Girls Out of School in Africa and S. Asia

• Almost ½ of the world’s out of school girls are in SSA. Around ¼ are in South Asia.
• In South Asia, the region’s total number of out-of-school girls dropped from 23 million girls to 9.5 million since 1999.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of out-of-school girls has decreased more slowly, from 25 million in 1999 to 17 million in 2008.
• Globally, there is still a large gender gap in youth literacy rates, although the gap has been shrinking over time.
• Still, the data seem to show that fewer girls are emerging from education systems with basic literacy skills than boys.