It calls on the Rudd Government to use its clout with other rich countries to help overcome the education gap in the Asia-Pacific.

The report, Banking on Education?, by anti-poverty group Results Australia, is laudatory about Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's aid to the Pacific region.

However, it says Mr Rudd's commitment must be matched by the world's development banks.

Results Australia national manager Maree Nutt said yesterday it was now time for Australia to use its influence as a board member of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to exert pressure for them to do much more.

''More than nine million children in the Asia-Pacific remain out of school, despite an increase in primary enrolment rates,'' she said. ''Furthermore, 1.6 million adults in the region still lack basic literacy and numeracy skills and, of these, 71 per cent are women.''

The report identifies three significant problems to achieving universal basic education: the limited capacity of the education systems in many countries, a shortage of funding for developing countries, and school fees which deter many poor families from sending children to school.

''The extra donor funding needed to overcome these obstacles is about $15billion a year,'' Ms Nutt said.

''This is a significant sum but since education is a powerful lever for both poverty reduction and economic growth, the pay-off would greatly exceed the cost.''

Mr Rudd had shown strong leadership on increasing aid to poor countries in Australia's neighbourhood.

''We believe that will potentially create better leverage for Australia to have some influence in this area with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank,'' she said.

''There's not enough funding coming into those two banks for education in our region.''

As well, money raised for education in the region was being sent out too slowly.

Ms Nutt said the Asian Development Bank's funding for PNG did not have an education component.

A report issued last week by AusAid in the lead-up to the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns said the Pacific region was ''seriously off track'' to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 to reduce poverty.

In the Pacific region alone, about 400,000 children were not going to primary school, it said.

While some countries were on track to achieve universal education, PNG and Nauru were not. In PNG, 45 per cent of children are expected to complete primary school, according to 2007 data.