Geneva, June 24 (SANA) Armed conflicts, displacement and climate-related disasters are disrupting the education of an estimated 258 million children worldwide, leaving millions at risk of losing access to learning and future opportunities, according to a United Nations report released on Wednesday.
The report by Education Cannot Wait, the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies, highlighted what it described as a growing education crisis affecting some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
An estimated 93 million children are currently out of school, while millions more remain enrolled but are failing to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills, increasing the likelihood that they will eventually drop out, the report said.
The burden is concentrated in conflict and crisis zones. Of the 182 million children living in the world’s 20 most severe humanitarian crises, 74 million are not attending school.
Researchers warned that the challenge extends beyond school access, with many children in crisis-affected regions falling behind in foundational learning at an early age and struggling to recover lost ground.
In some areas, fewer than one in ten children achieve minimum reading proficiency during the first years of schooling, creating learning gaps that widen over time and undermine educational attainment.
The report found that displaced children face some of the most severe obstacles. Data from Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Somalia showed that displaced children progress more slowly through school, are less likely to advance to higher grades and are significantly more likely to be older than the typical age for their grade level.
Girls, refugees and children with disabilities continue to face disproportionate barriers to education, while conflict often intensifies and prolongs learning losses, according to the report.
By the sixth grade, only 30% of children in conflict-affected countries achieve reading proficiency, compared with 47% in countries primarily affected by socioeconomic crises and 63% in countries impacted by natural disasters.
Despite insecurity and economic hardship, families continue to prioritize education, the report said. Nearly 80% of school dropouts are linked to financial barriers and conflict-related school closures, suggesting that external conditions rather than a lack of parental commitment are driving children out of classrooms.
Education Cannot Wait said it has supported more than 14 million crisis-affected children since its launch and aims to reach an additional 10 million by 2030.
N.J/ABD
