Children and Adolescents in Need of Education Support | 25 Jun 2022

For Prelims: Education Cannot Wait (ECW), UNESCO

For Mains: State of Educational system of the world

Why in News?

The United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), released a report that indicates the number of crisis-impacted school-aged children requiring educational support has grown from an estimated 75 million in 2016 to 222 million.

What are the Major Highlights of the Report?

  • The study indicates that as many as 78.2 million are out of school, and close to 120 million are in school, but not achieving minimum proficiency in math or reading. In fact, just one in ten crisis-impacted children attending primary or secondary education are actually achieving these proficiency standards.
  • The analysis indicates that 84% of the out-of-school crisis-impacted children are living in areas with protracted crises. The vast majority of these are in countries specifically targeted through ECW’s ground-breaking multi-year investments, including Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen.
  • The war in Ukraine is pushing even more children out of school, with recent estimates indicating the conflict has impacted 5.7 million school-aged children.
  • Around 119.6 million children living in crisis-prone areas attended school but did not achieve minimum proficiency in mathematics or reading.
  • #222 Million Dreams: To respond to this pressing global education crisis, ECW and strategic partners launched the #222MillionDreams resource mobilization campaign in Geneva.
    • The campaign calls on donors, the private sector, philanthropic foundations and high-net-worth individuals to urgently mobilize more resources to scale up ECW’s investments, which are already delivering quality education to over 5 million children across more than 40 crisis-affected countries.

What is Education Cannot Wait (ECW)?

  • About:
    • It is the United Nations global, billion-dollar fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.
    • It is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources, and administrative rules and regulations; operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.
  • Mission:
    • ECW works to generate greater shared political, operational and financial commitment to meet the educational needs of millions of children and youth affected by crises, with a focus on more agile, connected and faster response that spans the humanitarian-development continuum to lay the ground for sustainable education systems.

Source: DTE