The global figure for the number of children without access to schools has fallen to 57 million, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

But the improvement is unlikely to be enough to meet the millennium pledge for primary education for all by 2015.

These latest figures are for 2011 and are a fall from an estimate of 61 million missing school in 2010.

Unesco’s director general Irinia Bokova says: “We are at a critical juncture.”

Each year there is a monitoring report from Unesco measuring the world’s progress towards the goal of universal primary education – with recent years showing a stagnation after early gains.

But these latest numbers provide a more up-to-date picture, ahead of a United Nations meeting on how to give fresh impetus to efforts to get all children into education.

This update also shows that aid for basic education has fallen by 6% and that most of the major donors have cut their funding in the past year. It means that the UK is now ranked by Unesco as the largest direct donor to basic education.

Global pledge

The pledge for universal primary education made by world leaders in 2000 seems increasingly likely to be missed – and there are already discussions about setting new post-2015 targets.

There had been a previous target set in 1990 to achieve this by 2000. When this was missed the goal had been moved forward to 2015.

These latest mid-year figures do show some progress, but part of this is because previous estimates have been revised. The actual progress is about 2 million fewer children missing school, according to Unesco.

More than half of the children missing out on school are now in sub-Saharan Africa. The last annual report showed that in some countries, including Nigeria, the problem is getting worse rather than better.

In contrast, in south and west Asia there have been considerable gains, cutting the numbers of out-of-school children by two thirds in two decades.

Malala’s campaign

However the annual comparisons show that in Pakistan there were more children without schools in 2011 than in 2010.

Malala Yousafzai, a teenage schoolgirl from Pakistan, has become an international campaigner for the right to education, after she had been shot by the Taliban last year.

Pakistan has the second largest number of children without schools – although it has been making substantial improvements, with the third biggest increase in pupils in schools over the past five years.

In terms of annual changes, Ethiopia and Uganda have made the biggest progress in getting pupils into schools.

There are also concerns about making sure that pupils remain in school.

Despite the advances in getting more children to begin school, Unesco says there has not been corresponding progress in pupils staying in school, without about a quarter dropping out before the end of primary school.

There will also be an emphasis on the quality of education and what children learn.

“The world must move beyond helping children enter school to also ensure that they actually learn the basics when they are there,” says Unesco chief, Irina Bokova.

“Now is not the time for aid donors to back out. Quite the reverse: to reach these children and our ambition to end the learning crisis, donors must renew their commitments so that no child is left out of school due to lack of resources, as they pledged at the turn of this century.”

The deputy prime minister telephoned leaders in the childcare sector on Wednesday morning and told them the plans were “dead in the water”.

The government had previously said the changes would increase childcare places and quality and cut costs.

But critics said care quality would suffer.

The changes, which were due to come in this autumn, would have allowed an increase in the ratio of children to carers, as long as carers’ qualifications met new standards.

‘Evidence against change’

A statement from Nick Clegg’s office says: “After lengthy discussions both inside of government and outside with stakeholders, the deputy prime minister has today confirmed that the changes to ratios for pre-school children that were consulted on earlier in the year will not go ahead.”

Mr Clegg is quoted as saying: “When you are talking about something this important to parents, I think it is imperative to be led by the evidence – which is overwhelmingly against changing the rules on ratios.

“The proposals to increase ratios were put out to consultation and were roundly criticised by parents, providers and experts alike. Most importantly, there is no real evidence that increasing ratios will reduce the cost of childcare for families.

“The argument that this will help families with their weekly childcare bill simply does not stack up.

“I cannot ask parents to accept such a controversial change with no real guarantee it will save them money – in fact it could cost them more.”

“I have concluded that, because it will not reduce costs for parents or increase the quality of childcare, the proposed ratio changes for pre-school children cannot proceed.”

Sharon Hodgson, Labour’s shadow Children’s Minister, said: “This just goes to show that David Cameron does not have a credible plan to help families access good quality, affordable childcare.

“The government’s own experts were agreed that cutting childcare staff numbers would have seriously endangered quality and safety, and would not have cut costs to parents.

“Ministers have wasted a year on these flawed plans while childcare costs have kept on rising and thousands of childcare places have been lost.”

‘Ill-advised plan’

Childcare charities have welcomed the apparent U-turn.

Neil Leitch, the chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the deputy prime minister has intervened and listened to the concerns and evidence gathered by the sector, parents and early years experts which dismantled the arguments for taking forward this ill-advised plan.

“It is a real testimony to the strength of those practitioners and parents who campaigned so actively over the past few months to challenge these plans.

“The sector is supportive of the government’s aims to raise the status and quality of the childcare workforce. But this proposal was not the way to achieve this.

“The government argued that these changes were in the best interest of parents and would lead to lower childcare costs, but parents themselves made it abundantly clear to us that while they would like cheaper childcare, jeopardising quality and the safety of their children was a much higher price than they were prepared to pay.”

Liz Bayram, joint chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, said the organisation was “relieved” by the decision.

“Whilst today’s announcement is good news for children and families, there remains a great deal of sector concern around other government childcare proposals. There needs to be a more full and open discussion with the sector and parents around how to make this a reality.”

Mumsnet co-founder Justine Roberts said users of the site had opposed the changes and would be relieved.

“Parents were unconvinced that the suggested changes would lead to lower childcare costs but did believe that the quality of care would be adversely affected,” she said.

“Put simply, four babies under one or six under-twos is a lot for even the most experienced childcare worker to manage.”

