“YOU CANNOT BE AT WAR AND GO TO SCHOOL. THEY CAN BOMB THE SCHOOL AT ANY TIME…. IF AN AREA HAS BEEN ATTACKED AND YOU HAVE TO MOVE TO ANOTHER PLACE YOU DO NOT KNOW THE PLACE AND THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN GET FOOD CLOTHES AND SHELTER.”
This is what a child from Somalia told Save the Children. He was one of over 54,000 children across 41 countries who recently took part in Save the Children’s biggest ever listening exercise. He is also one of 222 million school-aged children who are affected by crises globally and require urgent education support.
CHILDREN TOLD US THE PROFOUND EFFECT CRISES LIKE CONFLICT AND CLIMATE CHANGE ARE HAVING ON THEIR EDUCATION
Climate change is affecting children’s access to education in numerous ways, as a child from Malawi told us “when l was displaced [I] lost my education materials and also our school was affected, learning materials destroyed”. Another child from Iraq told us the impact on school attendance during floods: “We cannot go to school and food is less, due to changes in the climate”.
An alarming rise in the number of children affected by armed conflict and forced displaced is also having a devastating impact on children’s learning. Since the escalation of conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, more than 7.7 million refugees have fled the country to seek safety – an estimated 40% of whom are children. Surveys conducted by Save the Children found that around one in four children did not intend to enrol in a host community school for the 2022–2023 academic year or were unsure, so are at risk of dropping out of education.
YET WHEN CHILDREN ARE ASKED ABOUT WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM, EDUCATION IS TOP OF THE LIST
From surveys Save the Children conducted with 1,700 children across six crisis-affected countries, education was ranked as their highest need. Children were more than twice as likely to rank going to school as their top concern, compared with immediate needs like food, water, shelter or money.
In the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where for five years Rohingya refugees have lived without formally recognised education, 75% of young refugees who we spoke to said education access was their top priority.
Despite the importance that children and their communities place on education, education’s life-saving and life-protecting role in emergencies is overlooked by governments and donors. Education in often the first service suspended and the last to be restored when a crisis hits. It is also one of the least funded humanitarian areas, receiving just 3.1% of global humanitarian funding in 2021. In fact, the funding gap appears to have gotten worsen since the pandemic as need has increased.
THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW
Next month, there is an opportunity to get progress back on track when Education Cannot Wait – the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises – convenes its High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva.
Since its establishment in 2016, ECW has transformed the delivery of education in emergencies, reaching almost 7 million children and youth in some of the toughest and most complex crises across 40 countries. The Fund now requires at least $1.5 billion to deliver its ambitious new 2023-2026 Strategic Plan and reach 20 million crisis-affected children and young people with a quality education.
We are calling on bilateral donors and foundations to act on the priorities of children in emergencies by fully-funding ECW – specifically, we are asking the UK government to pledge £170 million to ECW over the next four years.
FUND EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES
This is the message we recently delivered directly to the UK’s Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, through the Send My Friend to School coalition – a campaign that brings together thousands of children across the UK to speak up for the right to education. In a meeting with the Foreign Secretary, children from four schools in his constituency delivered 222 postcards on behalf of their 222 million friends whose education has been disrupted by crises.
“We need to act now”, one pupil told the Foreign Secretary, adding “Me and my friends are lucky enough to go to school but because of natural disasters, was, floods and hunger not all children can go to school”.
Children in the UK remember the profound impact that COVID-19 had on their learning and wellbeing, and that unlike the disruption they experienced during the pandemic, that education disruption for their peers’ risks being permanent.
We will be taking these messages to Geneva next month. World leaders must now act to help realise 222 million dreams, starting by fully-funding Education Cannot Wait.
Source: Save the Children