Aid Cuts Put Refugee Classrooms at Risk as 5.8 Million Children Remain Without School
The number of refugee children out of school worldwide stood at 5.8 million in 2025, according to a new UNHCR report that warns shrinking aid budgets could shut millions more out of classrooms. The UN refugee agency says that is 44 per cent of the 13.1 million refugee children of school age.
What the new UNHCR report says
The annual report, titled Pathways to the Future: Education, Opportunity and Self-Reliance, was published on Friday 2 October. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih, who spent years as a refugee himself, said education gave him opportunities that displacement might have denied, and summed it up as "Education is protection."
UNHCR is asking international partners and development agencies to safeguard education funding and to invest in the national school ...