Last 25 Years: Most Expansive Era For Schooling in History

UNESCO’s new Global Education Monitoring Report reveals good news about the dramatic expansion in global education since 2000.

Global good news for children of all ages

The first quarter of the 21st century has been the most expansive era for schooling in human history with school completion rising at every level, whilst higher education participation has more than doubled in a generation.

Here are some of the powerful good news numbers within the Global Education Monitoring Report:

Since 2000, global primary and secondary enrollment has grown by 30 percent, reaching about 1.4 billion learners in 2024 - equivalent to 25 additional children enrolling in school every minute for the last 25 years.

Completion rates have improved at every stage since 2000: primary completion rose from 77 percent to 88 percent, lower secondary from 60 percent to 78 percent, and upper secondary has jumped from 37 percent to 61 percent.

Gender gaps in primary and secondary education have largely closed.

In 14 African countries, making education compulsory, not just free, has added more than a year of schooling for both girls and boys, while child labour laws have increased the gains further.

And finally, a special shout-out for the countries who have cut out-of-school rates by 80 percent or more since the year 2000: Madagascar and Togo among young children, Morocco and Viet Nam among adolescents, and Georgia and Turkey among youth. And last, but by no means least, hats off to Côte d’Ivoire which has halved out-of-school rates across all three age groups over the same period.