MDG 2 - Achieve Universal Primary Education - CIDA

Target

• Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

MDG 2―Achieve Universal Primary Education
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Overview

Basic education has a direct and proven impact on poverty reduction and sustainable development. Globally, primary school enrolment and completion rates are showing significant improvement:

• Primary school enrolment has increased by 25 million children between 1999 and 2005
• More girls are attending school than ever before
• Gender parity in primary schools has been achieved in two thirds of all countries

Despite this progress, important challenges remain. While enrolment in primary education has continued to rise, reaching 89 percent in the developing world, up from 83 percent in 2000, global numbers of out-of-school children are dropping too slowly and too unevenly for the target to be reached by 2015. There are also huge disparities between regions. In sub-Saharan Africa, even if the enrolment increased by 18 percentage points―from 58 percent to 76 percent―between 1999 and 2008, it is estimated that 45 percent of children remained out-of-school.

Persistent gaps and challenges that need to be addressed include girls' exclusion, reaching the most marginalized, and ensuring quality education in fragile states, which account for almost half of all out-of-school children. The gender gap in the out-of-school population has also narrowed: the share of girls in this group decreased from 57 percent to 53 percent globally between 1999 and 2008. Again, progress is uneven: 28 countries still have a gender parity index of less than 0.97. Of these countries, 18 are in sub-Saharan Africa.


MDG 2 - Achieve Universal Primary Education - CIDA