’ accounts, ‘Restrictions imposed on a girl benefits her because she remains under the observation of her father, and this benefits her in improving her education and keeping her reputation’, said one of the girls. Another girl said, ‘Parents are stricter with girls than boys. For boys, they say this is a boy; there is no reason to be concerned about him’. As for the boy's reputation, there was great agreement among the study participants that it depends on his religiosity and good morals on the one hand, and his possession of manhood qualities on the other hand. The good boy is the one who ‘takes responsibility for others, but the girl is only required to take responsibility for herself’. He is also required to ‘support his family and take care of its interests’, and ‘become a support to his father and mother’, as one of the boys put it. A community member stated, ‘In many families when an uneducated young man proposes to their daughter, but he is religious and has good morals, they approve him and say ‘we buy a man’. So a man with morals is better than the educational certificates’. Another community member agreed with this opinion, ‘The most important thing in our society is religion and morals. If the boy does not complete his education and has good morals, he will still be respected by people’, he said. Although all participants also acknowledged peoples’ appreciation and respect for the educated person, prevailing perceptions about success in life are not only related to success in education for men. A man may compensate for his failure in education by his success in earning money or trade, and he continues to enjoy the respect and appreciation of people. This position was summed up by one of the boys in Al-Farwaniya region, ‘It is not a requirement that a person is educated in order to be successful in his life’, he said. Highlighting this idea, one of the boys from Al-Jahra region said, ‘The society’s view of the successful man in trade is good, even if he is not educated’. This was confirmed also by a Kuwaiti teacher, who said: ‘In our society, as long as you have a job, even if you have just an intermediate degree, and everything is going well with you, your social reputation is good regardless of your level of education. I know a doctor who works in the military hospital and no one cares about him, but for a person who works in the traffic police with an intermediate certificate, everyone knows him and appreciates his position’.46 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Therefore, one of the community members believes that ‘the boy usually seeks to prove himself in the labour market, not in education. As for the girl, it is the opposite, as she seeks to prove herself through education, not through the labour market’. In other words, the boy's path to proving his social merit is to improve his economic status, while the girl's path to proving her social merit is to attain a high educational degree. These social norms certainly lead to boys’ disengagement from education in Kuwait.47 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Good practices Despite the evidence on boys’ disengagement from education, there are no government policies or programmes to address this problem at the official level. The top priorities in education policy and planning are improving the quality of education and solving the most pressing problems in the education system in general – in terms of school curricula, teacher skills or school management – without any specific policies or programmes to address the poor academic performance of boys. There is also little research on the difficulties that boys face in school, home and society and how these affect their participation and performance in education. There is therefore a need for a better understanding of the factors affecting boys’ disengagement from education to make policy suggestions based on more robust evidence. At the school level, this study found some interventions being undertaken with support from the Ministry of Education that could have an impact on boys’ participation, progression and learning. None of these, however, are intentional interventions to particularly address the problem of boys’ disadvantage in and disengagement from education in a systematic and structured way. In addition, no formal evaluations are available of these programmes to demonstrate in a robust way their impact. More data is also needed on these and other programmes to support boys to determine their efficacy and long-term impacts. Through the IDIs with principals of boys’ and girls’ schools in Al-Jahra region, it became clear that schools are implementing a set of activities aiming at improving the academic performance of boys and girls and addressing some behavioural and social problems faced by students in schools. These activities can be divided into two types. The first type of activities are formal extracurricular activities implemented by all schools with instructions from the MOE. One example is the ’activity class’ being organized in all of the boys’ and girls’ schools. This is a weekly class within the school schedule, in which students are divided into groups, according to their interests, to practise their favourite hobbies (such as drawing, music, poetry, theatre and so forth). This class lasts for 45 minutes, as part of extracurricular activities. The principals of boys’ and girls’ schools who participated in the study talked about the importance of this weekly