Target by 2005 : Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.

While most of the Millennium Development Goals face a deadline of 2015, the gender parity target was set to be achieved a full ten years earlier - an acknowledgement that equal access to education is the foundation for all other development goals. Yet recent statistics show that for every 100 boys out of school, there are still 117 girls in the same situation. Until equal numbers of girls and boys are in school, it will be impossible to build the knowledge necessary to eradicate poverty and hunger, combat disease and ensure environmental sustainability. And millions of children and women will continue to die needlessly, placing the rest of the development agenda at risk.

Target by 2015: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

As of 2001 estimates around 115 million children of primary school age, the majority of them girls, do not attend school.

Educating girls advances development for all.

Meeting the Education Goal will speed progress toward every other Millennium Goal. Educating children helps reduce poverty and promote gender equality. It helps lower child mortality rates and promote concern for the environment. It is inextricably linked to Goal 3 – gender parity – as universal primary education by definition requires gender parity. Gender parity in primary education, meanwhile, is of limited worth if few children of either sex participate.

Further, education – specifically free primary school for all children – is a fundamental right to which governments committed themselves under the 1989 Convention of the Rights of the Child.


UNICEF advocates quality basic education for all, with an emphasis on gender equality and eliminating disparities of all kinds. In particular, getting girls into school and ensuring that they stay and learn has what UNICEF calls a “multiplier effect.” Educated girls are likely to marry later and have fewer children, who in turn will be more likely to survive and be better nourished and educated. Educated girls are more productive at home and better paid in the workplace, and more able to participate in social, economic and political decision-making.

School also offers children a safe environment, with support, supervision and socialization. Here they learn life skills that can help them prevent diseases, like how to avoid HIV/AIDS and malaria. They may receive life-saving vaccines, fresh water and nutrient supplementation at school. Educating a girl also dramatically reduces the chance her child will die before age five.

Conversely, denying children access to quality education increases their vulnerability to abuse, exploitation and disease. Girls, more than boys, are at greater risk of such abuse when they are not in school. For many villages, a school also provides a safe haven for children, a place where they can find companionship, adult supervision, latrines, clean water and possibly meals and health care.

Yet even these basics are beyond reach for hundreds of millions of children. These children are deprived of their right to education because their families cannot afford school fees or other related costs, or because their communities are too poor or remote to have school facilities and supplies, or because they have to work to put food on the table. Children of indigenous populations or ethnic minorities often face discrimination and are excluded from education, as are children with disabilities.

In addition, HIV-AIDS has decimated schools, communities, and families around the world, creating orphans and other vulnerable children. Civil conflicts and humanitarian crises are also depriving children of the right to education. Girls often bear the brunt of these problems. They are the first to be withdrawn from school if money is short or if household work needs attention, if family members need to be cared for, if the school is too far away, or in situations of pervasive insecurity. The effect? The promise of a new generation is largely lost.

For the Education Goal to be met, actions need to address both human and material needs – buildings, books and teachers – and the organic requirements of getting all children into school and ensuring they complete a quality education. These include gender equality in society, good health and nutrition, and the strong backing of governments and communities.

Source: UNICEF