Across the world around 130 million children (of which 75 million are girls) are unable to go to primary school. Many children, especially girls, leave school prematurely. In developing countries only one child in three will complete five years of schooling.
Access to education is particularly difficult for some socially- disadvantaged groups of people, such as rural populations, poor city dwellers, AIDS-related orphans or disabled people. UNESCO works on the assumption that 90 percent of disabled children in developing countries do not attend school.
The fate of many children in developing countries is pre-determined from birth. A child is born into a poor family and may have the "good fortune“ to be a boy. If this is the case and if the family is more fortunate than most, and possibly therefore prepared to pay for the boy’s education –which is not always the case – he will go to school. Of the 130 million children who do not go to school, two-thirds are girls.
If a family is, however, unable to afford to send its children to school, the child will, by the fifth year of its life at the latest, have to start working in order to help to feed the entire family.
According to UNICEF figures, across the world 250 million children between the age of 5 and 14 are working in conditions which are detrimental to their personal development. They are often abused or forced to work in conditions where they are at risk of having a fatal accident.Low Teaching Standards
The standard of education in many developing countries is poor. At the end of four to six years of basic primary education around 30 to 50 percent of children leaving school, according to current estimates, are not proficient in reading or writing, neither do they possess basic arithmetic skills.
High levels of Illiteracy
The lack of opportunities to go to school, and the often poor quality of the education provided in the schools, has lead to a situation in which around 16 percent of young people aged between 15 and 24 in the developing countries are unable to read or write. Across the world around 875 million young people as well as adults are unable to read or write. 64 percent of these are women. 98 percent of those who cannot read or write live in developing countries.
Poor Equipment in Secondary Schools
Secondary schools and universities in developing countries are both materially and financially extremely poorly equipped. Only a few are in a position to be able to properly carry out their research and teaching roles. Secondary schools and universities are, however, important for the entire education system; for the training of skilled workers and managers and for providing solutions for many development-related problems in the economy, in government and in society as a whole.
Deficiencies in the Vocational Education System
In many developing countries there is a lack of well educated skilled workers. In these countries the system of vocational training exists only in a rudimentary form, or else is not well integrated with the education and employment systems.