Geneva - Brazil's School Scholarship program [which pays families to keep their children in school] is one of the highlights of a Unicef report presented at the World Summit of the Information Society. "The School Scholarship program is so successful it is being adopted in sub-Saharan countries of Africa," says the report, which lists it as one of the best practices worldwide in the effort to improve child education.

The Unicef report (World Children 2004) expresses concern regarding the problem of children in developing nations who are of school age but not in the classroom. "Little girls suffer doubly: because they are female and because they are poor," says the report.

However, the report goes on to say that in Brazil and most of Latin America the situation has improved. "In Brazil in 1996, the average number of years of formal education for men was 5.7, and for women 6," says the report. (AB)