KUWAIT: Recent statistics by the GCC statistical center (GCC Stat) showed 7.3 percent of the workforce in Kuwait is illiterate, which is the highest amongst GCC states, followed by Bahrain with 4.1 percent. Kuwait also has 23.3 percent of the workforce with only primary school education, which is the highest in the GCC, 12.7 percent with secondary school certificates and 4.7 percent with two-year post-secondary education.

In addition, 31.4 percent of the total manpower working in Kuwait, including citizens and expats, hold no higher than middle school certificates, which makes Kuwait second among GCC states after Oman in the number of middle school certificate holders and second after Saudi Arabia in terms of the percentage of holders of bachelor's degrees (15.9 percent of the total manpower).

The stats also showed 41.2 percent of unemployed Kuwaitis hold university degrees, while the majority (75 percent) of the workforce, namely expats, hold lower degrees. Furthermore, statistics showed that 2.7 percent of Kuwaitis hold PhD or master's degrees, 40.8 percent hold university degrees, 20.9 percent hold two-year post-secondary education certificates, 20 percent hold secondary school certificates and 13.4 percent hold middle school certificates.

By A Saleh