Regional Bureau for West and Central Africa Education Newsletter, January 2021
Increasingly Limited Access to Education for Vulnerable Children due to Insecurity
January 24 marked the fourth International Day of Education, a day when all world leaders and education advocates claim the value of education in breaking the cycle of poverty, improving health, and bringing about social stability.
Education is one of the most important investments a country can make in its future and is essential to every one of the 17 sustainable development goals.
However, education systems in fragile and crisisaffected contexts continue to feel the strain of trying to provide quality education to all children, including the most vulnerable such as refugees and forcibly displaced.
In West & Centra Africa, more than 300,000 refugee children still do not have the chance to go to school or access any kind of education.
With more than 12,000 schools closed due to insecurity across the region, the capacity of countries of asylum to include young refugees in their education systems is shrinking rapidly. The commitment of governments and all stakeholders is urgently needed to increase emergency and sustainable funding to ensure equitable access to quality education for all.
Education transforms lives, but it has yet to fulfill the dreams of hundreds of thousands of refugee and displaced children and youth in the region.
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees