ONE IN FIVE YOUTHS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The world’s youth population is larger than ever before. But one in eight young people are unemployed and over a quarter are trapped in jobs that keep them on or below the poverty line. Despite significant progress in some regions, few are on track to meet the six Education for All (EFA) goals set in 2000, and some are a long way behind.
The report shows that acquiring a lower secondary education is a minimum today for youths to gain foundation skills they need to find decent jobs. Yet there are 250 million children of primary school age who cannot read or write, and 71 million teenagers are out of secondary school, missing vital skills for future employment.
Poor young populations, urban and rural, are the most in need of skills training. In urban areas, the youth population is larger than it has ever been and growing. In a fifth of countries analysed, poor, urban young people have less education than in rural areas. Over a quarter earn little more than $1.25 (Bt38) a day.
UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova said: “The best answer to the economic downturn and youth unemployment is to ensure that youths acquire the basic skills and relevant training they need to enter the world of work with confidence.
“Many, and young women in particular, need to be offered alternative paths for an education, so they can gain the skills needed to earn a living, live in dignity and contribute to their communities and societies.”
Investing in youths’ skills is a smart move for countries seeking to boost their economic growth. The report estimates every $1 spent on a person’s education, yields $10-15 in economic growth over that person’s working life.
There are long-term effects of ignoring youth skills in countries the world over. Drawing on OECD data, the report estimates that 160 million adults in developed nations do not have the skills needed to apply for a job or read a newspaper.
There is a dire need to increase funding to fix this skills deficit. The report calculates that, in addition to the $16 billion needed annually to attain universal primary education by 2015, universal lower secondary school enrolment would cost $8 billion. Programmes offering alternative paths for skills training need to be scaled up to reach youth who have missed out.
EFA Global Monitoring Report director Pauline Rose said: “Governments and donors must find money and energy to help young people most in need. The private sector, the first to benefit from a skilled workforce, must step up its financial support.”
Reallocating aid could fill the funding gap. $3.1 billion of aid to post-secondary education never reaches the educational systems of developing countries as it is used to fund foreign students in donor countries. These funds could be better spent addressing the skills deficit for disadvantaged youth in poor countries. The cost of one Nepalese student’s scholarship in a developed country could give 229 students access to secondary education at home.
The private sector contributes the equivalent of 5 per cent of all official aid to education; most is given by just five corporations. Private contributions don’t always reflect state education priorities, however, and are often more closely aligned with corporate priorities. Large amounts go to tertiary education, though only a minority of children make it that far.
The report recommends:
- Providing alternative paths to basic skills for 200 million youths;
- All young people need quality training in relevant foundation skills at lower secondary school; - Upper secondary curricula should provide a balance between vocational and technical skills, including IT, and transferable skills that needed for the workplace;
- Skills strategies must target the disadvantaged: young women and urban and rural poor;
- $8 billion is needed to ensure all young people attend lower secondary education. Governments, donors and the private sector must help fill the funding gap.