Some 244 million children are still out of school worldwide. This figure, although in constant decline for more than twenty years, remains worrying, said Unesco on Thursday.
“No one can accept this situation. Education is a right and we must do everything to ensure that this right is respected for every child,” UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.
Of the 244 million children aged 6 to 18 out of school, more than 40%, or 98 million of them, live in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Nigeria (20.2 million), Ethiopia (10.5) , in the Democratic Republic of Congo (5.9) or in Kenya (1.8), according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The gender gap is narrowing
While more girls were out of school than boys in 2000 (+2.5% in primary, +3.9% in high school), the gender gap was “reduced to zero”, notes Unesco, even if “regional disparities persist”.
More than 400 million children did not go to school in 2000, according to the international institution which hails the “progress” in this area over the past two decades, even if their pace “has slowed down substantially these last years”.
afp/ebz