Paris, France · 25 March 2026
UNESCO launched the 2026 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report on 25 March 2026, revealing that the number of children and young people out of school worldwide has risen for the seventh consecutive year to 273 million. Titled Countdown to 2030: Access and Equity, the report is the first in a new three-part series designed to take stock of progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) and frame the agenda for the post-2030 period.
One in six children of school age worldwide are now excluded from education, and only two in three students complete secondary school. The report confirms that progress in keeping children in school has slowed across almost every region since 2015, with a sharp deceleration in sub-Saharan Africa driven primarily by population growth. Several crises, including armed conflict, have further derailed progress, with over one in six children living in conflict-affected areas.
Long-Term Gains Amid Short-Term Stagnation
Despite the alarming headline, the report documents significant achievements in global education over the past quarter-century. Since 2000, global enrolment in primary and secondary education has increased by 327 million, or 30%, reaching 1.4 billion students in 2024. Pre-primary enrolment grew by 45% and post-secondary by 161% over the same period — equivalent to more than 25 additional children accessing school every minute.
Completion rates have also improved substantially since 2000:
| Education Level | Completion Rate in 2000 | Completion Rate in 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | 77% | 88% |
| Lower Secondary | 60% | 78% |
| Upper Secondary | 37% | 61% |
However, at current rates of expansion, the world would only achieve 95% upper secondary completion by 2105 — nearly a century behind the SDG 4 timeline.
Some countries have achieved remarkable reductions in out-of-school rates since 2000. Madagascar and Togo reduced out-of-school rates among children by at least 80%. Morocco and Viet Nam achieved similar reductions among adolescents, while Georgia and Türkiye did so among youth. Côte d'Ivoire halved its out-of-school rates across all three age groups.
Ethiopia's primary enrolment rate increased from 18% in 1974 to 84% in 2024, and China's expansion in access to tertiary education grew from 7% in 1999 to over 60% in 2024. Gender gaps in primary and secondary education have largely closed on average globally, with Nepal's girls surpassing boys in some areas through sustained gender equality reforms.
The Equitable Funding Index: A New Diagnostic Tool
The report introduces the Equitable Funding Index (EFE Index), a new analytical tool designed to assess how strongly a country's education and social protection financing systems support disadvantaged learners. The index evaluates the deployment of financing mechanisms — including transfers to subnational governments, to schools, and to students and households — that benefit disadvantaged populations in primary and secondary education.
The share of countries deploying these financing mechanisms has multiplied by more than four in the past 25 years. As of 2025, 76% of countries have policies to reallocate resources in favour of disadvantaged schools. Yet the index reveals that only 8% of all countries are making the most of those mechanisms to redistribute education resources toward disadvantaged populations.
Prior efforts to make education affordable improved access but sometimes compromised quality, raising dropout rates. They also did not remove other substantive costs that remain barriers for families, such as transportation, after-school care, and meal costs. As donor funding retreats, programmes like school grants and meal schemes — present in 84% of countries — that were never fully absorbed into national budgets now face the risk of collapse.
Inclusive Education: A Growing but Uneven Commitment
The report maps inclusive education policies since 2000, finding that the share of countries with inclusive education laws has risen from 1% to 24%. Those calling in their laws for children with disabilities to be taught in inclusive education settings has increased from 17% to 29%. As of 2025, 56% of countries have inclusive education policies.
These figures represent significant policy progress, but the report cautions that policy adoption does not guarantee implementation. The gap between legislative frameworks and classroom-level inclusion remains a persistent challenge, particularly in resource-constrained settings.
No Single Policy Can Fix Exclusion
The report's central analytical message is that no single policy will fix educational exclusion. Policies must address local realities and challenges from multiple angles, grounded in evidence.
In 14 African countries, making education compulsory — not just free — added over a year of schooling for both girls and boys. When child labour laws are added, the gains grow further. Electrification alone has been linked to nearly a full extra year of schooling in Cambodia. School feeding programmes have been shown to add up to half a year of learning for every USD 100 spent in low- and middle-income countries. When children receive cash transfers tied to school attendance, they are 36% more likely to be enrolled.
"Progress is not one-size-fits-all because context is so frequently overlooked. National targets must be both ambitious and rooted in what is genuinely achievable. Global targets should then be the sum of these commitments, not the other way around."
— Manos Antoninis, Director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report
The Countdown to 2030 Series
UNESCO has restructured the GEM Report into a focused analytical series for the final years of the SDG 4 timeline. The series is organised as follows:
- 2026: Access and Equity
- 2027: Quality and Learning
- 2028–2029: Relevance of educational content and its suitability for current needs
This restructuring reflects a recognition that the original SDG 4 timeline is insufficient and that a more granular, sequential analysis is needed to guide policy in the remaining years and shape the post-2030 agenda.
UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany reaffirmed the organisation's commitment: "Since the year 2000, enrolment in primary and secondary education has increased overall by 30%, and many countries are making meaningful progress. UNESCO remains fully mobilized to collaborate with governments and partners to expand learning opportunities for all, in ways that respond to local realities and give every learner a fair chance to build their future."
Implications for Education Policy
The report's findings carry significant implications for education policy in Africa and other developing regions. The sharp deceleration in sub-Saharan Africa, driven by population growth outpacing school capacity expansion, suggests that conventional approaches to universalising access are insufficient. The report's emphasis on multi-sectoral interventions — combining education policy with electrification, social protection, and child labour regulation — points toward a more integrated approach to tackling exclusion.
The introduction of the Equitable Funding Index provides policymakers with a concrete diagnostic tool to evaluate whether their financing systems are genuinely reaching disadvantaged populations. With only 8% of countries achieving strong equity outcomes, the index signals a vast gap between policy intent and implementation that must be closed if the remaining SDG 4 years are to yield meaningful progress.
Sources
- UNESCO. "More children out of school for the 7th year in a row, up to 273 million." Press release, 25 March 2026.
- UNESCO GEM Report. Countdown to 2030: Access and Equity. 2026.
- European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. "2026 GEM Report Launch."
- InterAcademies Partnership. "New UNESCO Report Calls for Urgent Action on Equity and Access in Education."
FIRAT Editorial Board
Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
