posts: 44944
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| 44944 | Access to basic education: Almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school | children-not-in-school | post | publish | <!-- wp:html --> <div class="blog-info"> <p>Our World in Data presents the data and research to make progress against the world’s largest problems.<br>This post draws on data and research discussed in our entry on <strong><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/primary-and-secondary-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Primary and Secondary Education</a></strong>.</p> </div> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How different would your life be if you never went to school and never learned how to read and write?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Of the world’s 787 million children of primary school age 8% do not go to school.{ref}I have calculated the total number of primary school age children based on the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-by-world-region?time=1976..latest">number of primary age out-of-school children</a> and the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school">global share of children who are out of primary school</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(58.4 million / 8.02 %) * 100 = 728.2 million</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This means in total there are (728.2+58.4 =) 786.6 million children of primary school age.<br>On the topic of out-of-school children see the regular UNESCO reports. The latest of which <a href="http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/new-methodology-shows-258-million-children-adolescents-and-youth-are-out-school.pdf">can be found here</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 'primary school age' differs from country to country. The UNESCO reports <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.AGES?view=map">the primary school starting age</a> data for countries around the world.{/ref} That’s 58.4 million children. The chart shows where they live in the world.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This is UNESCO data for the year 2019. During the pandemic this number <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/schools-more-168-million-children-globally-have-been-completely-closed">increased temporarily</a>, but even at pre-pandemic levels – to which the world will hopefully return soon – the number was much too high. 58 million children out of primary school means 58 million who don’t even have the chance to learn how to read and write.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-side-by-side"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-side-by-side"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:image {"id":44949,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44949"/><figcaption><em>Children of primary school age who are out-of-school</em>{ref}The data shown in this chart can also be found in interactive charts on Our World in Data. These also show the change over time.<br><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-by-world-region">Out-of-school children of primary school age by world region</a><br><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/girls-and-boys-of-primary-school-age-who-are-out-of-school">Girls and boys of primary school age who are out-of-school</a><br><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school?country=OWID_WRL~Sub-Saharan+Africa~East+Asia+%26+Pacific~South+Asia~North+America~Latin+America+%26+Caribbean~Europe+%26+Central+Asia~Middle+East+%26+North+Africa">Share of primary-school-age children who are out of school</a>{/ref}</figcaption></figure> <!-- /wp:image --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Why are children not in school?</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To make progress we have to understand why children are not in school.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One major reason is violence in the world’s ongoing conflict areas, including Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Nigeria. <em>Half</em> of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries.{ref}See <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-half-all-out-school-children-live-conflict-affected-countries">UNESCO: Half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries</a> This was still the case in the latest available data for 2019 when 48% of out-of-school primary-school-age children lived in areas that are classified as “fragile and conflict affected areas”. See: <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.UNER?locations=F1">Children out of school, primary - Fragile and conflict affected situations</a> in the WDI.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>See also UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2015) – <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000233610">A Growing number of children and adolescents are out of school as aid fails to meet the mark</a>.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The other large barrier – often closely intertwined with conflict – is poverty.{ref}World Bank (2018) – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1096-1">World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise</a>. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1096-1.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>An analysis of 31 “credibly causal” studies on the impact of spending on learning outcomes in the US shows that higher spending leads to better outcomes.Jackson, C. K., & Mackevicius, C. (2021) – <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w28517">The Distribution of School Spending Impacts</a>. National Bureau of Economic Research.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The countries in which the share of children who are not in school is low – lower than 5% – <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school-vs-gdp-per-capita">all have a GDP per capita above $35,000</a>.{/ref} </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In low-income countries public finances for education <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/government-expenditure-per-primary-student-vs-gdp-per-capita">are very low</a>: the annual spending in a high-income country like Austria is <em>more than 200-times</em> higher per student than in a low-income country like the Democratic Republic of Congo. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the worst cases poverty requires children <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-labor">to work</a> – most commonly on smallholder farms – and this means they leave school early or never enter school in the first place.