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| Wednesday, 11 February 2004 |
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Drop-outs cap Asia education rates - UNESCO PARIS, Tuesday (Reuters) The number of children enrolling in school in Asia has jumped in the last decade, but many of them drop out before the end of the primary cycle, a report by the United Nations cultural body said on Tuesday. The latest education data from 22 countries, ranging from Afghanistan in the west to the Philippines in the east, showed the region still has the world's largest share of out-of-school children at 46 million - 45 percent of the worldwide total of 104 million. By contrast, two percent of children in Latin America and the Caribbean were out of school. "Even though many children (in Asia) are enrolled in primary education, very few will have a chance to enroll in lower secondary education," said the UNESCO study, which was based on figures for the 2000/2001 school year. The South and East Asia Regional Report did not give a specific reason for the drop-out rate, but said it is often linked to learning difficulties, inadequate teacher training, high educational standards and, consequently, higher repetition rates. Enrolment for boys and girls rose substantially in most Asian countries from 1990 to 2000, the report found. In Laos and Bangladesh, net primary enrolment ratios were up between 15 and 20 percentage points. However, only half of the children who entered school in Laos, India and Myanmar reached the end of the primary cycle. In Nepal, Cambodia and Bangladesh, the equivalent drop-out rate was between 35 percent and 38 percent. The report estimated there were about 13 million primary teachers throughout the region, but it said the distribution was skewed in favour of east Asia. There was one teacher for every 21 pupils in primary school in east Asia, compared with one for every 40 in south and west Asia. In Bangladesh, there was just one teacher for every 57 pupils. "In order to decrease the numbers of children out-of-school, countries in south and west Asia will need to recruit a very large number of qualified teachers," the study said. Of all the countries in the region, Malaysia devoted the highest percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) to education, with 6.2 percent. Myanmar came in at the bottom of the scale, spending just 1.4 percent of its GDP on schooling. |
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