China News Service, Paris, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A new report by UNESCO on the 8th warns that boys face a huge risk of dropping out of school.

　　Globally, the ratio of male to female higher education enrolment is 88:100, the report said.

In 73 countries, there are fewer boys than girls in upper secondary education, compared with 48 countries where the situation is reversed.

The data underscore a global phenomenon: factors such as child labour and poverty prevent boys from participating fully in learning and cause them to repeat and drop out of school.

　　In all regions except sub-Saharan Africa, young men are underrepresented in higher education.

This is particularly acute in North America, Western Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean, where the ratio of men to women in higher education is 81:100.

In East Asia and the Pacific, it is 87:100; in the Arab States and Central and Eastern Europe, it is 91:100.

　　The report also said that in 2020, 97 million of the 160 million children in labor were boys.

One of the main reasons for the existence of child labor is the lack of a protective legal framework.

　　Unesco director-general Azoulay said that poverty and childbirth can cause boys to drop out of school.

To prevent this, countries urgently need to combine the minimum age for employment with the number of years of compulsory education.

　　The report revealed that, in some countries, signs of boys falling behind in education are already visible at the end of primary education.

In 57 countries with data, 10-year-old boys perform worse than girls in reading skills, while adolescent boys continue to lag behind girls in reading skills at the secondary level.

This trend is evident in East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Arab States, which are also the regions with the highest risk of dropping out of school for boys.

　　The UNESCO report also shows that there are very few programmes and initiatives to address the phenomenon of boys dropping out of school.

The report provides a set of specific recommendations to prevent boys from dropping out of school, build safe and inclusive learning environments, invest in data collection and evidence collection, build and fund equitable education systems, and promote an integrated and coordinated approach for all learners Improve education.

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