A storm is brewing over the future of education. And this is about Pakistan too as UNICEF has warned that by the end of 2026, six million more children could be out of school worldwide. This brings the total to a shocking 278 million. That is like shutting down every primary school in Germany and Italy combined.
The reason is simple but devastating: education funding is being cut. Pakistan cannot ignore this warning. We already face our own education crisis, with millions of children out of school. Floods, poverty, and lack of investment have left education on the margins. Cuts in international aid will make it even harder for Pakistan to rebuild its education system and support children in disaster-hit and conflict-prone areas.
Official Development Assistance for education is expected to drop by $3.2 billion, a 24 per cent fall from last year. Three donor countries alone are responsible for most of these cuts. UNICEF says this is not just a budget issue. The hardest-hit areas will be West and Central Africa, where nearly two million children could lose access to schooling.
The Middle East, North Africa and many other regions will also suffer. In countries like Ivory Coast and Mali, enrolment could fall by over half a million students. Primary education faces the sharpest blow, with funding expected to fall by one-third. This means more poverty, fewer opportunities, and a widening global learning crisis. In refugee camps, where schools are often a safe haven, the situation is worse. In Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps, 350,000 children could lose schooling altogether. If classrooms close, these children could become easy targets for child labour, trafficking, and abuse. Food programmes, often a child’s only proper meal of the day, are also at risk of being cut. UNICEF has called on the world to treat education as a lifesaving service. *