Schooling crisis widens

UNESCO’s technical tables show the 273 million figure breaks down to 79 million primary‑age children, 64 million lower‑secondary adolescents and 130 million upper‑secondary youth. (unesco.org) Two regions — sub‑Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia — together account for roughly three‑quarters of the out‑of‑school population, with sub‑Saharan Africa now representing about half of primary and lower‑secondary children out of school. (world-education-blog.org) Almost all of the increase since 2015 is concentrated in low‑income countries: the out‑of‑school population in those countries rose 29% since 2015 and 41% since 2009, and out‑of‑school rates average 36% in low‑income countries versus 3% in high‑income countries. (world-education-blog.org) The GEM team notes at least 13 million children are likely undercounted if humanitarian data in the 10 most conflict‑affected countries are included, indicating the true exclusion figure may be materially higher. (unesco.org) A new Equitable Financing Index in the report finds fewer than one in ten countries have a financing system with a genuinely strong equity focus, and school‑grant programmes typically account for less than 0.5% of education spending in at least half of the countries that operate them. (unesco.org) The GEM report highlights country success stories: Madagascar and Togo cut child out‑of‑school rates by at least 80% since 2000, Morocco and Viet Nam for adolescents, and Georgia and Türkiye for youth, showing rapid reductions are possible. (publicnow.com) The 2026 edition is the first instalment of UNESCO’s three‑part “Countdown to 2030” series on education, with forthcoming reports on learning and quality (2027) and relevance (2028/9). (unesco.org)