57 Million Children Not in School

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An article in The Times of India titled, “Unesco study: Number of out of school children stagnate; aid to basic education falls by six percent” by Manash Pratim Gohain, describes the current funding problems in basic education. UNESCO just released a study showing that 57 million children were not enrolled in school in 2011. In addition to this statistic, a report found that basic education funding declined by 6% overall between 2010 and 2011.

A country exemplifying the linkage between basic education funding and school enrollment rates is India. “India receives the largest share of aid to basic education of any country in the world (10%),” says Gohain. Between 2000 and 2006, India reduced out of school numbers from 20 million to 2.3 million. Gohain also found that “Children from poor households are three times more likely to be out of school than children from rich households. ”In sub-Saharan Africa, where aid to education decreased by 8%, more than one out of every three children dropped out of primary school.

Besides the challenge of getting children to start school is the issue of whether they learn once in the classroom. Increased funding means that more qualified teachers can be hired and safer learning environments can be built. “Donors must renew their commitments so that no child is left out of school due to lack of resources,” says Unesco’s director-general, Irina Bokova. Funding for basic education is vital because uneducated children become uneducated adults, leading to future societal and economic problems. 


Read the full article here: http://bit.ly/14XdRGC

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