Female literacy rates still lag behind young men – Unesco

WHILE literacy rates for youth are rising, but young women and girls continue to lag behind young men, according to the new data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Institute for Statistics (UIS) stressing that more than half of countries with data have youth literacy rates of 95 percent or higher.

Unesco said female youth aged 15 to 24 are making the strongest gains, but in 2011, 87 percent of them had basic literacy skills, compared to 92 percent of males.