Educate All Girls and Boys in South Asia: The Global Out-of-School Children Initiative

Business as usual has not provided educational opportunities to world's most marginalized children. The South Asia Out-of-School Children Initiative (OOSCI) is part of the global initiative launched by UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in 2010. The goal of the initiative is to make significant and sustained reduction in the number of out-of-school children around the world by: (1) developing comprehensive profiles of excluded children using consistent and innovative statistical methods; (2) linking these profiles to the barriers and bottlenecks that lead to exclusion; and (3) identifying, promoting and implementing sound policies that address exclusion from a multi-sectorial perspective. This report presents a snapshot of progress made since 1999 in improving child nutrition, expanding pre-school education, getting more children to school. Presented are graphic illustrations statistically demonstrating exclusion in education in South Asia, where the out-of school children in South Asia reside, who the out-of school children in South Asia are, the learning crisis, and what keeps South Asia's children from education in this part of the world. Suggestions for change are proposed. [This report was produced under the leadership of Leotes Lugo Helin and Urmila Sarkar, with contributions from Frank van Capelle and Shailendra Sigdel.]