New data show stalled progress in getting all children into school

Worldwide, 61 million children are still missing out on a primary education, according to new 2010 figures released in June by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics.

This represents signficant progress since 2000, when more than 100 million children of primary school age were out of school. Yet the figures also indicate that progress has stalled in recent years. At first glance, 61 million seems an improvement on previously-published figures of 67 million children out of school: but this apparent gain in fact reflects updated population estimates, which go back a few years. The updated numbers show that the 61 million level was reached in 2008, and that there has been almost no progress since then. On the contrary, the number of children out of school in Sub-Saharan Africa increased – from 29 million to 31 million – in that period.

The numbers also show persistent inequalities: girls are more likely to be out of school than boys; rural children are twice as likely to be out of school as urban children; and children from the poorest fifth of households are four times more likely to be out of school than children from the richest fifth.

The full statement can be downloaded here.