Regional distribution of children in and out of school
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals . Goal 4 calls for "inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all". The first of the 10 targets within SDG 4 is: "By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes". The SDGs are the successor to the Millennium Development Goals that were adopted by the United Nations in 2000 and called, among other things, for universal primary education by 2015. Data by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) show that the education MDG has not been met. 124 million children of primary and lower secondary school age were still out of school in 2013 , the latest year for which reliable estimates are available. Among children of primary school age, the global out-of-school rate was 9%. Among adolescents of lower secondary sch...