Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
niority. These trends suggest that while progress has been made in the realm of economic justice, with the rewarding of initiative and talent, levels of inequality have continued to increase. Employment and work opportunities have improved for a minority but have deteriorated, in both quantitative and qualitative terms, for the majority of people in the world.
3.2.4 A better distribution of information and perhaps of knowledge, but a more uneven distribution of opportunities for quality education This complex and somewhat ambiguous title effectively represents an invitation to those interested in pursuing this line of inquiry rather than a set of informed conclusions reached by the Forum. Clearly, segments of the population that previously had little or no access to information now find it far more readily available. Radio, television and newspapers have touched the lives of people all along the socio-economic spectrum in virtually every corner of every nation. Wired and wireless technologies have revolutionized the exchange and dissemination of information; lnternet use has been characterized by exponential growth in every region of the world. The ICT revolution is often considered one of the defining features of globalization; its social, economic, cultural and political implications are enormous but have yet to be fully understood. Knowledge is also transferred through these new technologies; distance learning and other non-traditionaloptions have made education more accessible to many. In a more traditional context, there has been consistent improvement in school and university enrolment ratios. Even in Africa, which continues to face serious challenges in many areas of development, estimates indicate that between the early 1980s and 2000, primary enrolment ratios increased from 78 to 89 per cent for girls and from 85 to 95 per cent for boys, and rates of illiteracy declined from 61 to 46 per cent for women and from 40 to 29 per cent for men. In China, primary enrolment reached 98.6 per cent in 2000, and 97 per cent of those completing primary school were continuing on to the secondary level. Latin America is believed to have achieved full primary enrolment. In India, overall literacy rose from 52 per cent in 1991 to 65 per cent in 2000. Globally, a higher proportion of young people from poor and modest households now have the opportunity to acquire knowledge. The quality and depth of educational provision has been the subject of intense controversy, however. Mention is often made of the poor quality of education provided in primary schools in both developed and developing countries, and at the tertiary level gaps in educational quality appear to be widening. Children of wealthy and well-connected families have a much better chance of attending prestigious (or simply good) universities either at home or abroad than do children of families with limited means. The intergenerational transfer of inequalities in education re-