Global funding cuts could force 6 million more children out of school in the coming year – UNICEF

 3 September 2025 – As global education funding faces steep cuts, an estimated 6 million additional children could be out of school by the end of 2026, around one-third of them in humanitarian settings, UNICEF warned in a new analysis released today.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) for education is projected to fall by US$3.2 billion – a 24 per cent drop from 2023 – with just three donor governments accounting for nearly 80 per cent of the cuts. Such a decline would push the number of out-of-school children worldwide from 272 million to 278 million – the equivalent of emptying every primary school in Germany and Italy combined.

“These figures show the stark, real-life impact of aid cuts, with millions of children around the world losing out on going to school and the opportunities, life chances and protection that brings,” said UNICEF UK Director of Advocacy, Joanna Rea.  “It makes the UK government’s decision to drastically cut aid to education all the more incomprehensible and ill-judged.”

“Analysis by UNICEF UK found that UK aid for global education has fallen from 11% in 2016 to just 3% in 2023. Aid cuts cannot keep falling on the most vulnerable children. UNICEF UK urges the UK Government to spend at least 25% of aid on the vital services children need such as education.”

Primary education is expected to be hit hardest around the world, with funding set to fall by a third – deepening the learning crisis and putting affected children at risk of losing an estimated US$164 billion in lifetime earnings.

According to the new global analysis, West and Central Africa faces the sharpest impact, with 1.9 million children at risk of losing out, while the Middle East and North Africa could see an increase of 1.4 million out of school children, alongside major rollbacks in all other regions.

The analysis finds that 28 countries are projected to lose at least a quarter of the education assistance they rely on for pre-primary, primary, and secondary schooling. Among them, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali face some of the greatest risks, with enrolment at risk of declining by 4 per cent – equivalent to 340,000 and 180,000 students, respectively.

“Every dollar cut from education is not just a budgetary decision, it’s a child’s future hanging in the balance,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Education, especially in emergency settings, often serves as a lifeline, connecting children to essential services like health, protection, and nutrition. It also provides the strongest opportunity for a child to escape poverty and build a better life.”

In humanitarian settings, where education goes beyond learning, offering life-saving support, stability, and a sense of normalcy for traumatized children, funding could drop sharply – in some cases, cutting the equivalent of at least 10 per cent of the national education budget. For example, in UNICEF’s Rohingya refugee response, 350,000 children risk losing access to basic education permanently. Without urgent funding, education centres may close, leaving children vulnerable to exploitation, child labour, and trafficking.

Essential services such as school feeding programmes, sometimes a child’s only nutritious meal of the day, could see funding slashed by more than half, while support for girls’ education is also set to decline significantly.

Wide cuts at the system level will also undermine governments’ ability to make evidence-based plans, adequately support teacher development, and monitor learning outcomes. This means that even children who remain in school could see their learning suffer, with at least 290 million students across all regions projected to face a decline in education quality.

UNICEF urges donor and partner countries to act now to protect education by:

• Rebalancing education assistance to be more equitable and effective with a minimum of 50 per cent directed to least developed countries;
• Safeguarding humanitarian education funding and prioritizing education as a lifesaving intervention alongside other essential services;
• Focusing education assistance on foundational learning, concentrating on early childhood and primary education where the returns are the highest;
• Simplifying global financing architecture in line with the UN80 Initiative to improve efficiencies;
• Expanding innovative financing without replacing core funding to education.

“Investing in children’s education is one of the best investments in the future – for everyone,” said Russell. “Countries do better when their children are educated and healthy, and it contributes to a more stable and prosperous world.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The projections are based on data from the OECD Creditor Reporting System (CRS, 2023 – the latest available year) and DonorTracker (July 2025). Public donor statements and policy documents were used to identify where education budgets are being reduced, with proportional cuts assumed for others. The estimate of additional children at risk of dropping out focuses on low- and lower-middle-income countries where education aid for primary and secondary schooling is projected to fall by 25 per cent or more. It assumes that cuts of this scale cannot be absorbed quickly by governments. In countries where dropout rates had already stalled, the impact would be felt more in the quality of education than in school attendance in the coming year.

About UNICEF

UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, works to protect the rights of every child, everywhere, especially the most disadvantaged children and in the toughest places to reach. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive, and fulfil their potential.

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