Malala Day: millions of children still out of school in conflict-affected countries
From: Global Campaign for Education
On 12 July 2013, Malala Yousafzai celebrated her 16th birthday. Last year, she was shot and seriously wounded by terrorists operating in the Swat region of Pakistan, targeting her for speaking out for girls' education. Her story of survival, and her renewed campaigning for children's education everywhere, have acted as a source of true inspiration for millions of people around the world.
But today, millions of girls and boys the same age as Malala have never set foot inside a school. 126 million children worldwide remain out of primary and secondary education. 48.5 million of these children - almost 40% - live in a country affected by conflict, with the hope of education too distant to imagine.
UNESCO has published a new policy paper which shows that urgent action is needed to bring education to the 28.5 million primary school-age and 20 million secondary school-age out-of-school children in countries affected by conflict.
Many countries embroiled in conflict are overlooked in the international aid structure, with their education systems receiving neither long-term development assistance nor short-term humanitarian aid. The global education community has been calling for 4% of humanitarian aid to be allocated to education. Yet new analysis by the EFA Global Monitoring Report team shows that the share of humanitarian aid for education has declined. In 2012, education accounted for just 1.4% of humanitarian aid, down from 2.2% in 2009.
You can download the UNESCO policy paper in English, French and Spanish here.