WUNRN
Global Education Digest 2011 - UNESCO
Focus
on Secondary Education
“The inequalities
signalled in this Report, especially in relation to girls’ exclusion from
secondary education in many countries, have enormous implications for the
achievement of all the internationally agreed development goals, from child and
maternal health and HIV prevention to environmental security.” UNESCO
Director-General
Download the 2011 Global
Education Digest - 310 Pages
Two out of three children in
Governments are struggling to
meet the rising demand for secondary education, especially in sub-Saharan
Globally, secondary schools
have been accommodating almost one hundred million more students each decade,
with the total number growing by 60% between 1990 and 2009. But the supply is
dwarfed by demand as more countries approach universal primary education.
In 2009, 88% of children
enrolled in primary school reached the last grade of this level of education,
compared to 81%. Yet, in 20 countries -- mostly in sub-Saharan
The path to prosperity
“There can be no escape from
poverty without a vast expansion of secondary education. This is a minimum
entitlement for equipping youth with the knowledge and skills they need to
secure decent livelihoods in today’s globalized world. It is going to take
ambition and commitment to meet this challenge. But it is the only path
towards prosperity,” said UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova.
“An educated population is a
country’s greatest wealth,” she added. “The inequalities signalled in this
Report, especially in relation to girls’ exclusion from secondary education in
many countries, have enormous implications for the achievement of all the
internationally agreed development goals, from child and maternal health and
HIV prevention to environmental security.”
In terms of enrolment,
sub-Saharan
Girls face barriers in all
regions
Sub-Saharan
Translate commitment into
reality
“All of these data underscore
a central message: secondary education is the next great challenge,” stated
Hendrik van der Pol, director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
“According to the Digest, about one-third of the world’s children live in
countries where lower secondary education is formally considered to be
compulsory but the laws are not respected, he added. “We need to translate the
commitment into reality.”
Key indicators on secondary
education by region