Millennium Development Goal 2: achieve universal primary education
Target
Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
Quick facts
- Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 89 per cent in 2008, up from 83 per cent in 2000.
- The current pace of progress is insufficient to meet the target by 2015.
- About 69 million school-age children are not in school. Almost half of them (31 million) are in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than a quarter (18 million) are in Southern Asia.
Where do we stand?
Despite great strides in many countries, the target is unlikely to be met. Enrolment in primary education has continued to rise, reaching 89 per cent in the developing world in 2008. Between 1999 and 2008, enrolment increased by 18 percentage points in sub-Saharan Africa, and by 11 and eight percentage points in Southern Asia and Northern Africa, respectively.
But the pace of progress is i...
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