Education With falling school enrolment rates, deteriorating education quality and school systems struggling to overcome the global financial crisis, education is a top priority for UNICEF across the CEECIS region. The region was once famous for universal education and high learning achievements. Yet the economic, social and political upheaval of the period of transition placed enormous stress on education systems, and today the region is falling behind.
Education quality in the region has not kept pace with its economic development, and the region now has the second lowest central government expenditure on education worldwide. Under-resourced education systems struggle with challenges of access, quality and governance. Education is also jeopardized by classrooms that have no heating or textbooks, and by family poverty that keeps children out of school. UNICEF found that, in 2006, 15-year-old students in the region scored significantly below their peers in Western Europe 9 in reading, mathematics and science.