activity class in developing students’ artistic, literary and sports talents, strengthening their engagement to the school and enhancing their motivation to learn. The boys at the three study sites expressed their enjoyment of the activity class and demanded an increase in the time allocated for it. However, it was noticed that, in the girls’ school, the time of this class is often used to teach the basic subjects and to complete the courses before the time of tests. In the FGD, girls expressed their anger at seeing the activity class converted into a regular class to teach basic subjects and demanded respect for their right to practise their favourite hobbies at this time. Another example of formal extracurricular activities is the ‘Project of Promoting Values’. This project is being implemented under the supervision of the Department of Activities and Educational Development in MOE. The project aims to promote students' moral values such as honesty, respect for others and persistence, as well as addressing behaviours such as laziness, cheating and bullying. The Ministry distributes a brochure to schools that includes a table of values and behaviours to be addressed throughout the year. Department heads and teachers prepare to implement these values through several means, including morning assembly, seminars, exhibitions and publications. There is also a time allocated at the beginning of each class during which teachers talk to students about value in question. Competitions for students and school administrations are organized on these values, and prizes are distributed to the winners. Principals and teachers have emphasized the importance of this project in addressing some ethical and behavioural problems that have a negative impact on students' academic performance.48 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Another official project that the MOE is implementing to improve the academic performance of students is the ‘learners' care centers’. These centres were opened as a result of Ministerial Resolution No. 480 of 2003 (Ministry of Education, 2003) to provide appropriate care for learners who suffer from poor academic achievement, as well as reducing the phenomenon of private lessons in Kuwait. Within the framework of this project, several schools in each governorate are allocated to open their doors in the evening for students who wish to attend remedial classes in basic subjects such as English, mathematics, science and Arabic. These centres provide their services for both boys and girls in secondary education, and for both low and high performing students. Students pay money for receiving remedial lessons in these centres, but it is less than what is paid in the private lessons that teachers provide at homes. Students receive lessons in small groups of no more than 15 students, over four days a week, for three hours per day. Teaching at these centers is provided by some public school teachers for an additional fee. A female teacher in one of these centres indicated that students are less likely to learn in it, ‘because they prefer to have private lessons at home’. According to the teacher, only about 50 students learn in the three centres in Al-Jahra region, with greater enrolment among girls. As such, they are unlikely play an important role in boys’ learning outcomes in Kuwait. The second type of activities are initiatives that some school administrations implement to address problems at the school level. In the boys' school in the Al-Jahra region, an ‘educational park project’ was implemented. As the following images show, it is a furnished place in the school garden, where teachers can take their students for outdoor lessons among the plants, flowers and fountains while providing students with drinks and snacks. The principal indicated that this project aims to change the monotonous climate of the traditional classroom, enhance boys' engagement with the school, create an attractive school environment for boys, improve their motivation to learn and then improve their academic performance. He stressed the great positive results of this project in enhancing mental health for boys, reducing school absenteeism rates and improving educational outcomes. © Said Ismail Omar According to the principal of the boys' school, cultural and artistic competitions are also organized for boys at the break time, in addition to sports competitions between school classes. The main goal of these activities are to provide an opportunity for boys to practise and develop their artistic and sports talents, releasing their energy through positive activities, reducing stress, and violent and bullying behaviours within the school and creating a positive environment that also reflects positively on their educational results. During the FGD with the boys at school, the boys appreciated49 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait their time spent in the educational park, and the activities offered during the break time, demanding an increase in the time allocated for such activities. Indeed, these activities can be an effective tool in making the school an attractive environment for boys and reducing school violence rates, which may have positive results on boys' learning. The boys' school in the Al-Jahra region also regularly organizes seminars for boys, in which some specialists, university professors and preachers are invited to give lectures on topics such as the dangers of smoking, drug abuse, bullying, school