SINGAPORE, Dec 11 (AFP) - East Asian countries have made major progress in providing primary education to children but limited access to secondary education remains an acute problem, UNICEF officials said Thursday.
More than 60 million youths between 12 and 17 years of age are not enrolled in secondary education which can have important economic ramifications, officials from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said here.
"How can Asian economies continue to grow, and poverty be reduced, without a competitive workforce?," UNICEF East Asia and Pacific advisor Cliff Meyers said at a press conference marking the group's global 2004 report.
"Without the guidance, opportunities and creative outlets that secondary schools provide, today's youth are at risk, not only from drugs and HIV/AIDS, but to the deep frustration that missed educational opportunities represent," he said.
Aside from the pressing need to raise their education budgets, the respective national governments and donors have to safeguard the funds from being misused, UNICEF said.
"National governments and donors in the region must do more... not only in terms of maintaining, or in some cases, increasing their investment in education," Meyers said.
"Countries must also do more to ensure that education budgets are well spent, not being lost to corruption, and not being spent on educational programmes that are inefficient or ineffective," he said.
In primary education, sharp progress has been achieved where less than six million children in the region are presently deprived access to basic education, down sharply from 50 million in 1970, UNICEF said.
The key task now facing authorities is how best to raise the quality of the teaching, Meyers said.
"In primary education, we've got to look at quality," Meyers said. "It's not enough just to have kids in school... they have to be learning more," he said.
In UNICEF's annual report on the state of the world's children, the UN body said 65 million girls globally receive no schooling, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and poverty.
"The main thrust of this year's report is education.. focusing on girls' education because there is still a gap that needs to be addressed between boys' and girls' education," Meyers said.
Gender bias against girls is still evident in the region despite the huge economic progress achieved over the last two decades, UNICEF officials said.
"It's tied to poverty, traditional values... scarce resources mean you can't give everybody an opportunity and that's where favoritism for boys become an issue," Meyers said.
One way of addressing the issue is to "show that educating your girls make a difference," he said.
The UN body said educating girls has a multiplier effect because they in turn send their children to school. Girls also learn to defend themselves against HIV/AIDS and are less likely to be forced into prostitution if they are educated.
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