“UNESCO recently published an encouraging report on access to education around the world. It finds that 1.4 billion students were enrolled in school in 2024, 30 percent more than in 2000. Over the same period, the global ‘out-of-school rate,’ which measures the share of appropriately aged children who are not enrolled in primary or secondary school, fell from 27.2 percent to 16.8 percent,” notes The Doomslayer. But enrollment “has stagnated over the past decade,” it adds.
In some countries where student enrollment is already high, there may be no reason to increase enrollment further. The correlation between college enrollment and economic prosperity is weak. Germany has a lower college attendance rate than Russia, but Germany is much more prosperous than Russia. “Russia has one of the highest tertiary attainment rates in the world, with roughly 53% of adults (ages 25–64) having attained a tertiary (college) education….Germany has a lower percentage of the population with tertiary education compared to other OECD nations, with about 28% of adults (ages 25-64) having a college degree, as of 2022.”
Germany ranks high — second among G20 countries — in per capita income, while Russia ranks in the bottom half of the G20 countries.
Sending students to primary school has a bigger payoff. People don’t amount to much if they can’t even read and write. In some third world countries, education systems are so terrible that most students can’t do basic math even when they finish primary school, although some pick up basic math in secondary school. UNESCO notes that despite rising student enrollment, worldwide, “only two thirds of youth complete secondary school.” “Many young people disengaged with education and left school early, as they learned little and felt that their education had little relevance for their life prospects.”
In Africa, even secondary schools contain many students who are functionally illiterate and can’t do basic math, despite students’ eagerness to learn. 16 years ago, most seventh-graders in Nigeria couldn’t do basic arithmetic, such as adding 7+11. Nigeria’s education system has improved since then, but still is quite low in quality.