violence and methods of self-improvement. Although boys acknowledged the importance of these seminars and the information presented in them during the FGD, they played down their importance in bringing about significant changes in their behaviours and practices. The boys’ school principal, teachers and students indicated that interactive applications such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Instagram, are extensively used to enhance communication between students and teachers, publish educational materials and provide educational support and assistance to boys when needed. The principal of the girls’ school talked similar artistic activities, sports competitions and educational seminars in her school, in addition to employing modern technologies to enhance girls’ learning. However, accounts by the principal and girls themselves suggest that the focus in the girls’ school is more on educational than recreational activities. Finally, in addition to the formal activities of the MOE and the informal initiatives implemented by school administrations, some civil society organizations organize cultural and sports activities for children and young people to meet their psychological and educational needs and to address the ethical and behavioural problems they face. These activities are offered to children and youth of all age groups and include boys and girls in various regions of Kuwait. Despite the large number of charitable societies that provide these activities, especially religious societies, they focus on the social, cultural and behavioural dimensions, rather than on direct educational aspects. One exception is the Kuwaiti Teachers Association, which has centres to offer remedial lessons for boys and girls at various educational levels. Despite the important role played by these non-governmental organizations in meeting the cultural and social needs of many boys and girls, they do not directly target the educational difficulties faced by boys. Therefore, it can be said that there are still generally no formal Government policies, or non-governmental interventions, particularly targeting boys and their poor participation and achievement compared to girls in Kuwait. All study participants confirmed that there are no such systematic policies or interventions that specifically target boys' education. Moreover, the solutions that they suggested to improve boys' education were very general and did not go beyond the scope of the current reforms implemented by the Government to address the educational problems in Kuwait. More is needed to meet boys’ needs.50 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Conclusion and recommendations The results of the study showed that boys in Kuwait do not face any obstacles that prevent them from enrolling in schools. The gender gap begins to emerge with the first assessment of learning outcomes at the end of primary education and widens thereafter. This qualitative gap in achievement turns into a quantitative one as the participation rates of boys in higher education decrease. With the continued accumulative weakness in achievement, boys face great difficulties in learning, and then leave education by secondary school and join the labour market early. Therefore, it can be said that poor achievement is the beginning of the problem, and it is also the key to the solution. However, the success of the solution depends on precisely identifying the causes of poor achievement. Is the poor achievement of boys a result of poor efficiency of the education system? Or do the roots of this underachievement extend beyond the education system, to the broader society with its economic, social and cultural structures? The main conclusion of the study suggests that the impact of the structural factors related to society exceeds the impact of the factors related to the school and the education system. The unique economic structures of the Kuwaiti society that were formed with the emergence of oil, and the related rentier policies, are the decisive determinant in the formation of the collective mind, social perspectives, individuals' attitudes and patterns of behaviour. There is no doubt that the education system in Kuwait suffers from a significantly low level of efficiency. This inefficiency is not related to the poor quality of inputs, but rather is related to the poor quality of processes and educational outputs. The results of Kuwaiti students in the international assessments of learning outcomes reflect this weakness. However, a closer look at the causes of this weakness also leads to the macro factors associated with the larger economic and social structures. Otherwise, how do we explain the low efficiency of the Kuwaiti education system, despite the huge economic investment in education that exceeds that of many countries around the world? The huge resources pumped into the arteries of education have not succeeded, for example, in convincing Kuwaiti men to work in the teaching profession. The policies of the rentier state have created a type of individual who disdains work, whose main goal is to get their share of the rent in the easiest possible way and sees teaching as a difficult way of earning an income. It is wrong to assume that Kuwaiti boys do not adopt this rentier mentality at an early age. All of these boys have grown up in families where domestic workers make up nearly half of their members. The mindset of these boys is formed on the idea that their role in life