Those
living in north-eastern Africa are the least likely to receive a good
education – or any education at all, an umbrella body of charities and
teaching unions known as the
Global Campaign for Education has found.
It
ranks the world's poorest countries according to their education
systems. Somalia has the least functional system in the world with just
10% of children going to primary school, while Eritrea is second worst.
Haiti,
Comoros and Ethiopia fare almost as badly. Before Haiti's earthquake
this year, just 50% of children went to primary school. Now that figure
is said to have fallen. Some 2.5 million children were left without a
school to go to after the earthquake.
The report's authors, from
charities including Plan and ActionAid, measured the likelihood of
children attending primary school, a country's political will to improve
its education system, and the quality of its
schools to create the rankings.
The
study – Back to School? The Worst Places in the World – warns that
attempts to ensure all children can attend school are under severe
threat. By 2015, there will be more children out of school than there
are today, unless the richest countries dramatically increase the aid
they give to the poorest nations, the authors argue.
"Poor
countries are on a worsening trajectory, as severe and deepening
pressure from the economic downturn caused by the crisis of the rich
world's banking system bites on their budgets," David Archer, one of the
authors from ActionAid says. Some £2.9bn is expected to be lost to
education budgets in sub-Saharan Africa because of the economic crisis,
he warns.
Kenya, which is rated in the 50 worst countries for
education, delayed plans to provide a free primary school education to
8.3 million children in September. The global economic crisis was one
reason given for this.
Girls are far less likely to attend school
than boys in many of the world's poorest countries, the authors have
found. In Malawi, of those that enrol, 22.3% of boys complete primary
compared to 13.8% of girls. In rural Burkina Faso, 61% of girls are
married by the age of 18 and over 85% never get to see the inside of a
secondary school.
Most rich countries have failed to keep their
promises to help poor countries improve their education systems,
according to the study. While the UK fares relatively well, along with
the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland and Ireland, others – such as
Greece, Austria, Italy and Germany – are not giving nearly as much as
they should.
The report argues that the International Monetary
Fund "severely restricts" poor countries' chances of investing in
education, while the World Bank has overseen a "dramatic withdrawal of
education funds from low-income countries, especially in Africa".
