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The most recent global education figures make for grim reading.
Nearly 200 million children and youth are missing out on secondary school. Another 72 million kids who should be in primary school are not.
Compared with 2023, this represents an estimated increase of 21 million more children out of school. That’s a staggering shift backwards in just two years.
But even these stark numbers understate the global crisis. They don’t take into account kids in areas of armed conflict, like Gaza and Sudan. That would add 13 million children, bringing the total out-of-school population closer to 285 million.
And global education exclusion rates are, in fact, higher still when you count preschool. There are some 175 million unenrolled preschool-aged children, who are not benefiting from all-important early childhood education.
The total numbers are dizzying: hundreds of millions of children are not in education as they should be. The negative impact on individual lives – not to mention on the future of humanity generally – is impossible to calculate.
Some of the reason for the recent increase in out-of-school kids is down to funding cuts, often as part of regressive austerity measures. Simply put, governments’ financing decisions deprioritizing education are making things worse.
Recent cuts to international aid will no doubt compound the problem in many countries.
Education is a right, and governments are obligated to uphold that right. They should be protecting public education budgets to create access to free, quality public education for all.
There is an internationally agreed benchmark for government spending on education, by the way. It’s at least 4 to 6 percent of gross domestic product and/or at least 15 to 20 percent of total public expenditure. That doesn’t seem unreasonable, considering it’s an investment in the country’s future.
Last week in Sevilla, Spain, governments gathered at the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development. There they signed a pledge to “support adequate financing to ensure inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all.”
It’s a welcome promise. Now, to deal with the global education crisis, they need to put it into action.
