One child in eight in developing countries gets no primary schooling, according to a UN report, which made clear that the Millennium Development Goal target of primary education for all the world's children by 2015 would not be met.
Of the approximately 75 million children in the developing world who receive no primary schooling, about 55 per cent are girls.
The Unesco report said that in sub-Saharan Africa one-third of all children did not go to school, despite progress in countries like Tanzania and Ethiopia. While this accounts for nearly half the global total, Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, makes up one in nine of the worldwide figure, according to the report issued yesterday.
Unesco said the official statistics for 2006 indicated that the UN goal of achieving universal primary education by the year 2015 would be missed. Current projections for 2015 indicated that in poorer countries at least 29 million children would be out of school, with countries like Nigeria and Pakistan scoring especially badly, it added.
Unesco blamed the situation on political indifference and poor policy-making by governments in the South but also on rich countries for failing to fulfil aid promises. It said the figures showed a vast gulf in educational opportunities not only between developed and developing countries but also within poorer economies between the well off and poor.