UN report warns learning losses are becoming permanent in crisis zones |
A new report from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in crises, warns that conflict, displacement, and climate-related disasters are disrupting education for an estimated 258m school-aged children and adolescents worldwide, raising concerns that millions could face long-term setbacks in learning, employment, and economic opportunity. The report, Breaking Barriers: Understanding Educational Exclusion in Crises, found that 93 million children are completely out of school, while millions more remain enrolled but are unable to learn effectively due to instability, poor learning conditions, and repeated disruptions. Researchers warn that being in a classroom no longer guarantees meaningful education in many crisis-affected regions. Educational need is increasingly concentrated in the world's most severe emergencies. Of the 182m crisis-affected children living in the 20 highest-severity crisis settings, 74 million are out of school, representing nearly 80% of all out-of-school children identified in the study. In some contexts, fewer than one in 10 children achieve basic reading proficiency in the early grades, with learning gaps widening over time and increasing the likelihood of dropout.
