UNICEF celebrates girls’ education in Sri Lanka

[December 11, 2003 - 9.30 GMT] 

UNICEF’s new flagship report, State of the World’s Children 2004 was launched today celebrating Sri Lanka’s notable achievements in girls’ education. The report, which focuses on girls’ education around the world, reveals that whilst hundreds of millions of girls and women across the globe remain, Sri Lanka has achieved high female literacy rates.

However, UNICEF highlighted some pressing needs in terms of access and quality of education in Sri Lanka.

The report reveals that every year, globally, 9 million more girls than boys never see the inside of a classroom. With statistics indicating that in the least developed countries of the world, female literacy rates are as low as 42% and only half of girls attend primary school (53%), the reports asserts that the standard approach to universal education has failed.  But in South Asia, where the average female literacy is only 42% and an average 39% of girls are in secondary school, Sri Lanka represents a success story.

UNICEF Representative in Sri Lanka, Ted Chaiban, at the launch of the report, said, “With 97% of girls and boys enrolled in primary school and female literacy rates as high as 89%, Sri Lanka is an outstanding success story. It is due to the farsighted steps taken in Sri Lanka’s history -like the implementation of compulsory and free education - that the country has already achieved the Millennium Development Goal of gender parity in education by 2005.” 

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Last Updated Date: December 11, 2003  -9.30 GMT.