Problem
Although education is regarded as a fundamental human right, by 2030 around 200 million children will still be out of school [1,2]. Access to education is seen as vital because schooling provides people with the opportunity to develop skills to improve their lives [3]. Education improves people’s health, reduces disaster risk, and combats climate change [4-6]. Lack of access to quality education happens due to overfilled classrooms, lack of funding, lack of (qualified) teachers, exclusion of marginalized people, gender inequality, hunger, and location [7-12].

Facts and Figures

• In 2015, 57 million children of primary school age were out of school. [24]

• During the global pandemic, remote learning remains out of reach for at least 500 million students [3]

• Thanks to the efforts of charitable organisations worldwide, the primary school completion rate reached 84 percent in 2018, up from 70 percent in 2000. Under current trends, the rate is expected to reach 89 percent by 2030. [3]

• Approx. 28 million children that are out of school are located in Sub-saharan Africa [13].

• In 2018, 773 million adults, two thirds of them women, remained illiterate. [3]

• 53% of all children in low and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a short story by the time they are finishing primary school [14].

• The COVID-19 pandemic is causing more than 1.6 billion children and youth to be out of school in 161 countries. This is close to 80% of the world’s enrolled students [15]. 

Solution 
Progress in regards to school attendance has been made but learning is not always guaranteed [16]. Closing the gap of educational funding will help solve many of the current challenges.  Further effective solutions include the implementation of school meals, training qualified teachers and tackling gender inequality [16-18]. Partnerships involving parents, the local community and the private and public sectors are essential in creating a positive impact on both primary and higher education [19-23].

Sources 

1. United Nations - Goal 4 (link) 

2. Education, Conflict and International Development (research paper) 

3. United Nations - Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all (link) 

4. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Why education matters to health (link) 

5. The importance of education on disasters and emergencies: A review article (research paper) 

6. Carbon Brief - Education is “top priority” for climate change adaptation (article) 

7. Education and International Development: An Introduction (book) 

8. UN warns universal education goal will fail without 69 million new teachers (article)

9. Unicef - Introduction: Disabilities (link) 

10. Education cannot wait - 75 million crisis-affected children are in urgent need of education support (link) 

11. ACLU - Students with Disabilities Are Pushed Out of School in Many Ways (article) 

12. Global Partnership Education - Results 2020 (report)

13. Equitable and Quality Education for All of Africa? The Challenges of Using ict in Education (research paper) 

14. Worldbank - Education: Overview (link) 

15. Worldbank Blogs - Educational challenges and opportunities of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (link) 

16. Worldbank - Education (link) 

17. UNESCO Digital Library - The World needs almost 69 million new teachers to reach the 2030 Education goals (report) 

18. The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought (report) 

19. Cultivating Professional Learning Partnerships in Tasmania (research paper) 

20. The Emerging Landscape of Student–Staff Partnerships in Higher Education (research paper) 

21. ‘Beyond 2015’, within the modern/colonial global imaginary? Global development and higher education (research paper) 

22. Community Engagement for Improving Quality of Education in the Developing World (policy brief) 

23. Connections Count. Improving Family and Community Involvement in Secondary Schools (research paper) 

24. United Nations - Millenium Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education (link)