263 million children and youth are not able to attend a school.
There are many injustices across the globe, but I believe there is one
that has a significant role in perpetuating many other injustices, and that
is the lack of available education in underdeveloped countries. How bad
is the issue? It’s worse than you might think, 61 million children of
primary school age, 60 million of lower secondary school age and 142
million of upper secondary age children are not able to attend school.
That is 263 million children and youth, who are not able to receive an
education. These are children that are not able to access schools
because there is none, they are full, they are too expensive, or due to the
families circumstance the child cannot attend.
According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) data, the top three illiterate countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The most illiterate countries are Guinea, with 30.4% literacy rate, South Sudan with 27%, and Niger with an incredibly low 19.1%.
The sub-Saharan Africa region has the lowest literacy rates in the world.
When it comes to gender equality in education, the situation is even worse. If current trends continue, 15 million
girls will never get the chance to learn to read or write in primary school compared to about 10 million boys (UIS).
Instead of going to school, girls in developing countries are being told to stay home and do housework, or to fetch
water. They are often taught that education is for men, and sometimes even forced into marriages at very young ages.
Out of the 758 million illiterate adults around the world, most are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, 9 million girls
will never get an education.
Their are even more girls in other areas of the world who will never get a chance to learn, and go to school.
One example of such girls is Suma from Nepal. Although her brothers went to school, she was forced into
bonded labor at age 6. Suma is one of many girls who instead of learning, is forced into bonded labor.