The UN Millennium Goals 1 and 2 Reports

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger -
Where do we stand now?

The report was presented by Julius Pyrhönen, Eva Saranpää, Milla Kotisaari, Annukka Tallgren, Veera Karjalainen, Anu Ylisaukko-oja and Kaisa Ojala.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal 2: To ensure primary schooling for all children - Where do we stand now?
The report was presented by Sami Aspelund, Toni Heikkinen, Miika Moilanen and Ola Länsman

To achieve the second goal by the deadline set by UN, all children at official entry age for primary schooling would have had to be attending classes by 2009. Instead of this, the enrolment rate for primary school is only 89% for the developing countries. This means that there are still 69 million children not going to school in 2008. About half of these children are in sub-Saharan Africa.

However, progress has been made since 2000, when the enrolment rate was still 83%. How did we get this far?

School fees were abolished in many countries e.g. Ghana and Ethiopia. This increased the enrolment rate hugely. Also investing in teaching infrastructure and hiring and educating more teachers has helped to achieve the millennium goal.

The biggest problems in achieving 100% enrolment rate are children dropping out from school before reaching the final grade and lack of teachers. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 30 percent of primary school students drop out before reaching a final grade. The lack of teachers and infrastructure is also most notable in sub-Saharan Africa.