The gap reflects cultural norms, early child- bearing, limited employment opportunities for women, and traditional expectations of girls' larger contribution to household work. That means that further economic growth will tend to remove this obstacle to universal primary education. Narrowing the gender gap requires supportive national policies, such as reducing the direct and indirect costs of girls' schooling for their parents and building more schools for girls in education systems that are segregated by sex. Among the world regions, Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest share of children not enrolled in secondary school. Note that this indicator is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa too.
Child labor remains the most formidable obstacle to education for children in low-income countries.
In fact, the situation may be even worse- in many countries data on child labor are underreported or not reported at all because officially the problem is presumed not to exist. The gap between developed and developing countries is particularly wide in tertiary education. The number of students enrolled at a level of study does not indicate the quality of their education and thus provides only a rough idea of a country's educational achievements. For example, countries moving from planned to market economies usually need more people trained in economics and business management to work in emerging private sectors as well as in reformed public sectors. Overall, innovative people are needed everywhere, and an education system that fails to develop this quality in its graduates can hardly be considered fully effective.