Factsheets

Factsheets

Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

 

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

© UNICEF oPt/2008

Children face increasing challenges in attaining and completing an education. The effects of the conflict exacerbate already-difficult learning conditions for children. Closures, curfews and military operations continuously disrupt children’s schooling. Poor learning facilities and overcrowded classrooms (with almost 20 per cent of governmental schools working in double shifts) adversely affect students’ ability to learn. Inadequate water and sanitation systems, limited educational and recreational supplies and insufficient facilities for extracurricular activities are among the many challenges schools face.

While literacy rates in oPt, particularly for females, are the highest in the Arab world, basic education enrolment rates dropped from 96.8 per cent in 2000–2001 to 91.2 per cent in 2006–2007. Learning achievement rates are also dropping. In 2008, only 19.7 per cent of 16,000 sixth-graders in Gaza passed standardized tests in Arabic, Mathematics, Science and English, compared with around 50 per cent of their peers in Nablus and Jenin.  At least 30 per cent of adolescents do not enrol in secondary school.