More than 500 million children urgently need education, and the Global Partnership for Education reported $3.5 billion mobilized to transform systems in over 90 lower-income countries. U.N. envoy Gordon Brown said conflict and climate change are major barriers.
Brown said 273 million children are out of school and another 270 million attend but do not learn enough to read, write or do arithmetic proficiently by age 11. He said the number of children out of school is not falling and the U.N. goal of quality education for all by 2030 remains far off.
Education Cannot Wait announced $3 million for Gaza and the West Bank to help up to 13,000 vulnerable children, prioritizing those with conflict-related injuries or disabilities and youngsters who lost parents and are unaccompanied or separated. It said 660,000 children remain out of school in Gaza and some 70,000 of the youngest have no preschool access. The group also gave $1 million to help flood-affected children in Nepal resume learning and announced $22 million for several hundred thousand children in Sudan, where 8 million are out of school.
