VOA慢速英语2013 研究揭示了失学儿童的经济影响（在线收听）

Study Reveals Economic Impact of Uneducated Children 研究揭示了失学儿童的经济影响

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。

A new study finds a lack of education for young children in developing nations seriously affects the country's economic progress. The organization Results for Development called R4D performed the study. The Non-Governmental group is based in Washington D.C. Its study says children who are not attending primary school are an unused source of economic growth for their country.

一项新的研究发现，发展中国家儿童缺乏教育会严重影响该国的经济发展。被称为R4D的发展成果研究组织进行了这项研究。这家非政府组织总部设在华盛顿特区。其研究称，未上小学的孩子是他们国家一项未被利用的资源。

R4D says it performed the study because it was worried about a growing worldwide problem in education. The group found 57 million children of primary school age are not in school, most of them are from sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. 

R4D组织说他们进行这项研究是因为担心教育这个不断增长的世界难题。该组织发现5700万小学适龄儿童没有上学，他们中的大多数来自撒哈拉以南非洲和东南亚。

Milan Thomas works for R4D. He says there has been progress in reducing the number of children who do not attend school, but he says that progress has slowed in recent years. He says there is no disagreement that children with basic education can look forward to a better life.

米兰·托马斯就职于R4D组织。他说，在减少辍学儿童数量上取得了进展，但近年来这一进展有所放缓。他说，受过基础教育的儿童可以期盼更美好的生活，在这点上没有分歧。

"The benefits associated with primary education are really undisputed at this point because there are countless studies showing that children who complete basic education tend to enjoy better health and higher incomes over their lifetimes," said Thomas.

托马斯说，“小学教育的好处无可争议，因为有无数的研究显示，完成基础教育的儿童在其一生中往往享有更好的健康和收入水平。”

But he says even though the value of education is known, it is important to find new ways of proving that value. So the organization led its work with the question, "what is the estimated cost to a nation's economy of its out–of-school children? " 

但他表示，即使教育的价值众所周知，找到新办法来证明这一价值非常重要。所以该组织带着这一问题展开了工作，“一个国家的失学儿童对其经济预计有多大损失？”

The study uses information from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, as well as studies of developing labor markets. The results estimate the losses suffered by 20 developing countries if more young children can not get basic education. Milan Thomas says the study also considered earnings the children not attending primary school would never receive. 

该研究采用了来自联合国教科文组织统计研究所和其它发展中国家劳动力市场研究的资料。研究结果预估了20个发展中国家如果有更多儿童无法获得基础教育将要遭受的损失。托马斯表示，该研究还考虑了未上小学的儿童无法获得的那些收入。

He says the research found that it is far more costly in sub-Saharan Africa to have primary school age children out of school than to educate them. He notes the cost to provide all children with primary education is much less than the average cost of not providing the schooling. He says the cost of educating children is more than the value of a full year's average economic growth for five countries in the study: they are Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mali, Senegal and Yemen.

他说，研究发现，撒哈拉以南非洲地区小学适龄儿童失学的损失远高于教育他们的成本。他指出，为所有儿童提供小学教育的花费比不提供教育的平均损失要少得多。他说，在这项研究中，有5个国家教育儿童的费用超出了全年平均经济增长带来的价值。这5个国家是科特迪瓦、冈比亚、马里、塞内加尔和也门。

Mr Thomas says the cost of children being out-of-school in Senegal is nearly 8 percent of the country's total goods and services. He said Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children — 10 million. He said that will cost the country billions of dollars. 

托马斯表示，塞内加尔儿童辍学的代价占到该国全部商品和服务价值的8%。他说，尼日利亚失学儿童人数最大，达到了1千万人，这将使该国损失数十亿美元。

He says he hopes the study will prove to local governments and policy makers the value of a basic education for all children. And he says he hopes it will move them to provide that education to primary school age children in their country.

他说，他希望该研究向当地政府和政策制定者证实为所有儿童提供基础教育的价值。他还表示，他希望这能推动他们在其国家为小学适龄儿童提供教育。