The challenge

Universal education will speed progress toward all development goals

Almost all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are interdependent, but achieving two of them - universal education, and gender equality and empowering women - is vital to meeting all others.

Educating children helps reduce poverty. It is education that will provide the next generation with the tools to fight poverty and conquer disease. School also offers children a safe environment, with support, supervision and socialization. Here they learn life skills that can help them prevent diseases, like how to avoid HIV/AIDS and malaria. They may receive life-saving vaccines, fresh water and nutrient supplementation at school.

Educating a girl dramatically reduces the chance her child will die before age five, and improves her chances of being able to support herself and have a say in her own welfare and in society.

This Goal is also inextricably linked to MDG 3 – gender parity – as universal primary education, by definition, requires gender parity.

Many countries are close to universal coverage

Universal education might seem a relatively straightforward goal, but it has proven as difficult as any to achieve. Decades after commitments and reaffirmations of those commitments have been made to ensure a quality education for every child, some 93 million children are still denied this right.

            93 MILLION CHILDREN OF PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE ARE OUT OF SCHOOL
            Number of primary-school-age children not in school, by region (2006)

    
Source: UNICEF global databases, 2007; and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Global Education Digest 2007

However, attendance data based on household surveys show that the number of children of primary school age who are out of school has declined markedly in recent years, from 115 million in 2002 to 93 million in 2005–2006. This is substantial progress, and many countries are close to delivering universal primary education. 

Yet, in some countries and regions the task remains enormous, for example in sub-Saharan Africa, where 41 million primary-school-age children are out of school, and in South Asia, where 32 million remain out of school.

Countries and Territories	Primary school net enrolment ratio (%), 2000-2006*		Primary school net attendance ratio (%), 2000-2006*
	Male	Female	Male	Female
Sub-Saharan Africa	75	70	64	60
Eastern and Southern Africa	83	81	66	67
West and Central Africa	68	59	62	55
Middle East and North Africa	86	81	89	86
South Asia	90	83	81	79
East Asia and Pacific	98	97	91	92
Latin America and Caribbean	95	94	90	91
Central and Eastern Europe, CIS	91	89	93	91
Industrialized countries§	95	96	-	-
Developing countries§	90	86	80	78
Least developed countries§	80	75	65	63
World	91	87	80	78
§ Also includes territories within each country category or regional group. e - Excludes China. Source: The State of the World's Children 2008, UNICEF.

Countries and Territories	Secondary school net enrolment ratio (%), 2000-2006*		Secondary school net attendance ratio (%), 2000-2006*
	Male	Female	Male	Female
Sub-Saharan Africa	30	25	25	22
Eastern and Southern Africa	35	30	20	19
West and Central Africa	26	20	30	25
Middle East and North Africa	67	62	54	52
South Asia	-	-	55	50
East Asia and Pacific	61e	62e	60e	63e
Latin America and Caribbean	67	71	-	-
Central and Eastern Europe, CIS	80	75	80	78
Industrialized countries§	92	93	-	-
Developing countries§	52e	50e	50e	46e
Least developed countries§	33	28	26	24
World	59e	58e	50e	47e
§ Also includes territories within each country category or regional group. e - Excludes China. Source: The State of the World's Children 2008, UNICEF.

Many education systems are inefficient

One in six children of secondary school age attends primary school because they started school late or had to repeat grades. These children are effectively occupying places that could accommodate children of primary school age currently out of school.

MORE THAN 85 PER CENT OF PRIMARY-SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN ATTEND SCHOOL
Primary school net enrolment/attendance ratio, by region (2000–2006)

17 PER CENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN ATTEND PRIMARY SCHOOL
Primary school net enrolment/attendance ratio of secondary-school-age children, by region (2000–2006)



Source: UNICEF global databases, 2007; and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Global Education Digest 2007

Reaching end goals will require extra effort

For countries nearing universal primary education, reaching the last few per cent of children out of school may be a particular challenge, requiring different strategies as well as concerted effort and investment.

IN MORE THAN 60 DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, AT LEAST 90 PER CENT OF PRIMARY-SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN ARE IN SCHOOL
Primary school net enrolment/attendance ratio (2000–2006)



Source: UNICEF global databases, 2007; and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Global Education Digest 2007

References

UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Children Out of School: Measuring Exclusion from Primary Education, 2005.

UNICEF, Progress for Children, 2007.