The state of global education in 8 charts

These 8 graphs explain the key challenges that education is facing around the world, the key progress developing countries are making, in particular GPE partner countries, and why education is crucial to achieving a better world for all.

January 10, 2018 by GPE Secretariat
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5 minutes read

In the second half of 2017, two major reports were released by the World Bank and the Global Education Monitoring Report to take the pulse of global education, in particular in the world's poorest countries. We extracted the 8 charts below from these reports, as well as from the Learning Generation by the Education Commission, and GPE's Results Report 2015/2016.

In a visual and easy-to-grasp way, these charts explain the key challenges facing education and some of its most promising results to bring about a more stable and prosperous world for all.

1. We can't fix what we don't know

The World Development Report 2018 highlighted the learning crisis around the world. Key in addressing it is to obtain the right data on how and how much children are learning, which is missing in many countries. At the lower secondary level, less than 50% of countries around the world gather data on reading results.

From: Learning to realize education's promise - Overview, p. 16

From: Learning to realize education's promise - Overview, p. 16

2. Gender parity is still an issue in many countries

Gender parity in school is about providing equal opportunities and equal support to all girls and boys. There has been important progress in this area, but in many countries, girls lag behind boys in the early grades, and in some cases boys lag behind girls in higher education.

From: Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments - Summary, p. 40

From: Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments - Summary, p. 40

3. The world needs more trained teachers

Globally, there are more trained teachers and fewer students per teacher, which is important to improve the quality of education. But a high population growth, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, will result in higher numbers of children in school, and thus a need for more teachers.

From: Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments - Summary, p. 48

From: Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments - Summary, p. 48

4. Improving the quality of education requires more funding...

... from donors

Official development assistance (ODA) to education has gone down for six year in a row, but aid to other sectors like health or infrastructure keeps going up. Education aid needs to increase if we are to realize the promise of education.

From: Learning generation - Executive summary, p. 12

From: Learning generation - Executive summary, p. 12

... and from developing countries

Developing countries also need to increase their own education spending . GPE is asking them to spend 20% of their overall budgets on education and many of GPE partner countries already do.

From: Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments - Summary, p. 50

From: Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments - Summary, p. 50

5. In GPE partner countries, more children complete primary and lower secondary school

The lines in the graphs below are rising faster for GPE partner countries than for developing countries overall. Proof that the GPE model of aligning all support to national education priorities works.

From: Results Report 2015/2016, Abridged version, p. 30

From: Results Report 2015/2016, Abridged version, p. 30

6. More education means more gender equality and better paying jobs

In all regions of the world, women benefit the most from achieving higher levels of education. All the more reason to invest in girls' education.

From: Learning to realize education's promise, p. 39

From: Learning to realize education's promise, p. 39

7. More education means a more democratic world

Education has a big role to play in making our world safer and more stable. For example, youth without an education are 9 times more likely to be recruited by rebel groups.

From: Learning to realize education's promise, p. 43

From: Learning to realize education's promise, p. 43

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Bonjour,
j'ai beaucoup apprécié les documents et les analyses du site. En tant qu'inspecteur de l'éducation, je voudrais pouvoir avoir des versions imprimables pour en faire des documents à partager avec les directeurs et enseignants de notre circonscription.

I would commend GPE in summarizing the state of education in 8 pertinent charts or indicators. It is very informative and effective messages. I thought equitable access to quality primary education would have made the list on top spot or second place. lack of access to schooling is still a key barrier to many children in developing countries...

In reply to by Papa Amadou GUEYE

Merci de votre commentaire. Il y a plusieurs façons d'imprimer les billets de blog que nous publions, suivant votre système et votre browser. Vous pouvez par exemple cliquer du coté droit de la souris sur le texte d'un blog, et une fenêtre s'ouvrira, dont l'une des options est "imprimer". Vous pouvez aussi cliquer sur le signe + en orange (icone à droite du texte), ce qui ouvrira une autre fenêtre, là aussi avec une option pour imprimer. Evidemment, le format de ces pages imprimées n'est pas aussi bon que si elles avaient été conçues comme des publications, mais au moins vous pourrez partager le contenu que vous aimez.

Hi! My name is Claudia. I go to the American School of Valencia, Spain, and I would like to use the first graph for my project. Could you send me an email back telling me if I can use it?
Thanks

In reply to by Claudia Ponsoda

Hi Claudia,
Feel free to use the content and graphs of this blog. Just be sure to add credit back to the Global Partnership for Education, possibly with a link to this blog. Thank you

Hello! My name is Preet. I am from Middleton Grange School, New Zealand- and was wondering if I could use one of our graphs for my project? It would be great if you could get back to me as soon as possible:)
Thank you!

In reply to by Preet

Hi Preet
you are welcome to use any of the graphs in this blog; Please note that they are extracted from reports issued by other organizations so be sure to add credit to them. Thank you.

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