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Ensure that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
 
 
 
Since 1990 the world has called for all children to be able to complete primary school. But more than 100 million primary school age children remain out of school.
 
To reach the target of universal primary education by 2015, school systems with low completion rates will need to start now to train teachers, build classrooms, and improve the quality of education. Most important, they will have to remove such barriers to attendance as fees and lack of transportation, and
address parents’ concern for the safety of their children.
 
Education is the foundation of all societies and globally competitive economies. It is the basis for reducing poverty and inequality, improving health, enabling the use of new technologies, and creating and spreading knowledge. In an increasingly complex, knowledge-dependent world, primary education, as the gateway to higher levels of education, must be the first priority.
 
 
 More children everywhere are completing primary school
 Primary completion rate, total (% of relevant age group)
  Sub-Saharan Africa   South Asia
   
 
Neither Sub-Saharan Africa nor South Asia are on track to achieve the goal, but in both regions some countries have shown that it can be done.
 
  East Asia & Pacific   Latin America & Caribbean
   
 
East Asia and Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean are close to achieving universal primary education. However, high regional averages disguise some countries that lag behind.
 
  Europe & Central Asia   Middle East & North Africa
   
 
Slow progress in Europe and Central Asia reflects the dislocations of the transition period. In the Middle East and North Africa there has been a decline in completion rates for boys.
 

Source: World Bank staff estimates.

 

    
 Country by country progress toward universal primary education
 Share of countries on track to achieve the primary education target (%)
    

Source: World Bank staff estimates.
     

    
In many developing countries children are already able to complete a full course of primary education, but in all regions at least a few countries remain off track and unlikely to reach the target of education for all by 2015. Countries that are off track typically need to raise their completion rates by about 10 percentage points to achieve the target. But those that are seriously off track have much farther to go. Unless they accelerate progress, they will not reach the target before 2040, depriving several more generations of the benefits of education.
 
 
    
 A long march to literacy
 Youth literacy rate (% of youths ages 15–24)
    

Source: UNESCO 2005.
     
Literacy rates among young people ages 15–24 are the only widely reported measure of educational outcomes. As more children have entered school and stayed in school longer, the global youth literacy rate has risen from 75 percent in 1970 to 88 percent in 2000–04. Throughout the developing world literacy rates are higher among youth than among adults, a sign of progress. Efforts are under way to develop better measures of literacy and more direct measures of the quality of educational outcomes.
 

    
 Patterns of school attendance
 Share of children ages 6–11 enrolled in primary school, by gender (%)
Gabon, by wealth quintile, 2000
 

Gabon has high levels of primary school attendance across all income groups, although completion rates are still low.

      
         
        Nigeria, by wealth quintile, 2003
 

In Nigeria only the
wealthiest families
are able to provide
primary education for
all their children.

    
         
        Gabon, by urban and rural area, 2000
 

In Gabon attendance rates are equally high for boys and girls and in urban and rural settings.

    
         
        Nigeria, by urban and rural area, 2003
 

But in Nigeria rural children have fewer opportunities to attend and complete primary school.

    
         

Source: World Bank staff estimates based on
Demographic and Health Surveys.
 
 

         
 Text figures & Boxes
More children everywhere are completing primary school
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
East Asia & Pacific
Latin America & Caribbean
Europe & Central Asia
Middle East & North Africa
   
Country by country progress toward universal primary education

               

A long march to literacy

           
Patterns of school attendance
 
Gabon, by wealth quintile, 2000
Nigeria, by wealth quintile, 2003
Gabon, by urban and rural area, 2000
Nigeria, by urban and rural area, 2003