Out-of-school Children  UNICEF/UIS global initiative to reduce the number of children out of school

 

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/out-of-school-children.aspx

Data show that progress on reducing the number of children out-of-school has stalled. As of 2012, 58 million children of primary school age and another 63 million children of lower secondary school age were still out of school. There are also indications that progress towards universal primary education is slowing and that the goal will not be met by 2015 if current trends continue.

 What is the role of the UIS and UNICEF in reducing the number of children out of school?

 The UNICEF/UIS Global Initiative on Out-of-school Children is designed to accelerate efforts towards the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Policies and programmes to address the problem of exclusion from education and reduce inequalities remain inadequate in many countries. Moreover, there has been no systematic analysis to identify the bottlenecks on the path to universal primary education and explain why well-intentioned policies are not yielding robust results.

 Underlying the policy gap is a data gap arising from the lack of adequate tools and methodologies to identify out-of-school children, monitor progress towards universal primary education, measure the scope of and assess the reasons for exclusion, and inform policy and planning. Above all, greater consensus is needed on estimates of the number children out of school. This requires improving the quality and consistency of data collected through administrative records and household surveys

Literacy among youth is rising, but young women lag behind

Literacy rates among youth (aged 15 to 24) and adults are the test of an educational system, and the overall trend is positive, thanks to the expansion of educational opportunities. Globally, the youth literacy rate increased from 83 per cent to 89 per cent over two decades, while the number of illiterate youth declined from 168 million to 123 million. Regional and gender disparities persist, however. Literacy is lowest in least developed countries and higher among males than females. In the most recent years for which data are available, young women accounted for 61 per cent of the total illiterate youth population.

 

About 60 per cent of the countries and areas for which data are available have eradicated or nearly eradicated illiteracy among youth.  In several countries in West and Central Africa, however, youth literacy rates remain less than 50 per cent. These are countries that have struggled to increase school enrolment at both primary and secondary levels. However, even when universal primary education is within reach, some countries, such as Malawi and Zambia, show low youth literacy rates. This suggests that enrolment as well as retention in school is important, as is the quality of education.  

Literacy rates among youth are lowest in West and Central Africa and in South Asia

Youth literacy rate (percentage)

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics global databases, 2013, based on survey data for the most recent year available during the period 2005–2011. 

GENDER EQUALITYIn about two thirds of countries, literacy among youth is about the same for young men and women. In many countries, however, particularly in West and Central Africa and South Asia, illiterate women far outnumber their male counterparts.  The gender parity index stands at 0.77 and 0.85 for West and Central Africa and South Asia, respectively.  In Niger, the gender parity index is 0.44, meaning that there are 44 literate women for every 100 literate men. 

- See more at: http://data.unicef.org/education/literacy#sthash.BVcAoePc.dpuf