is not to work, as long as there are those who work for them. Comfort, luxury and relaxation become the basic lifestyle for them. In such a context, learning and the effort it requires seem strange and unfamiliar within the dominant lifestyle. The inner energy required by the boy to wake up early, go to school, pay attention to his teacher and make an effort in learning is inconsistent with his lifestyle created by the rentier economic structures. Therefore, pumping more money into education will not make a difference as long as boys lack the motivation to learn. Why do I tire myself in learning? Perhaps this is the question that all Kuwaiti boys ask and do not find a convincing answer to it. The answer to this question may also be the key to any educational policy aimed at addressing the problem of poor academic performance of boys in Kuwait. The results of the study showed that Kuwaiti girls have a specific answer to this question, and this is what makes the difference between them and boys in learning outcomes. In a male-dominated society, the girl wants to learn in order to have a better chance to marry and work, secure financial independence, improve her quality of life, and ensure freedom of movement after marriage. Girls are well aware that the rentier mentality that leads to comfort and relaxation is not suitable for them as is the case with boys. As for the girl, her losses due to failure in education will be enormous. So does the girl sit locked in the walls of the house? No, she will do her best in education51 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait to avoid this fate. But for the boy, he may fail in education, but he will not lose much. The doors of marriage, work and earning money will remain wide open for him. As a man, his reputation will not be tarnished much by his failure in education. He can improve his reputation by earning money and benefiting from working in military jobs that secure him a prominent social status. There is another dimension that cautions against jumping to conclusions about why girls outperform boys. All girls learn in separate schools from boys. This means that other factors must be taken into account, the most important being that all girls are educated by female teachers, while all boys in intermediate and secondary education are educated by male teachers. While more research is needed on this subject, some participants in this study suggested that the different gender socialization processes between men and women in conservative societies contributes to greater discipline and accountability among women than men in these contexts. If Kuwaiti girls have their own reasons to do well in education, non-Kuwaiti boys also have their own reasons for diligence and doing well in education. Non-Kuwaitis have no rentier state to rely on without educational qualifications or personal skills. In front of them is a long struggle to prove themselves and achieve social mobility in their societies, which are based more on powerful competition among individuals in the labour market. He who does not possess an educational qualification or personal skills will not get the job he desires, and he may not be able to withstand the harsh living conditions. Furthermore, things become difficult for non-Kuwaiti boys entering the battlefield of social competition at an early age in secondary education. For some of them, getting a grade of 99% in the secondary school certificate is a huge loss. Losing one mark may mean missing out on the dream of joining a specific college and working in a preferred career. Therefore, most of them knuckle down under parental pressure to achieve the educational results that can secure their future in uncertain conditions. It is therefore unsurprising that, in most years, nine of the top ten students in the general secondary school examination in Kuwait are non-Kuwaitis. Boys’ and girls' expectations of their future and how it is shaped by education are among the main factors explaining the gap between boys and girls on the one hand, and between Kuwaitis and non- Kuwaitis on the other. For girls, their future is greatly influenced by the gender norms prevailing in a male-dominated society, and for non-Kuwaiti boys, their future is influenced by the economic structures of a capitalist society that restricts social mobility. In both cases, education is a necessary tools for success. For Kuwaiti girls, it is necessary for their struggle against discriminatory gender norms and, for non-Kuwaiti boys, it is essential in their fight against poverty and their limited opportunities to improve their economic and social conditions. As for Kuwaiti boys, their future is almost guaranteed in all cases, and education does not play an important role in shaping this future. Gender norms are in their favour, and the rentier state does not let them down. Nevertheless, the study has also shown that there are differences between urban and Bedouin regions in terms of the educational and social contexts that form the learning experiences of Kuwaiti boys. The extent to which these differences in educational and social contexts lead to a disparity in educational outcomes between Kuwaiti urban and Bedouin boys is unknown. This requires more evidence-based research. However, the current study has shown that there is a significant difference in the prevalence of violence and smoking, school absenteeism and exam cheating between urban and Bedouin boys at the expense of the Bedouins. It