70 Million

23 Sep 2010 - Nearly 70 million children are not getting an education despite much progress in the last 10 years. The financial crisis has forced poor countries to cut education budgets by USD 4.6 billion a year at a time when more efforts are needed to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals of ensuring primary school education for every child in the world by the year 2015. Ten countries were listed at the bottom of the education list, all of which but Haiti are in Africa. Named were Somalia, Eritrea, Comoros, Ethiopia, Chad, Burkina Fasso, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Liberia. The ranking were based on access to basic education, teacher-student ratio and education provision to girls. The UN children's agency UNICEF said spending USD 1 million helping children aged 5 and younger in the most remote and disadvantaged areas would prevent 60% more deaths than the current approach, calling it a "stunning higher return on investment."