Facts on Education in South Asia

• South Asia has emerged by now as the most illiterate region in the world

• Income poverty is no barrier to the spread of basic education

• Political commitment to education in South Asia remains both faint and fragile

• South Asia has 243 million illiterate women, two-thirds of the region’s adult female population

• Spending less than an additional one per cent of South Asia’s combined GNP can ensure universal primary education

• Compulsory primary education laws must be enacted and strictly enforced

• Non-formal education is not the second best option, often it is the only option

• Even a freeze on current military spending will release sufficient resources for universal primary education

Mahbub-ul-Haq and Khadija Haq
Human Development in South Asia, 1998