Obstacle: Resources
Women’s access to quality education is also affected by a lack of resources. Resources refer to anything, including money, technology, governmental protection, endorsement, or subsidization, that makes education better, more affordable, or easier to access. Some schools could reasonably take on more female teachers if they could afford to pay them, and some girls could reasonably go to school or stay in school if they could afford it. In this way, lack of resources affect both sides of the education equation. Many schools also lack technology, or adequate technology, which can be a barrier itself to a quality or useful education.
Finally, education for women in the Middle East as an issue lacks a primary resource: priority status to the governments of Middle Eastern states. Because women’s education is not a priority, government education funds are more likely to be allocated to the (primarily male) tertiary education sector rather than lower levels, like in Tunisia. On top of that, total government resources are limited in much of the Middle East, excluding oil-rich states. Because of this, even the total amount of funds allocated to subsidizing any level of education can be meager.
