something about education

Days ago, i talked to some friends who come from oman, we got a very interesting topic. They told me, from kingdergaten to university, the fees of education is totally free. In college, not only tuition and other fees are free, but also the living cost and accommodation are provided too. Medical care is also free for citizen. i was so surprised for this information. In my mind, only some countries in Europe provide that kind of welfare, even united state just offer a twelve-year free compulsory education, which means the government pay for the cost from primary school to high school. In china, they offer only a nine- year free compulsory education, but only free for the tuition, other fees and living cost are not inclueded. As i know, in the southest Asia, at leat in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and so on, education welfare is similar. I'm so surprised how come oman could do this? So i try to fine some answers or information from internet. Oman is a really small country, and its economy depands on the oil exportation. GDP per capita from data of 2009 is 25,109 dollars per person, so their economy is ok.
Education is a superstucture, while it is mostly based on the country's economic basis. To develop education has to develop economy, that's something i learned from my study. Israel is one of the countries that i most respect, this country's resources is extremely poor, but its economy is able to be one of the best in the world. You don't need to check from a book to see how good or how complite the education system they have, you just check how many Nobel Prize they got so far. Because of the excellent technology, they develop their country so fast. That's a good example to show us how important the education are.
Nowadays, their are many developed countries and middle- countries, but how many of them can pay enough attention to education? And how could those developing countries deal with education development from developing economy? For me, that's too difficult and not a personal question that can be solved. But we should think about it, don't we?