Facts:

Currently 69 million children are out of school. 


More than 700 million children don't know how to read or write.


Today 680 million children are enrolled in primary schools around the world. Yet, a lot more still needs to be done. More than 100 million children, over half of them girls, never get a chance to see the inside of a classroom.


The number of out-of-school children has declined from 25 million in 2003 to 8.1 million in mid-2009.


A high school dropout will earn about $260,000 less than high school graduates and $800,000 less than college graduates in their lifetime. 


High school dropouts have a life expectancy 9.2 years shorter than high school graduates.


A one-year increase in average years of schooling for dropouts would reduce murder and assault rates by almost 30%, motor vehicle theft by 20%, arson by 13%, and burglary and larceny by about 6%.


There are 781 million illiterate adults worldwide, and 64 percentof them are women. 


Of the 22 countries where more than half the population is illiterate, 15 are in Africa.


About 75 percent of children out of primary school in developing countries have mothers who did not go to school.