How close are we to universal primary education?

This is part of a series on the Millennium Development Goals. In the run-up to a UN summit in New York on 25 September, we look at how the world has changed over the past quarter of a century through the prism of the original development goals, the first of which was to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Education is widely regarded as crucial to economic development. One of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by world leaders in 2000 was to achieve universal primary education by 2015. We haven’t quite got there. But great strides have been taken.

A UN summit in New York on 25 September will review progress and agree new development goals. In the run-up to the summit, the World Economic Forum is looking at how the world has changed over the past quarter of a century through the prism of the original development goals.

So, when it comes to giving children a basic education, just how well has the world done?

The number of children of primary age not going to school has nearly halved from 100 million in 2000 to 57 million in 2015, with the biggest change coming from southern Asia. A fall of 73% to 9.1 million reflects the huge changes in India and China over the past 15 years.

Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a reduction of 25% to 32.8 million – a welcome drop but one that means the region now accounts for well over half the global total of the unschooled. However, the region shines through when looking at enrolment rates in primary schools. Since 2000, the proportion of primary-age African children attending school has jumped from 60% to 80% – by far the sharpest change of any region and helping the global enrolment rate to rise from 83% to 91%.

And there’s more good news from the data on literacy – 91% of youth aged between 15 and 24 are expected to be able to read and write by the end of this year, compared with just 83% in 1990.

However, behind the headlines lies a series of major educational challenges for global leaders at the UN summit. Children in poor households are four times as likely to miss out on school as children in the richest households. Rural areas have twice the incidence of non-attendance as urban areas. And while there’s evidence the gender gap is narrowing, girls are less likely to attend school and to be literate than boys.

Have you read?
How much has global poverty fallen?
What are the sustainable development goals?
Which countries come top for education?

Author: Mark Jones, Commissioning Editor, the World Economic Forum Agenda

Image: Lynette Akinyi, a school teacher, leads a class at the Senator Obama primary school in the village of Kogelo, west of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, July 16, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya