Education aid cuts: A broken promise to children
Every dollar cut from education is more than a cut to a budget line – it costs generations their future, with the poorest paying the highest price.
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A new UNICEF analysis shows that international aid to education is projected to fall by US$3.2 billion by 2026 – a 24 per cent drop. If the announced cuts to official development assistance (ODA) become a reality, UNICEF estimates that 6 million more children risk being out of school by end of 2026, 30 per cent of them in humanitarian settings. This is equivalent to emptying every primary school in Germany and Italy combined. It would raise the estimated number of out-of-school children from the current 272 million to 278 million.
Among the countries facing the steepest setback, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali both risk of losing 4 per cent in current enrolment which translates to 340,000 and 180,000 students, respectively.
Even children and young people who stay in school will be affected. With reduced support for system strengthening, such as curriculum development, learning assessment, and teacher development, at least 290 million students could experience a decline in the quality of their education almost overnight.