Statutory ratios for carers per child vary depending on age and setting.

Ratios for two-year-olds were going to rise from four children per adult to six children per adult, and for children aged under one from three children per adult to four children per adult.

Ratios for three-year-olds and over were to remain at eight or 13 children per adult, depending on whether a qualified graduate was present.

The government had said the changes were about raising standards and would bring the UK in line with countries such as France and Sweden. England’s higher ratios had led to higher costs for parents and lower pay for staff, ministers had said.

Only nurseries that hired staff with higher qualifications were to be allowed to take on more children.

High fees and limited funding are increasingly squeezing talented graduates out of postgraduate study, it says in a report.

The current postgraduate funding scheme is “breathtakingly inadequate” and needs overhaul, say the report authors.

The government welcomed the report “as a useful contribution to the debate”.

‘Priced out’

Postgraduate study is increasingly dominated by people who can pay course fees upfront, argues the study.

The lack of an undergraduate style loans system means poorer students are often unable to take up places on postgraduate courses, it says.

The report is particularly critical of the government backed professional and career development loan scheme (PCDLS).

The scheme makes loans too hard to obtain, it says – in 2010 it helped only 5,700 graduates finance their studies, less than 3% of the total number of home students who started postgraduate courses that year.

The repayment arrangements are also too demanding say the report authors – the government pays the interest during the course, but as soon as it is over students must start repayments, including interest, no matter how little they may be earning.

The study draws on figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency which suggest that the number of UK graduates enrolling on taught masters degrees is in decline in England, particularly among part-time students.

“There was a 4.5% fall in UK postgraduate participation at English institutions in 2011, while first year part-time enrolments in England fell by almost a quarter.

“Without policy intervention, these trends are likely to continue, the club is getting more exclusive”, warn the authors.

“Even among graduates with the best first degrees, those from more affluent households are much likelier to be found on postgraduate courses”.

With postgraduate qualifications increasingly required by employers, a proper strategy for funding postgraduate education is vital both for social mobility and to ensure that the UK has enough highly skilled workers, Centre Forum argues.

“No country has ever seen its growth rate fall because it has overeducated its population but there are plenty of examples of countries that have suffered from having too few skilled workers”.

The report calls for the PCDLS to be scrapped and replaced by a new postgraduate loan scheme, similar to the existing undergraduate student loan scheme, which students start paying off once they start earning more than £21,000 a year.

The government should set up pilots to determine the best model for a new loan scheme “as a priority”.

Universities should also raise funds from financial markets, donations and endowments to run postgraduate scholarship schemes for low income students, they argue.

‘Extreme gamble’

A spokesman for the Department of Business Industry and Skills said the government was committed to supporting postgraduate study.

Funding for taught and research postgraduate programmes would increase by more than £200m in the two years to 2015, he added.

“We have asked Hefce [the Higher Education Funding Council for England] to review participation in postgraduate study, following the changes to undergraduate funding, as part of a longer term assessment and evaluation of the impact of funding changes.”

Rachel Wenstone from the National Union of Students said: “You increasingly have to be either extremely rich, extremely lucky, or take an extreme gamble, taking on dangerous levels of debt, to take a master’s in this country.

“The government needs to listen to experts and find an alternative that provides real support for students to pay their fees and support themselves while they study.”

Nicola Dandridge from Universities UK, said: “The limited funding options available for postgraduate study are a cause for concern.

“It is not yet clear how changes to undergraduate fees will affect graduates’ decisions on further study but it is right that postgraduate funding should come under closer scrutiny.

“Universities UK believes that there is a need for a solution which combines both public and private funding so that no-one with the ability and motivation to undertake postgraduate study is prevented from doing so by financial barriers.”

Principal Jo Shuter, of Quintin Kynaston Community Academy, in London, said: “My 11 years of headship have been a source of pride and happiness.”

Patrick Lees, chairman of the school’s governing body, said: “Jo felt her position at QK had become untenable.”

Last month, a Department for Education (DfEd) report criticised Ms Shuter over “extravagant” spending.

The head teacher of the school in St John’s Wood was suspended over financial issues in 2012 and later reinstated.

‘Fraud’ claim

But a DfEd investigation, which looked at spending between January 2011 and August 2012, detailed numerous concerns, including:

• Ms Shuter not declaring any business interests despite having close links to a number of suppliers used by the academy
• “Widespread” personal use of academy taxi accounts with an estimated £2,663 of personal travel costs identified
• At least two cases of expenses being claimed more than once from different organisations, which “could amount to fraud”
• A number of issues relating to the employment of family members

The investigation also revealed how senior staff members held off-site meetings at exclusive hotels. An overnight meeting held in January 2012 at the Grove Hotel, in Chandlers Cross, cost £8,269.

In another incident which caused the report authors concern, the academy bought chairs to the value of £1,579, which were delivered to Ms Shuter’s home.

Ms Shuter was named head teacher of the year at the 2007 Teaching Awards and appointed CBE in June 2010.

Announcing her resignation, Ms Shuter, who lives in Dollis Hill, north-west London, said: “It is with sadness and regret that I have taken the difficult decision to tender my resignation as head teacher of QK Academy following the governors’ decision to reinstate me after a lengthy investigation.”

Mr Lees said: “Whilst we as the governing body have reinstated Jo, following the publication of the EFA report last week Jo felt her position at QK had become untenable.

“She has today proffered her resignation, which we have accepted.”