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If we want to make progress on education then we will need to continue the developments that reduce conflict and poverty. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>These macro changes are essential, but can seem intangible in the short-term. Targeted policies can make a difference in such situations. One policy with a long and well-established track record is to provide free meals in schools. School meals achieve two goals at the same time: They are offering children a better diet, and they provide an incentive for parents to send their children to school. Research studies have shown that school meals increase school attendance and have a long-lasting impact over the child’s lifetime. A study in Sweden showed that pupils who received meals in school in the 1960s had 3% higher lifetime incomes.{ref}Lundborg, P., Rooth, D.-O., & Alex-Petersen, J. (2021). Long-Term Effects of Childhood Nutrition: Evidence from a School Lunch Reform. The Review of Economic Studies, rdab028.<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab028"> https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab028</a>{/ref} They have even been shown to have intergenerational benefits: the children of mothers who received school meals when they were children also benefit from school meal programs.{ref}Chakrabarti, S., Scott, S. P., Alderman, H., Menon, P., & Gilligan, D. O. (2021). Intergenerational nutrition benefits of India’s national school feeding program. <em>Nature Communications</em>, <em>12</em>(1), 4248.<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24433-w"> https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24433-w</a></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On the impact of school meals on attendance and learning outcomes see also <a href="https://aurinoelisabetta.weebly.com/publications.html">the research of Elisabetta Aurino</a>.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Widespread access to even the most basic education is a very recent achievement</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As is so often the case with large global problems, the state of the world today is at the same time terrible, yet also much better than it was in the past.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This chart here shows the same data as the first one, but it now also shows how the world has changed since the previous generation, 20 years ago. The share of children who are out-of-school has declined in all world regions. Globally, this share has halved. Today, 8% of children are not in school; twenty years ago this was 16%.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-side-by-side"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-side-by-side"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:image {"id":44950,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-466x550.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44950"/><figcaption><em>How has the share of primary-school-age children who are out of school changed over the course of the last generation?</em>{ref}This chart is also available as an interactive chart here: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school">Share of primary-school-age children who are out of school</a>.{/ref}</figcaption></figure> <!-- /wp:image --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A generation ago it was girls in particular who did not have access to schools. This inequality has declined and today the absolute <em>number</em> and the <em>share</em> of boys and girls who are out of primary school is similar.{ref}This is also true across individual countries: the countries in which the share of girls that are out-of-school is high tend to be the same countries in which the share of boys that are out-of-school is high.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"is-style-side-by-side"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns is-style-side-by-side"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:image {"id":44951,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-800x114.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44951"/></figure> <!-- /wp:image --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Until recently access to education was restricted to a very small elite everywhere </h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This recent change is part of a much larger development that spans the last few generations.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Until then, no matter where a child was born its chances of getting even the most basic education were very small. Everywhere in the world education was restricted to a small elite population.{ref}There are a few countries in which the primary school enrollment was high in 1820 – most notably the Scandinavian countries. But there it was a recent development, <a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utbildning_i_Sverige">in the few generations just before 1820</a>. In Sweden basic education <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?country=SWE~DEU~GBR~FRA">improved rapidly in the 18th century</a>.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The chart shows this big global development. In all countries – including those where children today have the best education – widespread access to even basic education is a recent achievement.{ref}This data is from Lee, J.-W., & Lee, H. (2016) – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.006">Human capital in the long run</a>. <em>Journal of Development Economics</em>, <em>122</em>, 147–169.{/ref} </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-enrollment-selected-countries?tab=chart&facet=entity&country=HUN~GBR~CHN~IND~NER~ARG~JPN~AUT~BRB~BEN~BRA~KHM~CHL~CUB~DNK~LBR~LBY~MYS~MLI~MOZ~NPL~NLD~PAN~PER~POL~ECU~SLV~SWZ~FIN~GMB~DEU~GRC~GTM~GUY~HTI~ROU~SEN~SRB~SLE~LKA~SDN~CHE~SYR~TGO~TTO~VEN~YEM~ZWE~ZMB" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>The global revolution in literacy</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Reading is the single most important educational skill a young child can learn. How did literacy change as more and more children gained access to a basic education? </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The chart shows that two centuries ago only 1 out of every 10 adults knew how to read and write. This ratio has flipped since then: today about 9 in 10 adults do have this basic skill.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To make progress against the world’s problems we need a strong team of educated people. From this perspective it makes sense to consider this global change in absolute numbers. Today there are about 4.6 billion people who can read and write.