SUPPORT THE CHILDREN
On any given school day, over 1 billion children around the world head to class.
More children and adolescents today are enrolled in pre-primary, primary and secondary education than ever before. Yet, for many of them, schooling does not lead to learning.
The consequences are grave: An estimated 617 million children and adolescents around the world are unable to reach minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics – even though two thirds of them are in school.
What’s more, roughly one in five school-aged children are not in school at all.
Children and adolescents are excluded from education for many reasons. Poverty remains one of the most obstinate barriers, with children from the poorest households almost five times more likely to be out of primary school than those from the richest.
For girls in some parts of the world, education opportunities can be especially limited. Only 66 per cent of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. Harmful gender norms can have severe effects for boys, too.
Location also keeps children from school. Children from rural areas are more than twice as likely to be out of primary school than their urban peers. In conflict zones, 27 million children are out of school.
Without skills for lifelong learning, children face greater barriers to earning potential and employment later in life. They are more likely to suffer adverse health outcomes and less likely to participate in the decisions that affect them – threatening their ability to build a better future for themselves and their communities.
Out of 100 students, 29 per cent of girls and boys drop out of school before completing the full cycle of elementary education, and often they are the most marginalized children.
Out of the six million children that are still out of school a majority are from marginalised communities including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and religious minority groups
Some 29 per cent of girls and boys drop out of school before completing the full cycle of elementary education. The numbers become contentious and alarming when one includes post elementary and high school
