Attain United Nations MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Channel: UNECOSOC
Date: 27/11/2011

(By UN Millennium Campaign YouTube) - This video shows the importance of achieving universal primary education. 

In all regions, inequalities in access to education continue to pose major barriers to fully attaining the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2 target of ensuring that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, can complete a full course of primary schooling. 

Projections suggest that without further acceleration, 58 out of the 86 countries that have not yet reached universal primary education will not achieve it by 2015. In all regions, inequalities in access to education are a major barrier to reaching Goal 2. The children most likely to drop out of school or to not attend at all are often girls and those from poorer households or living in rural areas. For example, recent estimations show that 25 per cent of children of primary school age in rural areas of the developing world are out of school, compared with 16 per cent of children in the same age group living in cities.

Achieving universal primary education means more than full enrolment. It also encompasses quality education, meaning that all children who attend school regularly learn basic literacy and numeracy skills and complete primary school on time. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, substantially more children of secondary school age attend primary rather than secondary school. 

For children to reach their full potential and countries to develop, the gains made in universal primary education must be replicated at the secondary level. At present, less than 55 per cent of children of the appropriate age in developing countries attend secondary school. In Oceania, for instance, almost two thirds of children of secondary school age are out of school. In sub-Saharan Africa, only a quarter of children of secondary school age are in secondary school

Although aid directed to basic education for low-income countries increased from $1.6 billion in 1999 to $5 billion in 2006, it is still well below the estimated $11 billion in aid required annually to reach universal primary education by 2015.

At the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, world leaders from rich and poor countries alike committed themselves - at the highest political level - to a set of eight time-bound targets that, when achieved, will end extreme poverty worldwide by 2015.

For more information, please visit:

UN Millennium Campaign You Tube page: http://www.youtube.com/mcampaign

Stand up and take action 2010 (17-19 September 2010): http://www.endpoverty2015.org/en/stand-up

We can end poverty 2015 - Millennium Development Goal 2 (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml; http://www.endpoverty2015.org/en/goals/universal-education)