Everyone agrees that education is crucial to a child’s development, but education is not available for all kids in many parts of the world. In fact, more than 120 million children between the ages of six and 11 are not in school because they are working, sick or can’t afford it. Sometimes, it’s because there are no schools nearby.

Education can be the answer. It has a positive impact on each of the Millennium Development Goals, from poverty to gender equality to child mortality.

“Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” –Oprah Winfrey, O magazine, March 2007

With a proper education, a child learns basic skills, like literacy, which increase their adult income. This means they can send their own kids to school and break their family out of the cycle of poverty.

The Facts Paint the Picture:

• For every year of quality education that a child receives, their adult earning potential increases by a worldwide average of 10 percent.
• Educated women are more likely to have children that survive and are healthy, because educated women have learned the importance of nutrition and proper health care.
• Educated mothers are also more likely to send their own children to school, thus breaking cycles of poverty and freeing children from situations of child labor.

Education and the Millennium Development Goals

The theme of education includes two specific Millennium Development Goals. These are:

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

What We Need To Do:

Ensure all children—boys and girls alike—complete a full course of primary school.

The Challenge:

• About 120 million children are out of school.
• More than half of the children who do not attend school are girls, and a disproportionate number of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

What We Need To Do:

Promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as basic human rights and allow women to participate equally in education, employment and political decision-making.

The Challenge:

• Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women.
• Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours and yet earn only 10 percent of the world’s income and own less than one percent of the world’s property.