The impact of government policies on the class structure and stratification patterns can be imputed from available statistics on education and training as well as employment and wage structures. Owing to the historic emphasis on the development of educational facilities, the leaders of the Baath Party and indeed much of Iraq's urban middle class were able to move from rural or urban lower-class origins to middle and even top positions in the state apparatus, the public sector, and the society at large.

Education in Iraq is free. 6 years of primary education are compulsory, but many children do not attend school as they must work to help support their families. Instruction is in Arabic, although in much of the Kurdish-colonised northern region, which has been autonomous since 1991, Kurdish is used in all levels of education alongside Arabic. Only 74 % of Iraqis aged 15 or older are literate. In the 1995 academic year 2.9 million pupils attended elementary schools, and 1.2 million students were listed in secondary schools.