The world is set to miss by more than half a century a deadline for ensuring all children receive secondary education, the United Nations said on Tuesday, adding that 40 percent of pupils are being taught in a language that is not their mother tongue.
World leaders agreed last year that by 2030 all girls and boys should be able to complete free quality primary and secondary education, but chronic under-funding is holding back progress, a U.N. report said.
"This report should set off alarm bells around the world and lead to a historic scale-up of actions to achieve (this goal)," economist Jeffrey Sachs said in a foreword.
The deadline on universal education was agreed as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - an ambitious plan to end poverty, hunger, advance equality and protect the environment.
On current trends, universal primary education will be achieved in 2042, universal lower secondary education in 2059 and upper secondary in 2084, according to U.N. educational body UNESCO.
