UNESCO report: 95% youth higher secondary completion may take until 2105 at current pace

UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report 2026 has put out worrying figures on schooling. According to the report, if the current pace of improvement and progress continues, the goal of 95 per cent of the world's young people completing higher secondary education will be reached only in 2105. That means a wait of more than a century for all children to complete their schooling.

The global primary completion rate was 77 per cent in 2000 and has risen to 88 per cent in 2024, the report says. The secondary completion rate has climbed from 60 per cent to 78 per cent. The higher secondary level has improved from 37 per cent to 61 per cent. Even so, about 4 in every 10 young people in the world leave school without completing higher secondary.

The number of out-of-school children is also large. According to 2024 data, about 27.3 crore (273 million) children and young people worldwide are out of school. This is equal to 1 in every 6 children of school-going age. Population growth, conflicts across the world and cuts in education budgets have pushed up the number of out-of-school children for the seventh year in a row. Children also enrol late and are held back by repeatedly failing the same class, leaving them well behind for their age.

Low-income countries are in the worst position. In poor countries, only 13 young people from poor households complete higher secondary education for every 100 from the richest families. The state of education in villages is far more fragile than in cities.

The effect of the funding squeeze and budget cuts is also visible. In 2024, public spending on education was only 4.2 per cent of GDP and 12.6 per cent of total public expenditure. Of 183 countries, only 41 met the international benchmark for education budgets. Between 2023 and 2024, aid for education worldwide fell by 8 per cent, while aid for basic education recorded a sharp cut of 16 per cent.