ARE THE MUSLIM COUNTRIES DOING ENOUGH TO PREPARE THE NEW GENERATION FOR TOMORROW?

Muslim countries home significant world population and are rich in natural as well as human resources. In this study an attempt has been made to see what the Muslim countries are doing for the development of brain capital through the promotion of education. To find out the answer to this question twenty four Muslim countries with the largest population have been included in this study. These countries represent 81% (1.22 Billion) of the Muslim population living in the Islamic countries. Four non-Muslim countries, UK, France, South Korea and Israel, have also been included in this study in order to make comparisons. To assess and evaluate condition of education in these 28 countries primary data was collected from UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Association of Universities. The results show that there is an under-investment in education at all levels, in all the Muslim countries; in many countries education systems are outdated; education is faced with lower participation ratio and quality of the higher education is questionable. In a nutshell Islamic countries are not well prepared for tomorrow and there is urgent need to make education the first priority with a focus on human capital formation and brain capital development.