{ref}There are about 5.4 billion people older than 15 years of which, as the chart shows, 86% are literate.{/ref} In 1800 there were fewer than 100 million people with the same skill. We have a much stronger team than ever before.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/literate-and-illiterate-world-population?country=~OWID_WRL" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":4} --> <h4>Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not</h4> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The majority of children that have ever lived did not have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. In the extreme poverty of <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/breaking-the-malthusian-trap">the pre-growth economies</a>, children with great potential ended up living a life in poverty. Even very basic educational skills – like reading and writing – were a privilege of a small elite.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It is hard to imagine what all these girls and boys could have become. Perhaps it is easier to see the importance of at least basic education by looking at those around us today, and ask what their chances would have been without it. What would have become of Marie Curie, Jane Austen, Steve Jobs, Grace Hopper, or Einstein if they were born into a society in which children didn’t have access to basic education?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but a lot of work is left for our generation today. Almost 60 million children are growing up without the opportunities that you and I had thanks to the primary school that we were able to attend.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In this text I focused on access to primary education. In my next post I will focus on the quality of education. I will show how extremely large the differences in educational quality between countries are and which opportunities there are to improve education, especially for the very poorest children in the world.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If you want to read this post you can <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/#subscribe">sign up for our Our World in Data newsletter</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Continue reading on Our World in Data now:</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/talent-is-everywhere-opportunity-is-not","mediaId":44815,"mediaUrl":"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45.png","mediaAlt":"","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Why we are all losing out if others don't have access to education.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> | {
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"text": " data for countries around the world.{/ref} \u00a0That\u2019s 58.4 million children. The chart shows where they live in the world.",
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2021-11-02 11:00:00 | 2024-02-16 14:22:52 | 1XlzSrKQhgZYqCSxl2TY82Yv5SlH8lgcvkABRhEg5j24 | [
"Max Roser"
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The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but millions of children are still not in school. | 2021-09-17 13:12:24 | 2023-09-27 04:26:33 | https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-17-at-14.54.25.png | {} |
Our World in Data presents the data and research to make progress against the world’s largest problems. This post draws on data and research discussed in our entry on **[Primary and Secondary Education](https://ourworldindata.org/primary-and-secondary-education)**. How different would your life be if you never went to school and never learned how to read and write? Of the world’s 787 million children of primary school age 8% do not go to school.{ref}I have calculated the total number of primary school age children based on the [number of primary age out-of-school children](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-by-world-region?time=1976..latest) and the [global share of children who are out of primary school](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school). (58.4 million / 8.02 %) * 100 = 728.2 million This means in total there are (728.2+58.4 =) 786.6 million children of primary school age. On the topic of out-of-school children see the regular UNESCO reports. The latest of which [can be found here](http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/new-methodology-shows-258-million-children-adolescents-and-youth-are-out-school.pdf). The 'primary school age' differs from country to country. The UNESCO reports [the primary school starting age](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.AGES?view=map) data for countries around the world.{/ref} That’s 58.4 million children. The chart shows where they live in the world. This is UNESCO data for the year 2019. During the pandemic this number [increased temporarily](https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/schools-more-168-million-children-globally-have-been-completely-closed), but even at pre-pandemic levels – to which the world will hopefully return soon – the number was much too high. 58 million children out of primary school means 58 million who don’t even have the chance to learn how to read and write. <Image filename="out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1.png" alt=""/> ## Why are children not in school? To make progress we have to understand why children are not in school. One major reason is violence in the world’s ongoing conflict areas, including Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Nigeria. _Half_ of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries.{ref}See [UNESCO: Half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries](https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-half-all-out-school-children-live-conflict-affected-countries) This was still the case in the latest available data for 2019 when 48% of out-of-school primary-school-age children lived in areas that are classified as “fragile and conflict affected areas”. See: [Children out of school, primary - Fragile and conflict affected situations](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.UNER?locations=F1) in the WDI. See also UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2015) – [A Growing number of children and adolescents are out of school as aid fails to meet the mark](https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000233610).{/ref} The other large barrier – often closely intertwined with conflict – is poverty.{ref}World Bank (2018) – [World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise](https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1096-1). Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1096-1. An analysis of 31 “credibly causal” studies on the impact of spending on learning outcomes in the US shows that higher spending leads to better outcomes.Jackson, C. K., & Mackevicius, C. (2021) – [The Distribution of School Spending Impacts](https://www.nber.org/papers/w28517). National Bureau of Economic Research. The countries in which the share of children who are not in school is low – lower than 5% – [all have a GDP per capita above $35,000](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school-vs-gdp-per-capita).{/ref} In low-income countries public finances for education [are very low](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/government-expenditure-per-primary-student-vs-gdp-per-capita): the annual spending in a high-income country like Austria is _more than 200-times_ higher per student than in a low-income country like the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the worst cases poverty requires children [to work](https://ourworldindata.org/child-labor) – most commonly on smallholder farms – and this means they leave school early or never enter school in the first place. If we want to make progress on education then we will need to continue the developments that reduce conflict and poverty. These macro changes are essential, but can seem intangible in the short-term. Targeted policies can make a difference in such situations. One policy with a long and well-established track record is to provide free meals in schools. School meals achieve two goals at the same time: They are offering children a better diet, and they provide an incentive for parents to send their children to school. Research studies have shown that school meals increase school attendance and have a long-lasting impact over the child’s lifetime. A study in Sweden showed that pupils who received meals in school in the 1960s had 3% higher lifetime incomes.{ref}Lundborg, P., Rooth, D.-O., & Alex-Petersen, J. (2021). Long-Term Effects of Childhood Nutrition: Evidence from a School Lunch Reform. The Review of Economic Studies, rdab028.[ https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab028](https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab028){/ref} They have even been shown to have intergenerational benefits: the children of mothers who received school meals when they were children also benefit from school meal programs.{ref}Chakrabarti, S., Scott, S. P., Alderman, H., Menon, P., & Gilligan, D. O. (2021). Intergenerational nutrition benefits of India’s national school feeding program. _Nature Communications_, _12_(1), 4248.[ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24433-w](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24433-w) On the impact of school meals on attendance and learning outcomes see also [the research of Elisabetta Aurino](https://aurinoelisabetta.weebly.com/publications.html).{/ref} ## Widespread access to even the most basic education is a very recent achievement As is so often the case with large global problems, the state of the world today is at the same time terrible, yet also much better than it was in the past. This chart here shows the same data as the first one, but it now also shows how the world has changed since the previous generation, 20 years ago. The share of children who are out-of-school has declined in all world regions. Globally, this share has halved. Today, 8% of children are not in school; twenty years ago this was 16%. <Image filename="change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age.png" alt=""/> A generation ago it was girls in particular who did not have access to schools. This inequality has declined and today the absolute _number_ and the _share_ of boys and girls who are out of primary school is similar.{ref}This is also true across individual countries: the countries in which the share of girls that are out-of-school is high tend to be the same countries in which the share of boys that are out-of-school is high.{/ref} <Image filename="boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age.png" alt=""/> ## Until recently access to education was restricted to a very small elite everywhere This recent change is part of a much larger development that spans the last few generations. Until then, no matter where a child was born its chances of getting even the most basic education were very small. Everywhere in the world education was restricted to a small elite population.{ref}There are a few countries in which the primary school enrollment was high in 1820 – most notably the Scandinavian countries. But there it was a recent development, [in the few generations just before 1820](https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utbildning_i_Sverige). In Sweden basic education [improved rapidly in the 18th century](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?country=SWE~DEU~GBR~FRA).{/ref} The chart shows this big global development. In all countries – including those where children today have the best education – widespread access to even basic education is a recent achievement.{ref}This data is from Lee, J.-W., & Lee, H. (2016) – [Human capital in the long run](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.006). _Journal of Development Economics_, _122_, 147–169.{/ref} <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-enrollment-selected-countries?tab=chart&facet=entity&country=HUN~GBR~CHN~IND~NER~ARG~JPN~AUT~BRB~BEN~BRA~KHM~CHL~CUB~DNK~LBR~LBY~MYS~MLI~MOZ~NPL~NLD~PAN~PER~POL~ECU~SLV~SWZ~FIN~GMB~DEU~GRC~GTM~GUY~HTI~ROU~SEN~SRB~SLE~LKA~SDN~CHE~SYR~TGO~TTO~VEN~YEM~ZWE~ZMB"/> ## The global revolution in literacy Reading is the single most important educational skill a young child can learn. How did literacy change as more and more children gained access to a basic education? The chart shows that two centuries ago only 1 out of every 10 adults knew how to read and write. This ratio has flipped since then: today about 9 in 10 adults do have this basic skill. To make progress against the world’s problems we need a strong team of educated people. From this perspective it makes sense to consider this global change in absolute numbers. Today there are about 4.6 billion people who can read and write.{ref}There are about 5.4 billion people older than 15 years of which, as the chart shows, 86% are literate.{/ref} In 1800 there were fewer than 100 million people with the same skill. We have a much stronger team than ever before. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/literate-and-illiterate-world-population?country=~OWID_WRL"/> ## Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not The majority of children that have ever lived did not have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. In the extreme poverty of [the pre-growth economies](https://ourworldindata.org/breaking-the-malthusian-trap), children with great potential ended up living a life in poverty. Even very basic educational skills – like reading and writing – were a privilege of a small elite. It is hard to imagine what all these girls and boys could have become. Perhaps it is easier to see the importance of at least basic education by looking at those around us today, and ask what their chances would have been without it. What would have become of Marie Curie, Jane Austen, Steve Jobs, Grace Hopper, or Einstein if they were born into a society in which children didn’t have access to basic education? The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but a lot of work is left for our generation today. Almost 60 million children are growing up without the opportunities that you and I had thanks to the primary school that we were able to attend. In this text I focused on access to primary education. In my next post I will focus on the quality of education. I will show how extremely large the differences in educational quality between countries are and which opportunities there are to improve education, especially for the very poorest children in the world. If you want to read this post you can [sign up for our Our World in Data newsletter](https://ourworldindata.org/#subscribe). _Continue reading on Our World in Data now:_ ### Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not Why we are all losing out if others don't have access to education. https://ourworldindata.org/talent-is-everywhere-opportunity-is-not | {
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"rendered": "\n<div class=\"blog-info\">\n<p>Our World in Data presents the data and research to make progress against the world\u2019s largest problems.<br>This post draws on data and research discussed in our entry on <strong><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/primary-and-secondary-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Primary and Secondary Education</a></strong>.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>How different would your life be if you never went to school and never learned how to read and write?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of the world\u2019s 787 million children of primary school age 8% do not go to school.{ref}I have calculated the total number of primary school age children based on the <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-by-world-region?time=1976..latest\">number of primary age out-of-school children</a> and the <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school\">global share of children who are out of primary school</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>(58.4 million / 8.02 %) * 100 = 728.2 million</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means in total there are (728.2+58.4 =) 786.6 million children of primary school age.<br>On the topic of out-of-school children see the regular UNESCO reports. The latest of which <a href=\"http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/new-methodology-shows-258-million-children-adolescents-and-youth-are-out-school.pdf\">can be found here</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ‘primary school age’ differs from country to country. The UNESCO reports <a href=\"https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.AGES?view=map\">the primary school starting age</a> data for countries around the world.{/ref} That\u2019s 58.4 million children. The chart shows where they live in the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is UNESCO data for the year 2019. During the pandemic this number <a href=\"https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/schools-more-168-million-children-globally-have-been-completely-closed\">increased temporarily</a>, but even at pre-pandemic levels \u2013 to which the world will hopefully return soon \u2013 the number was much too high. 58 million children out of primary school means 58 million who don\u2019t even have the chance to learn how to read and write.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-side-by-side\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1172\" height=\"1875\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44949\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1.png 1172w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1-250x400.png 250w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1-344x550.png 344w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1-94x150.png 94w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1-768x1229.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1-960x1536.png 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1172px) 100vw, 1172px\" /><figcaption><em>Children of primary school age who are out-of-school</em>{ref}The data shown in this chart can also be found in interactive charts on Our World in Data. These also show the change over time.<br><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-by-world-region\">Out-of-school children of primary school age by world region</a><br><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/girls-and-boys-of-primary-school-age-who-are-out-of-school\">Girls and boys of primary school age who are out-of-school</a><br><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school?country=OWID_WRL~Sub-Saharan+Africa~East+Asia+%26+Pacific~South+Asia~North+America~Latin+America+%26+Caribbean~Europe+%26+Central+Asia~Middle+East+%26+North+Africa\">Share of primary-school-age children who are out of school</a>{/ref}</figcaption></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\"></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h4>Why are children not in school?</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>To make progress we have to understand why children are not in school.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One major reason is violence in the world\u2019s ongoing conflict areas, including Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Nigeria. <em>Half</em> of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries.{ref}See <a href=\"https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-half-all-out-school-children-live-conflict-affected-countries\">UNESCO: Half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries</a> This was still the case in the latest available data for 2019 when 48% of out-of-school primary-school-age children lived in areas that are classified as \u201cfragile and conflict affected areas\u201d. See: <a href=\"https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.UNER?locations=F1\">Children out of school, primary – Fragile and conflict affected situations</a> in the WDI.