was also found that the conservative social norms of the Bedouin community concerning gender roles work in the interests of girls, not boys, in terms of education. These discriminatory norms motivate girls to do well in education to free themselves from social constraints and take roles outside the home. In addition, the social status of men in the Bedouin community is cemented by taking a military job that does not require education, or by making money that can also be obtained without education. The social status of women, on the other hand, is achieved through educational attainment, which greatly adds to the reputation of themselves and their families in a society that cares a lot about the reputation and honour of women.52 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Policies aimed at addressing the problem of boys' disadvantage and disengagement within education in Kuwait should therefore not only focus on the difficulties faced by boys at school level but should also take into account the economic, social and cultural factors at the macro-level of society. Failed previous attempts at educational reform in Kuwait may have underestimated the impact of the economic and social structures shaping perceptions, practices and options related to education at the individual and institutional levels. Therefore, it is unlikely that any educational intervention will succeed in improving the academic performance of boys amidst the prevailing economic and social structures created by the rentier state policies. Nothing can increase boys' engagement in education more than their internal feelings about the importance of education in shaping their future. This requires changing the rentier policies that underpin the relationship between the state and citizens. This is a political decision, but its consequences for education will be enormous. What is required is for the Kuwaiti citizen to feel that his financial gains in the future depend on the amount of effort he exerts in education and work (rather than just a gift granted to him by the Government). Therefore, the current economic policies that lavish citizens with government subsidies, regardless of their skills and educational attainment, should be reconsidered. In light of the current dichotomy between education and effort on the one hand, and the economic returns that individuals obtain in the labour market, on the other hand, most boys will not be interested in education (regardless of the financial resources allocated to it or the quality of educational policies and programmes). Nevertheless, if the economic policies were changed so that employment opportunities and returns become competitive based on individuals' skills and education, this is likely to change boys' perceptions of the importance of education, increase their motivation to learn and then improve their academic performance. Until these important reforms are undertaken at the broad political and economic level, the MOE can carry out some interventions that particularly address boys' disadvantage in and disengagement from education in Kuwait. The recommendations are for interventions to focus on the following policy priorities: Strengthening discipline and safety procedures in boys' schools This study showed that the violence and bullying are more prevalent in boys' schools than in girls' schools. Further efforts are needed to establish discipline and safety procedures in boys' schools to create a school environment in which all boys feel safe and able to learn. Community participation in the planning and implementation of interventions should include students, parents, the media and civil society organizations. The school administration in boys' schools bears the main responsibility for implementing procedures to enhance discipline and safety in the school environment. However, the programme should include a professional development component to strengthen the capacities of school administrators and the other school team members to deal with violence, bullying and other negative behaviours within schools. The successful planning and implementation of such a programme will reduce the prevalence of behavioural problems in boys' schools, which is one of the main reasons for boys' disadvantage in education in Kuwait. Developing teaching, learning and evaluation methods This study revealed that boys are less connected to school, have less motivation to learn and lack interest in education in general as evidenced by high rates of school absenteeism and repetition and low levels of achievement. Regardless of the significant negative impact of the aforementioned structural factors, teaching, learning and evaluation methods also play a negative role in disengaging boys from school and reducing their motivation to learn. It is necessary to change the current teacher-centered teaching and learning methods to be more student-centered and interactive. Cooperative learning methods, learning through play, project-based learning and other53 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait non-traditional methods of learning can be employed. Such non-traditional methods of teaching and learning may increase boys' motivation to learn and their involvement in the learning process. Learning can be an enjoyable journey if it is based on play, exploration and curiosity. This requires the capacity development of decisionmakers, senior educational staff, curriculum planners, teachers, school administrators and