The UN has called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ‘the most successful anti-poverty movement in history’. While this is arguably true, in light of the recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it is worth reflecting on what has actually been achieved from the MDGs, particularly as it relates to education. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 is a excellent reference point for this reflection. This is off course in addition to your own personal experiences and the realities in your local communities.
The MDGs targeted eight key areas – poverty, education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, disease, the environment and global partnership. While all of these areas impact on eduction, whether directly or indirectly, goals 2, 3 and to some extent 8 can be directly related to education targets. Progress in expanding primary education enrolment since 1990 has been significant, particularly since the adoption of the MDGs in 2000. However, a number of developing countries are still reporting that many children of primary education age do not attend school, and many children who begin primary school do not complete it. There are a multiplicity of identifiable militating factors, that could have hampered progress. For example conflicts, pandemics, poverty as well as insufficient political will to drive implementation, just to name a few. These militating factors are however not the focus of this article.
[dt_sc_hr_invisible_small /][dt_sc_h2 class=””]Goal 2 : Achieve universal primary education[/dt_sc_h2][dt_sc_h4 class=””]Key Facts[/dt_sc_h4][/dt_sc_fullwidth_section][dt_sc_fullwidth_section first][dt_sc_fancy_ul style=”rounded-tick” variation=”green” class=””]- The primary school net enrolment rate in the developing regions has reached an estimated 91 per cent in 2015, up from 83 per cent in 2000.
- The number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide has fallen, to an estimated 57 million in 2015, from 100 million in 2000.
- Between 1990 and 2012, the number of children enrolled in primary school in sub-Saharan Africa more than doubled, from 62 to 149 million.
- In the developing regions, children in the poorest households are four times as likely to be out of school as those in the richest households.
Poor and out of school
Poor and out of school
Poor and out of school
Poor and out of school
Rich and out of school
- The literacy rate among youth aged 15 to 24 has increased globally from 83 per cent to 91 per cent between 1990 and 2015.
- About two thirds of countries in the developing regions have achieved gender parity in primary education.
- Globally, about three quarters of working-age men participate in the labour force, compared to half of working-age women.
- Today, women make up 41 per cent of paid workers outside of agriculture, an increase from 35 per cent in 1990.
- As of 2015, 95 per cent of the world’s population is covered by a mobile-cellular signal.
- Only one third of the population in the developing regions use the Internet, compared to 82 per cent in the developed regions.
