Unicef's annual flagship report, The State of the World's Children, published this month, said, 'Every year an increasing number of children are accommodated within primary education, but available places are not sufficient to keep pace with the annual growth in the school-age population.
'As a result, the global number of children out of school stubbornly remains undiminished at 121 million - and the majority is still girls.'
The worst affected area is sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of girls left out of school has risen from 20 million in 1990 to 24 million in 2002.
South Asia, east Asia and the Pacific region are also severely affected, while enrolment levels in Latin America and the Caribbean are close to those in industrialised countries.
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