Pakistan and India are among four developing countries where the largest number of 23 million children are still out of school though the overall number fell sharply due to a large reduction in India.

"There are 28 developing countries with over half a million out of school children each. Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Ethiopia are home to the largest number of 23 million," the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007 said.

Observing that 77 million children were not enrolled in schools in 2004, 21 million less than in 1999, the report pointed out that the number fell in all developing countries between 1999 and 2004, with sharp decreases in south and west
Asia, mostly due to a large reduction in India.

"The global estimate, high though it is, understates the problem: data from household surveys show that many children enrolled in school do not attend regularly," it said.

The report was released by Keshav Desiraju and Subash Chandra Khuntia, joint secretaries in the HRD ministry in presence of UNESCO Director Minja, who said that India has shown political will in this direction and the trend in the country was extremely positive though much more needed to be done.

Though investment in education sector has gone up to nearly four per cent, she said it was still inadequate and more public-private partnership was needed in this important sector.