Such figures reveal a world divided between those who have and those who lack educational opportunity, with huge potential repercussions not only in terms of skill shortages and economic waste, but also in terms of social stability. The late US Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren’s words in Brown v. Board of Education,which struck down the legal basis for racial segregation in America’s public schools, remain no less relevant today: “It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.”