ISLAMABAD – Global education is facing a looming crisis as funding shortfalls threaten to push an additional six million children out of school by the end of 2026, according to a new analysis released by the UN children’s agency, Unicef.
The report, issued Wednesday, revealed that Official Development Assistance (ODA) for education is projected to fall by $3.2 billion — a 24% decline from 2023 levels. Strikingly, just three donor governments account for nearly 80% of the projected cuts.
This reduction, Unicef warned, would raise 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.”
Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell underscored the severity of the crisis: “Every dollar cut from education is not just a budgetary decision, it is a child’s future hanging in the balance.”
Hardest-hit regions
The analysis showed that West and Central Africa face the sharpest impact, with 1.9 million children at risk of losing access to schooling. The Middle East and North Africa could see an additional 1.4 million children out of classrooms, with major setbacks expected across other regions as well.
At least 28 countries are projected to lose a quarter or more of their external education support, with Ivory Coast and Mali among the most vulnerable. In both countries, school enrollment could decline by about 4%, putting hundreds of thousands of students at risk.
Impact on primary education and humanitarian settings
Primary education is expected to be the hardest hit, with funding predicted to drop by a third. Such cuts could deepen the global learning crisis, leaving affected children facing $164 billion in lost lifetime earnings.
In humanitarian settings, where schools often serve as lifelines, the consequences could be even more devastating. For example, in Unicef’s Rohingya refugee response, 350,000 children risk losing permanent access to basic education. Funding cuts could also jeopardize school feeding programs — often the only nutritious meal for many children — with some budgets slashed by more than half.
Support for girls’ education is also set to decline sharply, increasing vulnerabilities to exploitation, child labor, and trafficking.
Call for urgent action
Unicef urged donor nations to rebalance education funding, ensuring that at least half of assistance is directed toward the world’s least developed countries. It also called for safeguarding education in humanitarian crises, prioritizing early childhood and primary education, and streamlining global financing mechanisms.
Russell stressed: “Investing in children’s education is one of the best investments in the future — for everyone. Countries do better when their children are educated and healthy, and it contributes to a more stable and prosperous world.”
