people and planet

10
Children peek
through a primary
school window in
Indonesia.
CREDIT: Alland Dharmawan/UNESCO
KEY MESSAGES
Progress towards this target will be a key measure of commitment to the SDGs.
Universal access to primary education is far from achieved. As of 2014, about 25 million children worldwide were
not expected ever to attend school.
In 2014, 263 million children, adolescents and youth were out of school around the world.
Universal secondary completion seems unattainable by 2030: Over 2008–2014, the upper secondary completion rate
was 84% in high income, 43% in upper middle income, 38% in lower middle income and 14% in low income countries.
There is a long way to go to ensure that every child completes 12 years of primary and secondary education. Out
of 90 low and middle income countries, youth had attained at least 12 years of education, on average, in only 10.
In 23% of countries, the law requires fewer than nine years of compulsory education. To know whether education
is also really free requires knowing how much households contribute to the total cost.
Global indicators capture quality only through learning outcomes, which is not sufficient. Better data are needed on
inputs such as textbook availability, and processes through tools to monitor what is happening in the classroom.
There is no common definition yet of what are ‘relevant and effective’ learning outcomes that would enable a global
learning measure to be calculated from different international, regional and national assessments.
Decisions on such definitions need to be taken in a way that is open and collaborative and puts the priorities of
countries first by helping build national learning assessment systems.
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CHAPTER 10 | TARGET 4.1 – PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION