UNICEF calls for global efforts to get 6 million children to school
(VOVWORLD) - UNICEF reported on Tuesday that the world is facing challenges in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which aims to provide quality, equitable, and inclusive education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.
 The children collect belongings left in the rubble of a house destroyed after an Israeli attack on Rafah City, Gaza Strip. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) |
As global education funding faces steep cuts, an estimated 6 million additional children could be out of school by the end of 2026, around one-third of them in humanitarian settings, UNICEF warned in a new analysis released Tuesday. Such a decline would push the number of out-of-school children worldwide from 272 million to 278 million, the equivalent of emptying every primary school in Germany and Italy combined.
According to UNICEF, West and Central Africa faces the sharpest impact, with 1.9 million children at risk of losing out, while the Middle East and North Africa could see an increase of 1.4 million out-of-school children, alongside major rollbacks in all other regions. UNICEF said that even children who remain in school could see their learning suffer, with at least 290 million students across all regions projected to face a decline in education quality.