Ei-iE

A new report by UNESCO and UNICEF reveals that ‘business as usual’ in education policies is the main obstacle in the way of realising universal primary and secondary education, especially when it comes to teenagers.

Around 63 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15 are denied their right to an education, according to a new joint report from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and UNICEF, Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All – Findings from the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children.

This figure is strikingly similar to the number of out-of-school primary-age children (58 million) even though there are half as many lower secondary-age children worldwide. This means that 12-to-15-year-olds are almost twice as likely to be out of school as their younger counterparts (17 percent compared to nine percent). The extensive report shows that as children get older the risk that they will never start school or eventually drop out entirely increases.

Globally one in five adolescents is excluded from the classroom

In total, 121 million children and adolescents have never started school or dropped out despite the international community’s promise to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Data show that there has been almost no progress in reducing this number since 2007. Children living in conflict, child labourers and those facing discrimination based on ethnicity, gender and disability are the most marginalised. There is also a growing concern that previous gains in expanding access to education will erode without a major shift in policies and resources.

As pressure mounts to include universal secondary education in the post-2015 global development agenda, the report presents the way forward to break the barriers, often related to poverty, that keep children out of school. Key findings are presented in an interactive data tool illustrating why millions of children are being left behind. In Nigeria, for example, the data tools show that two-thirds of children in the poorest households are not in school, and almost 90 percent of them will probably never enrol. In contrast, only five percent of the richest children are out of school and most of them are expected to start in the future.

The report calls for action to invest in better data and demonstrates that reaching the most marginalised may cost more, but that better statistics and innovative tools can help governments and donors to spend their education budgets more wisely.

To learn more:

·  The report is available h ere and the executive summary here

·   We recommend you have a look at the data exploration tool tobetter understand which children are out of school and why

·   The eAtlas of Out-of-School Children presents a range of interactive maps and charts for countries around the world.

· Here you can find a short video on the global numbers of excluded children