News

One in five adolescents is not in school globally

Government policy
Sixty-three million adolescents around the world are being denied their right to an education. A joint report by two United Nations agencies has found that one in five children between the ages of 12 and 15 is not in school, compared to one in 10 children

The study by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and children’s agency UNICEF was released at the Education World Forum in London earlier this month.

It showed that not only are adolescents twice as likely to be out of school as their younger counterparts, but as children get older the risk that they will never start school or will drop-out increases.

Despite the international community’s promise to achieve education for all by 2015, a total of 121 million children and adolescents have never attended school or have dropped out. Children living in conflict, working as child labourers or facing discrimination based on ethnicity, gender and disability are the most affected.

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