The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) indicated that the number of girls and boys who need educational support due to conflicts and crises has tripled since 2016, from 75 million to 222 million, According to the Global Fund for Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises “Education Cannot Wait” (ECW).
Of this estimate, around 78 million are without full schooling, more than the total population of France, Italy or the United Kingdom and 65 percent more than the totality of the inhabitants of Argentina.
Other alarming data contained in the document published yesterday on the occasion of International Education Day are the following: it is estimated that globally 244 million children and young people do not attend school, 763 million young people and adults are illiterate and less than Five percent of the population over the age of 15 participate in adult education programs, in almost a third of the world’s countries.
generation at risk
“This equates to an entire generation at risk of being lost,” reason those responsible for ECW, which urged world leaders to fulfill their promise to provide quality education for all by 2030.
For the bottom, there is “an education crisis” that represents “an attack on our humanity, a moral affront to the binding promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and a gigantic step backwards in our persistent efforts – against all odds tide- for finding peace in our time”, highlights the organization.
Therefore, if the situation is not reversed, they warn that this crisis threatens to undo decades of development achievements, spur new conflicts and undermine economic and social progress across the planet.
investment in peace
“Education is our investment in peace where there is war, our investment in equality where there is injustice, our investment in prosperity where there is poverty,” the fund concludes.
In a tribute to hope, “Education Cannot Wait” reached seven million children in just five years, with plans to reach 20 million more in the next four.
Meanwhile, on February 16, world leaders will gather in Geneva for the High-Level Conference on ECW Funding with the goal of raising $1.5 billion over the next four years.