The Educational Scene

Abstract

Third World countries are as deprived in education as they are in other respects. Two sets of statistics make this clear: the figures for literacy, and the proportions of children of primary school age who are attending school. World Bank figures for literacy are shown in Table 7.1. Differences in literacy clearly vary between groups of countries according to their levels of income. The exceptions to this are the high-income oil exporters. Although they have made striking progress over the twenty-year period, they still have some way to go before they catch up with even the poorest of the other countries.