others involved in the teaching and learning process. It also necessitates well-designed educational policies and a strategic vision for the education sector that promotes a transformative educational process. Expanding access to role models in boys’ education In addition to developing teaching and learning methods in general, particular attention should be paid to expanding access to role models in boys' schools. This study showed that individual-level factors responsible for boys' underperformance in education include a low level of ambition, and the spread of laziness and indifference among many of them. This can be addressed through role models and highlighting the real-life stories of successful men in various fields. It is well known that boys, especially in adolescence, search for real examples of role models in life. Therefore, education at this stage needs to provide an opportunity for boys to learn about such successful men, their social contributions and the role of education and hard work in their lives. The main reason for employing role model strategies is to change the Kuwaiti boys' worldview and their attitudes towards education and work, as well as providing them with models of lifestyles other than comfort and affluence. This goal should be one of the top priorities for education in Kuwait. Without this shift in perceptions, values and attitudes, no change can be expected at the level of boys' behaviours and performance in schools. This should not be done through rhetorical phrases and speeches, but rather through practical activities that employ role model strategies. For example, school administrations can organize acting and theatre activities in which boys play the roles of successful personalities and models. It is also possible to organize meetings with successful men from different fields to talk to the boys about their success stories. School administrations can launch field projects involving visits to workplaces such as factories, construction sites and maintenance workshops, as well as organizing group activities in which men of different professions participate. Through such projects, boys have direct contact with the work environment, exercise different professional roles with those who hold these professions and gain positive attitudes towards practical or manual work. Offering vocational guidance for boys at secondary education Thus study revealed that most boys do not have specific ambitions about the career that they wish to pursue in the future. This is one of the reasons that many boys drop out of secondary school and join the labour market early, whether in military or office jobs in the government sector. This may be due to the absence of vocational guidance and counselling programmes in secondary education. Without such programmes, boys lack the basic information and knowledge about the jobs available in the labour market and the educational qualifications required. Therefore, the Ministry of Education can launch an ongoing programme of vocational guidance in secondary education to fill this gap. Among the goals that can be achieved through the vocational guidance programme are to help boys determine their career preferences, introduce them to the names and demands of occupations and help them choose courses and academic specializations that qualify them for these occupations, as well as helping them to make decisions regarding future careers. The success of this programme requires qualified specialists to effectively provide vocational guidance services for secondary-school boys. An effective vocational guidance programme in secondary schools may lead to the development of career aspirations among boys, and thus increase their enrolment rates in higher education.54 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Providing continuous professional development for male teachers and improving their working conditions Among the problems highlighted in the study is the absence of a continuous professional development policy for teachers in Kuwait. Continuous professional development is an essential component of the teaching profession, and a necessary condition for improving the performance of teachers, whatever their nationality. It is difficult to imagine any successful intervention in improving the academic performance of boys without a clear policy for teacher training. Because most boys learn in schools where all teachers are men, professional development programmes for male teachers should include components on how to deal with boys at different ages, teaching and learning methods that are more appropriate for boys and methods of addressing the behavioural problems prevalent in boys' schools. Professional development programmes for teachers should also be accompanied by policies to improve their working conditions and increase their motivation to work. These policies may include reducing the salary gap between expatriate and Kuwaiti teachers, improving the image of the teacher in the media and reducing work pressures for teachers in schools. Increasing parental and community involvement in education Unsupportive parents are one of the factors behind boys’ disengagement from education in Kuwait. This requires taking measures to increase parents' involvement in their children's learning, and increase their interest in following up their educational affairs. These measures may include organizing media awareness campaigns to raise parents' awareness of the importance of their