(With inputs from PTI)
The number of children and youth out of school worldwide has surged to 272 million, an alarming increase of over 21 million since the previous estimate, according to UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Team. The newly released data projects that by 2025, nations will fall short of their national education targets by a staggering 75 million.
The revised figures result from two primary factors. Firstly, updated data on enrolment and attendance have added eight million to the previous estimate. Notably, the 2021 prohibition on girls attending secondary school in Afghanistan has significantly contributed to this spike. Secondly, revised United Nations population forecasts indicate a sharp increase in the school-age population, accounting for an additional 13 million. The latest projections show that the global number of 6- to 17-year-olds in 2025 will be 49 million higher than earlier expected.
The report highlights that conflict zones often lack updated education data, which leads to underreported figures of children affected by school disruptions. In many cases, administrative records do not reflect recent changes, resulting in underestimations of the actual number of out-of-school children.
The GEM model integrates data from administrative records, household surveys, and censuses to produce more comprehensive and consistent global and regional estimates. It accounts for data gaps and includes short-term projections, although it differs from official national statistics used for setting education targets.
At present, 11% of primary school-age children (78 million), 15% of lower secondary adolescents (64 million), and 31% of upper secondary youths (130 million) remain out of school. If current trends continue, countries will fall behind by four percentage points for primary and lower secondary levels, and six points for upper secondary by 2025.
The findings underscore the urgent need for accelerated efforts to meet SDG 4 education targets by 2030, as global education inequalities widen. The report further cautions that in times of crisis, long-term trends become unreliable predictors. A lack of timely data on school participation, especially in conflict-affected regions, likely results in significant underestimations of out-of-school figures.