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>See also UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2015) \u2013 <a href=\"https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000233610\">A Growing number of children and adolescents are out of school as aid fails to meet the mark</a>.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other large barrier \u2013 often closely intertwined with conflict \u2013 is poverty.{ref}World Bank (2018) \u2013 <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1096-1\">World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education\u2019s Promise</a>. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1096-1.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>An analysis of 31 \u201ccredibly causal\u201d studies on the impact of spending on learning outcomes in the US shows that higher spending leads to better outcomes.Jackson, C. K., & Mackevicius, C. (2021) \u2013 <a href=\"https://www.nber.org/papers/w28517\">The Distribution of School Spending Impacts</a>. National Bureau of Economic Research.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The countries in which the share of children who are not in school is low \u2013 lower than 5% \u2013 <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school-vs-gdp-per-capita\">all have a GDP per capita above $35,000</a>.{/ref} </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In low-income countries public finances for education <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/government-expenditure-per-primary-student-vs-gdp-per-capita\">are very low</a>: the annual spending in a high-income country like Austria is <em>more than 200-times</em> higher per student than in a low-income country like the Democratic Republic of Congo. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the worst cases poverty requires children <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/child-labor\">to work</a> \u2013 most commonly on smallholder farms \u2013 and this means they leave school early or never enter school in the first place.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we want to make progress on education then we will need to continue the developments that reduce conflict and poverty. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>These macro changes are essential, but can seem intangible in the short-term. Targeted policies can make a difference in such situations. One policy with a long and well-established track record is to provide free meals in schools. School meals achieve two goals at the same time: They are offering children a better diet, and they provide an incentive for parents to send their children to school. Research studies have shown that school meals increase school attendance and have a long-lasting impact over the child\u2019s lifetime. A study in Sweden showed that pupils who received meals in school in the 1960s had 3% higher lifetime incomes.{ref}Lundborg, P., Rooth, D.-O., & Alex-Petersen, J. (2021). Long-Term Effects of Childhood Nutrition: Evidence from a School Lunch Reform. The Review of Economic Studies, rdab028.<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab028\"> https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab028</a>{/ref} They have even been shown to have intergenerational benefits: the children of mothers who received school meals when they were children also benefit from school meal programs.{ref}Chakrabarti, S., Scott, S. P., Alderman, H., Menon, P., & Gilligan, D. O. (2021). Intergenerational nutrition benefits of India\u2019s national school feeding program. <em>Nature Communications</em>, <em>12</em>(1), 4248.<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24433-w\"> https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24433-w</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the impact of school meals on attendance and learning outcomes see also <a href=\"https://aurinoelisabetta.weebly.com/publications.html\">the research of Elisabetta Aurino</a>.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Widespread access to even the most basic education is a very recent achievement</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>As is so often the case with large global problems, the state of the world today is at the same time terrible, yet also much better than it was in the past.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This chart here shows the same data as the first one, but it now also shows how the world has changed since the previous generation, 20 years ago. The share of children who are out-of-school has declined in all world regions. Globally, this share has halved. Today, 8% of children are not in school; twenty years ago this was 16%.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-side-by-side\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"466\" height=\"550\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-466x550.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44950\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-466x550.png 466w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-339x400.png 339w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-127x150.png 127w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-768x906.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1302x1536.png 1302w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-1736x2048.png 1736w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/change-in-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age.png 1904w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\" /><figcaption><em>How has the share of primary-school-age children who are out of school changed over the course of the last generation?</em>{ref}This chart is also available as an interactive chart here: <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-primary-school-age-out-of-school\">Share of primary-school-age children who are out of school</a>.{/ref}</figcaption></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\"></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>A generation ago it was girls in particular who did not have access to schools. This inequality has declined and today the absolute <em>number</em> and the <em>share</em> of boys and girls who are out of primary school is similar.{ref}This is also true across individual countries: the countries in which the share of girls that are out-of-school is high tend to be the same countries in which the share of boys that are out-of-school is high.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-style-side-by-side\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"114\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-800x114.