Secondary education is essential for individual children to achieve their full potential, and for nations to advance social and economic development. Yet less than 60 per cent of children of the appropriate age attend secondary school.

In sub-Saharan Africa, that number drops to less than 30 per cent. In this region, substantially more secondary school-age children attend primary school than attend secondary school; only 1 out of 4 children of secondary school age actually attends secondary school. Throughout the world, 1 out of 6 children of secondary school age is still in primary school.  The poorer a child’s household, the less likely the child is to attend secondary school.