PARIS, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Less than 40 percent of countries provide girls and boys equal access to education, a UNESCO report indicates.
Two out of three countries in the world face gender disparities in primary and secondary education, and as many as half will not achieve the goal of gender parity in education by 2015, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization found in its new Global Education Digest, which focuses on gender and education.
"This new data tells us that we need to reaffirm our commitment to education and gender equality," UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said in a statement. "The advances made in improving girls' and women's access to education and training over the past decades risk being undermined by reductions in international aid and national investments as the world struggles to cope with interlocking crises. Yet, we all know that compromising the education of girls and women will only lead to more vulnerability and reinforce the vicious cycle of poverty".
The report predicts that in only 85 countries, boys and girls will have equal access to primary and secondary education by 2015, while 72 are not likely to reach the goal -- one of six set by world leaders at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000.
The report was launched Friday in Paris on the eve of a major U.N. summit that starts Monday in New York and is aimed at discussing the Millennium Development Goals, the anti-poverty targets for 2015.
UPI
