251 Million Children Still Out Of School Globally: UNESCO Report

The UN education agency UNESCO’s latest Global Education Monitoring Report revealed that 251 million children and youth are still out of school globally. The report noted the gap between rich and poor nations, as 33% of school-aged children and youth in low-income countries are out of school, compared to only 3% in high-income countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa faces the greatest challenges, hosting more than half of all out-of-school children and adolescents globally. Meanwhile, there has been progress in educational enrollment, with 110 million children entering school since the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goal on Education in 2015, the report added.

Meanwhile, the UNESCO-World Bank Education Finance Watch 2024 report confirmed that one of the key obstacles in further broadening access to quality education globally remains the lack of funding. As per the report, 4 in 10 countries spend less than 15% of their total public expenditure and less than 4% of GDP on education. While the high-income countries invest $8,543 per learner, low- and middle-income countries manage to invest only $55 per student. "Quality education risks being the privilege of a few, if we do not take serious measures to give every child across the globe the same chance to learn and thrive," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said.