role in children's education, and the forms of support expected of them to help their children learn better. School administrations can activate parents' councils, increase their participation in making educational decisions at the school level, inform them about their children’s behavioural and educational problems and consult with them on the appropriate solutions and the roles expected of them in this regard. They can also expand educational activities and school events in which parents, especially in boys' schools, participate. At the level of the Ministry, the scope for community participation in shaping education policies and taking educational decisions should be expanded. The message that the MOE should communicate clearly to parents is that educating their children is a shared responsibility between the family and the school, and that improving educational outcomes requires an increase in the level of family support and interest in monitoring the academic activities of their children.55 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait References Abdulla, F., and Ridge, N. 2011. 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Nottingham: DfES Publications.60 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Annex 1: Characteristics of the study sites Characteristics Site 1 (Al-Asema) Site 2 (Al-Jahra) Site 3 (Al-Farwaniya) Population Men 334,301 344,605 892,527 Women 273,046 246,109 352,975 Total 607,347 590,714 1,245,502 Population by nationality % of Kuwaitis 45% 34% 19% % of Arabs 23% 35% 33% % of others 42% 31% 48% Schools* Primary 48 43 50 Intermediate 39 35 37 Secondary 31 19 27 Illiterate population Male 8,370 8,217 25,294 Female 8,077 13,780 13,045 Population with university degree Male 24,048 10,474 35,327 Female 32,617 14,151 28,805 Population with post-graduate degree Male 2,341 546 1,413 Female 1,307 124 667 Workers in the government sector Male 40,704 33,943 54,413 Female 37,730 26,832 44,682 Workers in the non- government sector Male 107,207 100,657 606,440 Female 14,435 8,509 40,286 Unemployed Male 3,531 3,873 3,684 Female 3,133 1,946 2,101 Crimes** Adult felonies and misdemeanors 2,934 2,918 4,776 Juvenile felonies and misdemeanors 247 772 635 Data Sources: Public Authority for Civil Information, 2019a. * Central Statistical Bureau, 2018 ** Ministry of Justice data, 201561 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Annex 2: Original plan for data collection See below the original plan for data collection in the three study sites. See Table 2 in the Introduction for more information on the data collection completed through the study. School-level data collection Site Target group Gender Nationality School type Total Male Female Kuwaiti Non- Kuwaiti Public Private 1 FGD with boys (out-of-school) 12 - 12 - 4 8 12 2 FGD with boys 6 - 6 1 6 - 6 FGD with teachers 6 - 1 5 6 - 6 IDI with principal 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 FGD with girls - 10 8 2 10 - 10 FGD with teachers - 9 2 7 9 - 9 IDI with principal - 1 1 - 1 - 1 FGD with parents 3 3 3 3 6 - 6 3 FGD with boys (out-of-school) 9 - - 9 5 4 9 Community-level data collection Position Gender Education Level Nationality University professor Male Professor Kuwaiti University professor Male Professor Kuwaiti Educational researcher Female PhD Non-Kuwaiti Official, MOE Female PhD Kuwaiti Former Undersecretary of the MOE Male Bachelor Kuwaiti Activist in the field of disability Female Bachelor Kuwaiti Employee, Ministry of Interior Male PhD Kuwaiti Employee, Ministry of the Interior Male Secondary Kuwait Employee, Public Authority for Youth and Sports Male PhD Kuwaiti Member, Board of Directors of the Teachers’ Association Male PhD Kuwaiti Employee, Public Authority for Youth and Sports Male Bachelor Kuwait Soldier in the National Guard Male Secondary Kuwait Supervisor in an educational district Female Bachelor Non-Kuwaiti Supervisor in an educational district Male Bachelor Non-Kuwaiti Supervisor in an educational district Female Bachelor Non-Kuwaiti Head of a community-based association Male PhD Kuwaiti Member of a community-based association Male Bachelor Kuwaiti Religious preacher Male Bachelor Non-Kuwaiti62 Leave No Child Behind: A Case Study of Kuwait Stay in touch [email protected] @UNESCO UNESCO UNESCO 7, place de Fontenoy 75362 Paris 07 SP France In the framework of its work gender equality in and through education better understand boys’ disengagement from education, UNESCO commissioned five country case studies to inform the publication “Leave no child behind: Global report on boys’ disengagement from education”. National research teams examined the situation in five countries – Fiji, Kuwait, Lesotho, Peru and the United Arab Emirates. This case study presents the results from Kuwait. Kuwait case study https://en.unesco.org/themes/ education-and-gender-equality Boys’ disengagement from education Leave no child behind

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Title
Leave no child behind: boys’ disengagement from education: Kuwait case study
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61 pages
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ED/E30/IGE/2022/04
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France
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English
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Includes bibliography
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UNESCO
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0000381174