Introduction

Article 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserted in 1948 that a minimum level of education is a basic right of every individual. ¹ Both signaling and sparking education awareness and effort globally, the assertion contributed to the acceleration of a long and ongoing global transition in access to and attainment of formal education. The magnitude of that transition is quite remarkable. In 1950, the global primary gross enrollment rate was 58 percent; at the secondary level, it was 12.7 percent and at the tertiary level 1.4 percent. ² By 2005, a relatively short fifty-five years later, global gross enrollment rates had moved strikingly higher: to 101 percent at the primary level, ³ to 70 percent at the secondary level, and to 31 percent at the tertiary level.