By Corwin Mollett

The goal was to get universal secondary education by 2030, but a report by UNESCO, the UN’s education, sciences, and cultural agency, shows that universal upper secondary education likely won’t happen until 2084.

James Richards, writing for Public Finance International, notes that poor countries are most affected. While India is poised to meet the goals by 2085 countries like Niger and Rwanda aren’t on track to meet them until 2100.

Irina Bokova, Director-General for UNESCO, said “A fundamental change is needed in the way we think about education’s role in global development, because it has a catalytic impact on the well-being of individuals and the future of our planet.”

The report published by UNESCO shows just how important meeting these education goals is — but universal education is an expensive task, writes Vikas Pota for the Telegraph. The goal is for developing world governments to devote four percent of their GDP to education:

Economist Jeffrey Sachs says, “This report should set off alarm bells around the world and lead to a historic scale-up of actions to achieve (this goal).”

Source: UNESCO: Global Education Goals Won’t Be Met Until 2085