Education in Lebanon is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE). In Lebanon, English or French with Arabic are taught from early years in schools. English or French are the mandatory medium of instruction for mathematics and science for all schools. Education is compulsory from age 6 to age 14.
According to a 2013 World Economic Forum report, Lebanon is ranked 10th in overall quality of education, and 4th in science and math. However, these rankings are based on the Executive Opinion Survey, in which business leaders of each country give their opinion on the educational system int their own country. This survey is carried out as part of the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report. According to Muhammad Faour, a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, "this assessment is a significant departure from the results of student achievement tests in every international test Lebanon and Qatar have participated in."
On the biggest ever global school rankings, conducted by the OECD's economic think tank and compiled from an amalgamation of international assessments, including the OECD's Pisa tests, the TIMSS tests run by US-based academics and TERCE tests in Latin America, Lebanon ranked 58th globally in maths and sciences. In the international student achievement tests in math and sciences (TIMSS) in 2007 and 2011 for grade 8, Lebanese students scored well below the international average of 500. In math, Lebanon scored 449 in both 2007 and 2011.
Lebanon's adult literacy rate is 89.6% in 2014, according to the UN Human Development Index, ranking it 65th globally. Amongst MENA countries it lags behind Israel, Qatar (96.3%), Bahrain (94.6%), Kuwait(93.9%), United Arab Emirates (90.0%), and above Libya (89.5%), Saudi Arabia (87.2%), and Oman (86.9%).
The percentage of the population as a whole with at least some secondary education (aged 25 and above) is 54.2%. For the percentage of the female population with at least some secondary education, the figure drops to 38.8%.