There is a need to lighten the burden of keeping children in school in Africa's southern and eastern region, where an estimated 20 million children are currently deprived of education, a United Nations official said on Wednesday. The regional director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Per Engeback, said 30 percent of education spending in sub-Saharan Africa was being spent on fees. He was speaking in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, during a conference on the abolition of school fees in southern and eastern African countries.