Universal education goals still far off

There are now less than 700 days to go for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 to expire in December 2015. But some 57mn children in the world still do not go to school, 500mn girls will never finish the secondary education and 750mn adults still remain illiterate.

“Putting education first is urgent in view of the scale of wasted talent and potential worldwide,” says Gordon Brown, former UK prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer, who is now UN special envoy for global education.

According to latest figures, only 3% of young adults in Mali and Mozambique are projected to have a tertiary education in 2050; the figure is just 4% in Niger, Liberia, Rwanda, and Chad, and only 5% in Malawi and Madagascar. While the projection for North America as a whole is 60%, the forecast for Sub-Saharan Africa is 16%.

There is a crucial link between education and economic success. By 2020, a shortfall of up to 40mn high-skill workers as well as a surplus of up to 95mn low-skill workers will weigh on global growth, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. By 2030, the global workforce of 3.5bn will include an estimated 1bn without secondary education.

The impact? Countries will end up with low-quality human capital, while businesses will face a huge skills shortage, especially in emerging markets and developing countries. “Unless we act, by mid-century the global economy will be characterised by massive waste of talent and unequal opportunities,” says Brown.

Ensuring displaced children in conflict zones get access to quality education should also be made an undisputed part of universal primary education. Some 3mn Syrian children have now been displaced. An estimated 1mn Afghan children are languishing in camps along the border with Pakistan. While, thousands of children in South Sudan are waiting their first chance to go to school, there are none for 1mn more children in the war-torn Central African Republic.

There is also the pressing need to put girls’ education at the core of the post-2015 development agenda. Unesco estimates that improvements in girls’ education from 1990 to 2009 have saved the lives of 2.1mn children under the age of five. Enabling girls to be as economically active as boys would boost annual GDP growth in India by 4.4 percentage points, and by 3.5 percentage points in Nigeria, according to a World Bank study.

Despite efforts to ensure that universal education is an achievable goal, official development assistance for education in low-income countries dwindled by 10% from 2010 to 2011 with 5% drop for basic education. Among the 11 major bilateral donors, the Netherlands led the way, slashing its aid by 36%, followed by Spain (31%), Japan (30%), France (25%) and Canada (21%). The US lowered its budget by 13% and Norway by 4%.

Unesco considers education a fundamental human right essential for the exercise of all other human rights. Imagine a world in which every girl and boy has an opportunity to receive a quality education to lift themselves out of poverty and participate fully as citizens.

As we look towards 2015 and beyond, perhaps a Malala Yousafzai in every low-income country can make that mission a bit easier.