Our challenges

While trends are broadly positive in education, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are not on track to reach the education MDGs by 2015. An estimated 30 million primary school children are out of school in Commonwealth countries, 57 per cent of who are girls. 85 per cent of children out of school in the Commonwealth live in Ghana, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Pakistan. Achieving Universal Primary Education, therefore, remains a serious Commonwealth challenge.

Our challenges include:

• The level of prioritisation of education given by governments
• Planning and management of the teaching profession issues such as training, deployment and remuneration.
• Social and cultural impediments that prevent children attending school
• The devastating effects of HIV/AIDS on education delivery systems in some countries.