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44951\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-800x114.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-400x57.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-150x21.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age-768x110.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/boys-and-girls-out-of-school-children-of-primary-school-age.png 1275w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" /></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\"></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h4>Until recently access to education was restricted to a very small elite everywhere </h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This recent change is part of a much larger development that spans the last few generations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until then, no matter where a child was born its chances of getting even the most basic education were very small. Everywhere in the world education was restricted to a small elite population.{ref}There are a few countries in which the primary school enrollment was high in 1820 \u2013 most notably the Scandinavian countries. But there it was a recent development, <a href=\"https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utbildning_i_Sverige\">in the few generations just before 1820</a>. In Sweden basic education <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?country=SWE~DEU~GBR~FRA\">improved rapidly in the 18th century</a>.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chart shows this big global development. In all countries \u2013 including those where children today have the best education \u2013 widespread access to even basic education is a recent achievement.{ref}This data is from Lee, J.-W., & Lee, H. (2016) \u2013 <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.006\">Human capital in the long run</a>. <em>Journal of Development Economics</em>, <em>122</em>, 147\u2013169.{/ref} </p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-enrollment-selected-countries?tab=chart&facet=entity&country=HUN~GBR~CHN~IND~NER~ARG~JPN~AUT~BRB~BEN~BRA~KHM~CHL~CUB~DNK~LBR~LBY~MYS~MLI~MOZ~NPL~NLD~PAN~PER~POL~ECU~SLV~SWZ~FIN~GMB~DEU~GRC~GTM~GUY~HTI~ROU~SEN~SRB~SLE~LKA~SDN~CHE~SYR~TGO~TTO~VEN~YEM~ZWE~ZMB\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h4>The global revolution in literacy</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Reading is the single most important educational skill a young child can learn. How did literacy change as more and more children gained access to a basic education? </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chart shows that two centuries ago only 1 out of every 10 adults knew how to read and write. This ratio has flipped since then: today about 9 in 10 adults do have this basic skill.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To make progress against the world\u2019s problems we need a strong team of educated people. From this perspective it makes sense to consider this global change in absolute numbers. Today there are about 4.6 billion people who can read and write.{ref}There are about 5.4 billion people older than 15 years of which, as the chart shows, 86% are literate.{/ref} In 1800 there were fewer than 100 million people with the same skill. We have a much stronger team than ever before.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/literate-and-illiterate-world-population?country=~OWID_WRL\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h4>Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The majority of children that have ever lived did not have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. In the extreme poverty of <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/breaking-the-malthusian-trap\">the pre-growth economies</a>, children with great potential ended up living a life in poverty. Even very basic educational skills \u2013 like reading and writing \u2013 were a privilege of a small elite.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is hard to imagine what all these girls and boys could have become. Perhaps it is easier to see the importance of at least basic education by looking at those around us today, and ask what their chances would have been without it. What would have become of Marie Curie, Jane Austen, Steve Jobs, Grace Hopper, or Einstein if they were born into a society in which children didn\u2019t have access to basic education?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but a lot of work is left for our generation today. Almost 60 million children are growing up without the opportunities that you and I had thanks to the primary school that we were able to attend.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"/>\n\n\n\n<p>In this text I focused on access to primary education. In my next post I will focus on the quality of education. I will show how extremely large the differences in educational quality between countries are and which opportunities there are to improve education, especially for the very poorest children in the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to read this post you can <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/#subscribe\">sign up for our Our World in Data newsletter</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Continue reading on Our World in Data now:</em></p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/talent-is-everywhere-opportunity-is-not</link-url>\n <title>Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not</title>\n <content>\n\n<p>Why we are all losing out if others don’t have access to education.</p>\n\n</content>\n <figure><img width=\"768\" height=\"413\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45-768x413.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45-768x413.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45-400x215.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45-800x430.png 800w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45-150x81.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45-1536x825.png 1536w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-03-at-10.51.45.png 1884w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n </block>\n\n\n<p></p>\n",
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"rendered": "The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but millions of children are still not in school.",
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"date_gmt": "2021-11-02T11:00:00",
"modified": "2023-09-27T05:26:33",
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