Goal of universal primary education by 2015 will not be met: study

Washington, Jan 18 (UNI) At the current rate of progress, the international commitment to universal primary education by 2015, as expressed in the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, will not be met, according to a new study.

The study, sponsored by the private American Academy of Arts and Sciences, says roughly 114 million children - most in the world's poorest countries - will still not be enrolled in primary school while almost twice that number will not be receiving secondary education by that year.

It, however, says achieving universal basic and secondary education, by the middle of the 21st century, is both possible and affordable and that small contributions of about seven billion dollars a year from the world's wealthiest nations can make enormous change in improving global education within a decade.

Professor of population studies at the Rockefeller and Columbia Universities and a co-director of the study Joel Cohen says, ''By 2050 it is reasonable to expect that the global population will be different in four ways: bigger, older, more urban and more slowly growing. It will be bigger by two to four billion people and all of that growth will be in poor countries.'' Co-director David Bloom of Harvard University's School of Public Health says, ''The average enrollment of primary school age children across the globe has reached 86 per cent and about 64 per cent of all secondary school age children are currently enrolled in secondary schools.'' Prof Cohen and Prof Bloom estimate that 185 million secondary school age children, about one in four, will not be enrolled in schools by 2015.

UNI