Here's yet another confirmation of India 's poor record in the field of school education. The latest South and East Asia regional report of Unesco Institute of Statistics says India has the highest number of out-of-school girls in South and East Asia . The report says almost 45 per cent of the 28 million out-of-school girls in East and South Asia are from India . They are children who are officially of school-going age but do not receive primary education. Based on the figures of 2000-2001, the report says in India , only half of the children who enter primary school reach class V. The dropout rate is 53 per cent and survival rate is 47 per cent, the lowest in South and East Asia . Despite this dismal scenario, public funding in education has not risen in India . The report says India spent 4.1 per cent of its GDP on education in 2000-2001. Out of the total government expenditure, India spent 12.7 per cent on education. Pakistan spent only 1.8 per cent of its GDP on education. Bhutan did better with 5.2 per cent, Malaysia spent 6.2 per cent and Iran 4.4 per cent of its GDP on education in 2000-2001. The report says in all countries in South and East Asia , girls who enrol in primary school manage to reach class V. India is the only exception. "In Bangladesh , Indonesia and Nepal , the survival rate for girls is more than 10 percentage points higher than those of boys," the report says. In 1999-2000, 36 per cent of 28 lakh teachers were female. In China , there were 64.3 lakh teachers, out of which 53 per cent were females. The report says the gender parity goal (equal number of girls and boys attending school) was easy to achieve when half of the teachers are female. "In India , Laos , Nepal and Pakistan , the percentage of female teachers is less than 50 per cent and gender parity in gross enrolment ratio is low," the report says. However, Bangladesh was an exception. Here only one in three primary school teachers are female and yet the goal of gender parity has been reached.