UNICEF Says Education Lacking For Children
By Tara FitzGerald

LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of millions of children around the world are 
growing up ill-prepared to make a decent life for themselves because 
they lack basic education, UNICEF said in its annual report published 
Tuesday.

The United Nations Children's Fund said more than 130 million children 
of primary school age in developing countries, including 73 million 
girls, were growing up without access to basic education.

``Basic education has the power to save lives as surely as any 
vaccine,'' UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy told a news 
conference in London.

``This year's report shows graphically that for millions and millions of 
children education is literally a matter of life and death,'' Bellamy 
said.

UNICEF, in its annual report titled ``The State of the World's 
Children,'' said nearly a billion people, or a sixth of humanity, were 
already classified as functionally illiterate.

Sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia were the two regions with the highest 
numbers of children out of school, it said.

Referring to findings from throughout the developing world, the 127-page 
UNICEF report said there was a direct correlation between the number of 
years of schooling and child mortality rates.

UNICEF said children who grew up without basic education not only found 
it more difficult to sustain themselves and their families, but also to 
make their way as adults in society in a spirit of tolerance, 
understanding and equality.

It added that denying children the right to a basic education could have 
far-reaching implications for global peace and prosperity.

``On a society-wide scale, the denial of education harms the cause of 
democracy and social progress -- and, by extension, international peace 
and security,'' said the report, which focuses on a new topic each year.

Girls suffer particularly from a lack of education in developing 
countries, with women making up some two-thirds of the estimated 855 
million adult illiterates throughout the world.

``Education is not only a fundamental human right, it is also the 
soundest investment we can make in a peaceful and prosperous future -- 
especially for girls,'' Bellamy said.

UNICEF said education was the single most important element in putting a 
stop to child labor and the education of girls the single most important 
factor in providing education to all children.

It said that for children traumatized by armed conflict and violence, 
education was vital to both healing and rehabilitation.

The report also noted that to provide education for all children, the 
world would have to spend an additional seven billion dollars per year 
for the next 10 years. It pointed out that this was less than the amount 
spent annually on cosmetics in the United States or on ice-cream in 
Europe.

It is also less than a tenth of the world's annual military spending.

The report concluded that the obligation to ensure all children's right 
to education and to achieve education for all lay primarily with 
national governments. 


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December 1998