The Economic Cost of Out of School Children in Southeast Asia
The project targets out of school children (OOSC), including those born into poverty, the disabled, migrant and stateless children, girls, those living in remote areas and ethnic minorities.
Co-published by UNESCO Bangkok and the Results for Development Institute (R4D), the report looks at the benefits of primary education and estimates the economic cost associated with large populations of OOSC in seven Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
To help education policymakers and decision-makers gain a clear understanding of the significant economic incentives linked to educating OOSC, the report used two methods to estimate the economic loss resulting from not educating these children.
The first estimation approach uses labour market data to estimate the total earnings which will be forfeited in the near future due to under-educated workers if primary school enrolment patterns do not change.
The second approach is based on cross-country regressions that estimate the relationship between national education attainment and per capita income.
Download the full report here.
