State of Education for Crisis-Affected Children and Adolescents: Access and Learning Outcomes, Global Estimates 2025 Update

Education Cannot Wait's State of Education for Crisis-Affected Children and Adolescents: Access and Learning Outcomes – Global Estimates 2025 Update reveals that the number of school-aged children in crises worldwide requiring urgent support to access quality education has reached 234 million – an estimated increase of 35 million over the past three years. Intensifying conflicts, climate-induced disasters and other crises are fueling these trends.  Refugees, internally displaced children, girls and children with disabilities remain among those most impacted. The report emphasizes that these growing needs are rapidly outpacing education aid funding and calls for urgent additional financing to address this global silent emergency. This report is the third iteration of this groundbreaking study, first published in 2022. ECW’s Global Estimates are built on a comprehensive dataset providing evidence-based trends over time for policymaking, and ensuring crisis-affected children and education in emergencies and protracted crises are more accurately captured in global education data.