Schoolchildren in Switzerland and Liechtenstein go back to school every year. But 473 million girls and boys worldwide, or in other words one in five children, have no access to education.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, at least 258 million children and young people worldwide were not attending school. While there are many different reasons for this, the main driver is poverty. Children from the poorest households are nearly five times more likely not to attend primary school than children from the richest households.
And even when children do attend classes, this does not automatically lead to learning success: a lack of trained teachers, inadequate learning materials and makeshift and overcrowded classrooms make learning difficult for many children.
Help us support the hardest hit children in this global education crisis.
The coronavirus pandemic has further exacerbated this education crisis. In 2020, 1.6 billion school-age children worldwide were affected by school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A large proportion of them (around 31 percent) could not be reached through distance learning. A study published in July 2021 revealed the worrying finding that only one-third of the countries studied saw all students return to class once schools reopened. There are multiple reasons for this, such as increased child labor and early marriages. Overall, 473 million children currently have no access to education.
All children have the right to go to school and learn, regardless of who they are, where they live or how wealthy their family is. Help us make education possible for everyone.
