FORTALEZA: The global educational landscape remains troubling as 251 million children and youth are still out of school, as highlighted by the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2024. Despite decades of progress, the report indicates only a marginal reduction of 1% in the global out-of-school population over the past decade.

According to Azerbaijan State News Agency, chronic under-investment in education, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries, is a primary cause of this stagnation. UNESCO, in cooperation with the G20, chaired this year by Brazil, is urging Member States to explore innovative financing mechanisms such as debt-for-education swaps, to address the persistent educational gap.

The report underscores significant regional disparities, with 33% of school-aged children and youth in low-income countries not attending school, compared to just 3% in high-income countries. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected, housing more than half of the world’s out-of-school children an
d adolescents.

A second report, the UNESCO-World Bank Education Finance Watch 2024, further highlights funding as a critical barrier to expanding access to quality education. It reveals that 40% of countries allocate less than 15% of their public expenditure and less than 4% of GDP to education, failing to meet international benchmarks. The disparity in educational investment is stark, with low- and middle-income countries spending only $55 per learner in 2022, compared to $8,543 in high-income countries.

The report also raises concerns over the increasing burden of debt servicing, which in Africa, nearly equals the expenditure on education. Furthermore, official development assistance for education globally has declined from 9.3% in 2019 to 7.6% in 2022.

The global educational exclusion crisis calls for enhanced international cooperation and innovative financing measures. UNESCO is advocating for a multilateral platform to transform debt into sustainable educational investments, building on the expertise
of stakeholders like UNESCO, the G20, and multilateral education funds such as the Global Partnership for Education.

These reports were unveiled at the Global Education Meeting in Fortaleza, organized by UNESCO and hosted by the Government of Brazil. This gathering, one of the largest international education conferences, coincides for the first time with the G20 Education Ministers’ Meeting, emphasizing equity and inclusion in line with Brazil’s G20 Presidency priorities, with UNESCO as a key partner.