The State of the World's Children 2004: Girls, Education and Development

Universal education might seem a relatively straightforward goal but it has proven as difficult as any to achieve. Decades after commitments and reaffirmations of those commitments have been made to ensure a quality education for every child, some 121 million children are still denied this right. Despite thousands of successful projects in countries around the globe, gender parity in education – in access to school, successful achievement and completion – is as elusive as ever and girls continue to systematically lose out on the benefits that an education affords.