UNESCO: the number of children who do not go to school increased to six million

The number of children and young people who are out of school in the world has increased by six million since 2021, to a total of 250 million, partly due to the “mass exclusion”” of girls and women of the education in Afghanistan, warned today UNESCO.

This increase also has to do with the “continued stagnation of educational progress around the world” and calls into question the fulfillment of one of the main UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

In a statement from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with this new data, its director general, Audrey Azoulay, warns that “education is in a state of emergency” and calls for the urgent mobilization of states “if they do not want to sell the future of millions of children.”

“Although considerable efforts have been made in recent decades to ensure quality education for all,” says Azoulay, “UNESCO data show that the number of out-of-school children is increasing.”

Sustainable Development Goal 4 establishes quality education for all by 2030. To achieve it, UNESCO experts believe that there should now be six million more children in preschool, 58 million more children and young people in school and least 1.7 million primary school teachers trained.

A year ago, at the UN Education Transformation Summit, 141 countries committed to transforming their education systems to accelerate progress towards that goal.

According to Azoulay, for countries to achieve their goals, 1.4 million children must be enrolled annually in early childhood education by 2030, and progress in primary school completion rates must practically triple.

Since 2015, the percentage of boys and girls who complete primary education has increased by less than three percentage points, and stands at 87%. For its part, the percentage of young people who complete secondary education has increased by less than five percentage points, up to 58%.

Source: EFE