Education

Access to quality education is a basic right for every child. Yet across Asia and the Pacific, that right remains out of reach for millions of children.

Of the 112 million children and adolescents out of school in the region, 89 million of them are in South Asia.

Gender disparity remains one of the starkest barriers. In Afghanistan alone, the denial of access to education has so far impacted 2.2 million girls. Across South Asia, girls from the poorest families will, in most cases, never set foot in a classroom. Of the region's out-of-school girls, 81 per cent are unlikely to ever start school, compared to 42 per cent of out-of-school boys. Adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 in South Asia are three times more likely than boys to not be in school, employment or training.

Children with disabilities face equally significant barriers. 107.5 million children in Asia and the Pacific — one in ten — have a disability and are significantly less likely than their peers to attend school.

Exclusion does not end at the school gate. Children who do make it into classrooms often find systems that are under-resourced, understaffed and ill-equipped to meet their needs - leaving them in school, but not learning.

Getting every child into school — and keeping them there — requires shared commitment from families, educators and governments; national policies that put learning at the centre; and sustained investment in reaching the children who are left behind.

When children receive quality early childhood development support, they arrive at primary school ready to learn. But across this region, too many children are still not learning once they get there.

Across Southeast Asia, one in every two children at Grade 5 is not reading at the expected level. In South Asia, which accounts for 31% of the world’s children in learning poverty, six out of 10 children cannot read a simple text by age 10. These learning gaps often mirror social and economic divides, with rural students, children from the lowest socioeconomic groups and children who do not speak the language of instruction at home among the most left behind.

Without foundational literacy and numeracy skills, children are unable to progress to higher levels of education and eventually to meaningful work and a future of dignity and choice.

For children caught in a crisis, education is about far more than the right to learn. Schools protect children from dangers such as abuse, exploitation, forced labour and recruitment into armed groups. They provide lifesaving supplies, stability and the structure and support children need to heal.

Asia and the Pacific is the world's most disaster-prone region, where conflict, displacement and climate shocks repeatedly tear children away from their classrooms. In 2024, 128 million students in South Asia alone faced climate-related school disruptions. In Southeast Asia, back-to-back typhoons and flooding regularly cut children off from learning, while cyclones, sea level rise and saltwater intrusion repeatedly damage schools and displace children in the Pacific.