The UN’s “Women of the World” report found that while women are living longer and marrying later, two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. The UN aims to achieve quality education and gender equality by 2030, but 58 million children are still out of school, with 31 million being girls. The end of illiteracy among children and young adults could be achieved by 2030, but more adult education programs are needed.
Every five years, the United Nations produces a report entitled “Women of the World” which examines a variety of topics related to gender. The 2015 report found that women are living longer, marrying later in life and less likely to die in childbirth. But an important problem still persists. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women, and this ratio has changed very little over the past 20 years. According to 2015 data, there are approximately 781 million illiterate adults (people over the age of 15) worldwide, of which 496 million are women.
A future with quality education for all:
“Quality education” and “gender equality” are among the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations hopes to achieve by 2030; more specific goals include improving literacy rates and eliminating gender disparities in education.
Despite the overall gender disparity in literacy rates, some progress has been made since the United Nations set its Millennium Development Goals in 2000. Many parts of the world have achieved universal primary education. However, there are still an estimated 58 million children out of school; 31 million of them are girls, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.
United Nations policy specialist Ionica Berevoescu thinks that the end of illiteracy among children and young adults could be achieved by 2030, but more adult education programs will need to be implemented to help the elderly. Globally, 30% of women and 19% of men over the age of 65 are illiterate.
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