While countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have scaled up education and enrollment rates in schools keep rising, education inequality between the poor and the rich has not been reduced in over a decade, according to a new study.

Presenting his results at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, a professor of economics at Virginia Tech and a research fellow at the Brookings Institute, examined education inequality in 16 Arab countries.

Salehi-Isfahani found there was equality in actual access to schools, however, there was obvious inequality in the quality of schooling available to children from rich families compared to those from poorer families. He quoted Ragui Assaad, professor of planning and public affairs at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, on his research in Egypt where “[the] most privileged boy has a 97% probability of pursuing higher education compared to only a 9% probability for the most deprived boy.”

Over the past few years, private expensive schools have increased in many of Egypt’s affluent neighborhoods, which offer high quality premium education at prices unaffordable to most Egyptians. This creates a disparity, with children from richer families getting better work and life opportunities based on their higher quality education.

The quality of research in the MENA was also below the global averages. In studies such as TIMSS (Trends in International Math and Science Study), which  compare international students’ aptitude in math and science to that of students in the United States, the students scored below world averages.

Salehi-Isfahani argued that a large amount of the benefits of education remained incalculable. “A lot of it cannot be measured, such as making better citizens, making better parents.”

He added that governments needed to start improving education and giving all children – whether wealthy or impoverished – the quality education they deserve as citizens.