[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.37]this is the Education Report.
[00:05.24]A new study finds a lack of education
[00:08.99]for young children in developing nations
[00:11.95]seriously affects the country's economic progress.
[00:16.25]The organization Results for Development
[00:20.62]called R4D performed the study.
[00:24.73]The Non-Governmental group is based in Washington D.C.
[00:29.10]Its study says children who are not attending primary school
[00:34.64]are an unused source of economic growth for their country.
[00:40.01]R4D says it performed the study because it was worried
[00:45.38]about a growing worldwide problem in education.
[00:49.81]The group found 57 million children of primary school age
[00:55.48]are not in school,
[00:57.73]most of them are from sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
[01:03.66]Milan Thomas works for R4D.
[01:06.87]He says there has been progress
[01:09.54]in reducing the number of children who do not attend school,
[01:14.57]but he says that progress has slowed in recent years.
[01:19.04]He says there is no disagreement that children
[01:22.95]with basic education can look forward to a better life.
[01:27.57]"The benefits associated with primary education
[01:29.82]are really undisputed at this point
[01:31.63]because there are countless studies
[01:32.92]showing that children who complete basic education
[01:35.13]tend to enjoy better health
[01:36.68]and higher incomes over their lifetimes," said Thomas.
[01:38.94]But he says even though the value of education is known,
[01:43.26]it is important to find new ways of proving that value.
[01:48.04]So the organization led its work with the question,
[01:52.50]"what is the estimated cost to a nation's economy
[01:57.15]of its out–of-school children? "
[01:59.91]The study uses information
[02:02.12]from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics,
[02:05.89]as well as studies of developing labor markets.
[02:09.26]The results estimate the losses suffered
[02:12.67]by 20 developing countries
[02:14.63]if more young children can not get basic education.
[02:19.50]Milan Thomas says the study also considered earnings
[02:23.52]the children not attending primary school would never receive.
[02:29.03]He says the research found that it is far more costly
[02:33.46]in sub-Saharan Africa to have primary school age children
[02:38.55]out of school than to educate them.
[02:41.65]He notes the cost to provide all children with primary education
[02:46.33]is much less than the average cost of not providing the schooling.
[02:52.64]He says the cost of educating children
[02:55.43]is more than the value of a full year’s
[02:59.15]average economic growth for five countries in the study:
[03:03.88]they are Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mali, Senegal and Yemen.
[03:10.23]Mr Thomas says the cost of children being out-of-school in Senegal
[03:15.17]is nearly 8 percent of the country's total goods and services.
[03:20.80]He said Nigeria has the highest number
[03:24.12]of out-of-school children — 10 million.
[03:27.08]He said that will cost the country billions of dollars.
[03:31.65]He says he hopes the study will prove to local governments
[03:35.73]and policy makers the value of a basic education for all children.
[03:41.90]And he says he hopes it will move them to provide that education
[03:46.57]to primary school age children in their country.
[03:50.18]And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report.
[03:55.15]I'm Christopher Cruise.