Why in News?
- The United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), published a report that point out the number of crisis-impacted school aged children requiring educational support has increased from an estimated 75 million in 2016 to 222 million.
Key Highlights of the Report-
- The study reveals that as many as 78.2 million are out of school, and nearly 120 million are in school, but not attaining minimum proficiency in math or reading. Indeed, just one in ten crisis-impacted children attending primary or secondary education are actually accomplishing these proficiency standards.
- The analysis shows that 84% of the out-of-school crisis-impacted children are living in areas with protracted crises. A large numbers of these are in countries particularly targeted through ECW’s ground-breaking multi-year investments, comprising Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen.
- The war in Ukraine is driving even more children out of school, with recent evaluations indicating the conflict has impacted 5.7 million school aged children.
- About 119.6 million children living in crisis-prone areas attended school but did not attain minimum proficiency in mathematics or reading.
- #222 Million Dreams- To respond to this pressing global education crisis, ECW and strategic partners introduced 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 more than 05 million children across more than 40 crisis-affected countries.
About Education Cannot Wait (ECW)-
- ECW 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 requirements 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.