Learning to escape the poverty trap

World poverty could be cut in half if all adults completed high school.

According to Unesco's Global Education Monitoring Report, nearly 60million people could escape poverty if all adults had just two more years of schooling.

"If all adults completed secondary education, 420million [people] could be lifted out of poverty, reducing the total number of poor people by more than half globally and by almost two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia," said report spokesman Kate Redman.

She said studies showed that education has direct and indirect impacts on economic growth and poverty.

"Education provides skills that boost employment opportunities and incomes. A more equitable expansion of education is likely to reduce inequality, lifting the poorest from the bottom of the ladder," Redman said.

The report called on countries to improve the quality of education and stressed the need to reduce the costs of education.