Asia has the most kids out of school, UNESCO says

Asia has the most kids out of school, UNESCO says

Agence France-Presse, Paris

Asia accounts for the biggest number of children in the world not
receiving a school education, despite steady increases in
enrollment in the 1990s, according to a statistical report
released by UNESCO on Tuesday.

The report, based on official 2000 and 2001 education figures
for 22 countries in South and East Asia including Indonesia, said
that "an estimated 46 million primary school-age children are out
of school, and more girls (28 million) than boys (18 million) are
excluded from primary education."

With an estimated 104 million children out of school, Asia
accounted for 45 percent of the worldwide total, just ahead of
sub-Saharan Africa, where 42 percent of children are not
enrolled, the report said.

The South and East Asia region studied stretches from China to
East Timor, and from Iran to the Philippines. The zone is home to
3.24 billion people, or more than half the world's total,
including more than a billion each in China and India.

Although school enrollments rose "substantially" between 1990
and 2000, the statistics showed that several countries had a high
number of primary school dropouts.

"In India, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Myanmar,
only half the children who enter primary school will reach grade
five, indicating a dropout rate of 53 percent, 47 percent and 45
percent respectively," with Nepal, Cambodia and Bangladesh close
behind, the report said.

As schooling progresses, the gender gap widens, the reports'
authors found. Often negligible at primary level, the disparity
in Asia between the number of male versus female students reached
61 percent to 39 percent at university.

"East Asian countries accounted for approximately two-thirds
of total enrollment, in large measure due to China, where the
total tertiary enrollment exceeds that of all the countries of
South and West Asia combined (12.1 and 11.3 million students,
respectively)," the report noted.