Out-of-School Children and Adolescents in Asia and the Pacific - Left Behind on the Road to Learning Opportunities for All
UNESCO Institute for Statistics: Fact Sheet, Issue 3, September 2015
The ambitious agenda to achieve Education for All by 2015 was deemed “unfinished business” at the World Education Forum in Incheon, Republic of Korea. Governments there expressed their support for the new path outlined in the proposed fourth goal of the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which calls on countries to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all”.
However, the latest UIS data on out-of-school children and adolescents help put into perspective just how challenging it will be to turn that vision into reality unless new approaches are taken to expand learning opportunities. The data show that Asia and the Pacific is home to 29 per cent of the world’s out-of-school primary-age children and 53 per cent of its out-of-school lower secondary-age adolescents and progress toward lowering the number has stalled in the region.
This fact sheet takes a look at the most recent data from UIS on the rates and number of out-of-school children and adolescents since 2000, first globally and then within this region, examining common characteristics these young people share to provide insights into which groups are more likely to find themselves excluded from national education systems. The focus then turns to a closer examination of the obstacles out-of-school children and adolescents face in this regard and introduces educational programmes that can helped them overcome these challenges.
For more information, please download the PDF version from here.
