JUST one in three countries has met the United Nations’s Education For All goals set in 2000, though there has been “tremendous progress,” UN cultural body Unesco announced yesterday.

Researchers found that 52 per cent of countries were providing universal primary schooling, but that 38 per cent were “far or very far” away from doing so.

Fifty million more children are enrolled in school than in 1999, but 100 million children do not complete their primary education.

The poorest are five times less likely to finish than the richest.

“Despite not meeting the 2015 deadline, millions more children are in school than would have been had the trends of the 1990s persisted,” said Unesco director-general Irini Bokova.

She called on countries to “prioritise the poorest — especially girls” — and massively increase literacy.

The Unesco report says that an extra £15 billion a year is needed if goals set for 2030 are to be achieved.

Cuba was the only country in Latin America to reach all of the goals, while, in west Africa, the overall score in Burkina Faso and Niger improved by 30 per cent.