This is the main finding of UNESCO’s 2026 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, the world’s reference on the state of education. One in six children of school age worldwide are excluded from education, and only two in three students complete secondary school. Yet many countries are making significant progress, highlighting the importance of national context when setting targets and designing policies.
The 2026 UNESCO GEM Report shows that progress in keeping children in school has slowed across almost every region since 2015, with a sharp deceleration in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly due to population growth. Several crises – including conflict – have also derailed progress. Over one in six children live in conflict-affected areas, representing millions of additional children out of school beyond those captured in the statistics.
This reality is particularly urgent in the Middle East today, where ongoing regional tensions have forced many schools to close, leaving millions of children out of the classroom and at heightened risk of falling behind.
Despite the challenges, the 2026 GEM Report documents significant achievements in global education over recent years.
Some countries have reduced out-of-school rates by at least 80% since 2000, such as Madagascar and Togo among children, Morocco and Viet Nam among adolescents, and Georgia and Türkiye among youth. In the same period, Côte d’Ivoire halved its out-of- school rates across all three age groups.
