Lack of education, particularly among children, continues to be one of the main challenges to the well-being and quality of life of children worldwide, concludes a recent Oxfam International report titled, "Education Now: Break the Cycle of Poverty." According to this report, there are currently 125 million children who never attend school, and 150 million children who start school but drop out before they can read or write. This situation also affects adults in the developing world, one in four of whom is illiterate. Unless some wide-ranging measures are implemented soon, this could translate into a crisis situation that could have serious effects on the population, particularly those living in developing countries.

Lack of access to education is particularly serious in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for almost one-third of the total out-of-school population. If present trends continue, it will account for three-quarters of that total population in 2015. It is estimated that by that year, an additional 9 million children will be without an education, thus making 54 million African children lacking even the most elementary education. In 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, there has been a decline in children's enrollment rates. That sub-Saharan Africa has also been particularly hit by the AIDS epidemic underscores the need to increase resources to combat illiteracy as a basic strategy against this disease.

Lack of education in parents, particularly for mothers, can have serious consequences on the health status of their children. The more educated the mother, the greater the chances of having healthy children. It has been shown that each additional year spent by mothers in primary schools reduces the children's risk of premature death by almost 10 percent.