Poor Education for the Poor

A new study has revealed that one out of three adolescent girls from the poorest households around the world has never been to school.

"Countries everywhere are failing the world's poorest children, and in doing so, failing themselves," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "As long as public education spending is disproportionately skewed towards children from the richest households, the poorest will have little hope of escaping poverty, learning the skills they need to compete and succeed in today's world, and contributing to their countries' economies."

The UNICEF study finds that "education for children from the richest 20% of households are allocated nearly double the amount of education funding than children from the poorest 20% of households."

Disparities in education spending are particularly high in ten African countries, with four times as much funding allocated to the richest children compared with the poorest.

Guinea and the Central African Republic are the countries with some of the world's highest rates of out-of-school children, with the richest children benefitting more from the public education funds than the poorest children.

More than half of children living in low- and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple story by the end of primary school.

https://www.dw.com/en/one-in-three-girls-from-poor-households-has-never-attended-school-unicef/a-52064084