Looking for Regional Champions

The world’s most disadvantaged kids have the least access to quality education. When they do attend school, they often don’t receive the extra support and high expectations they need to beat the odds. Millions of children leave school every day without the skills they need to attain financial security and be informed, contributing citizens with real prospects for the future.

Why does it matter? Educational inequity is everyone’s problem. The consequences of educational inequity affect individuals, communities, and our larger society.

Educational inequity contributes to higher unemployment and weaker economies. The cost of Pakistan’s education crisis is equivalent to that of a devastating flood every year—100 billion rupees.

Educational inequity sustains crime and violence. In the United States, a male high school dropout is 47 times more likely to be incarcerated than a college graduate.

Educational inequity fuels prejudice that starts in the classroom and perpetuates injustice and conflict across borders. When a country’s secondary school enrollment rate is 10% higher than average, its risk of civil war decreases by 3%.

Educational inequity perpetuates poverty. If all students in low income countries left school with basic reading skills, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day would be reduced by 12%—lifting 171 million people out of poverty.