The world invests more in bombs than in schools by ECW, UNICEF, Education International, agencies   24 Jan. 2025   234 million Children impacted by crises worldwide require urgent support to access Education.   The number of school-aged children in crises worldwide who require urgent support to access quality education is rising rapidly, according to a new Global Estimates Report issued by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises of the United Nations.   The report reveals that this number has increased by an estimated 35 million over the past three years, reaching 234 million by the end of 2024.   Compounding conflicts, coupled with more frequent and severe extreme weather and climate events, jeopardize the present and future of this rapidly growing number of children.   Refugees, internally displaced children, girls and children with disabilities are among the most affected, the report states.   While needs are increasing humanitarian education aid funding has stagnated. The share of total Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocated to education has declined in recent years.   According to the United Nations, there is a US$100 billion annual financing gap to achieve the education targets in low- and lower-middle income countries outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).   “On this International Day of Education, we are sounding the alarm again. Nearly a quarter of a billion children and adolescents in crises worldwide are deprived access to a quality education due to wars, forced displacement and climate disasters.   The world invests more in military expenditures than in development, more in bombs than in schools. As a global community, unless we start investing in the young generation – their education and future – we shall leave behind a legacy of destruction.   Over US$2 trillion are invested globally and annually in war-machinery, all while a few hundred billion dollars could secure a quality education annually for children and their teachers in crises. It is time to drop the arms race and sprint for the human race,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait.   The report emphasizes that exposure to armed conflict, forced displacement, climate-induced hazards, epidemics and socio-economic challenges poses long-term threats to children’s health, education and well-being.   It further highlights that crises are becoming increasingly intense, widespread and interconnected.   Over the past five years, the number of global conflicts has doubled with 50 countries experiencing extreme, high or turbulent levels of conflict in 2024.   234 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents are identified in the report, with some 85 million completely out of school. Five protracted crises – Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan – account for nearly half of these out-of-school children.   Nearly one-third of crisis-affected children of primary school age are out of school (52% are girls). Access to secondary education is equally dire: 36% of children of lower-secondary school age and 47% of upper-secondary school-aged children are unable to access education.   Even when they are in school, many children affected by crises are falling behind. Only 17% of crisis-affected primary school-aged children achieve minimum reading proficiency by the end of primary school.   Half of the crisis-affected school-aged children globally live in sub-Saharan Africa. The report identifies the subregion as facing the most complex challenges in guaranteeing every child’s right to education.   The report also underscores how climate change is amplifying the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, pushing even more children out of school. In 2024, heavy flooding devastated regions of the Sahel, East Africa and Central Asia, while severe droughts gripped Northwestern and Southern Africa, as well as parts of the Americas. The compounded effects of these crises have exacerbated food insecurity and driven record levels of displacement globally.   http://www.educationcannotwait.org/news-stories/press-releases/nearly-one-quarter-billion-school-aged-children-impacted-crises   Jan. 2025   Millions of children worldwide — especially those in situations of vulnerability or in conflict zones — are denied access to education, one of their fundamental rights as outlined in Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (SOS Children's Villages)   On this International Day of Education, let us confront the stark reality faced by children and young people in conflict zones. Denied their fundamental right to education, these children and young people are left without the tools to overcome their harsh realities and attempt to build better futures for themselves.   As we mark this day, let us stand united in ensuring that education becomes the universal right it was always meant to be. For children growing up without parental care, this right is even more critical. It is through education and strong human connections that they gain the tools to build better futures. No child, regardless of where they are born, including those living in conflict zones - many of whom are also growing separated from their families and without parental care - should ever be denied the chance to learn and succeed in life.   http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/news/education-day2025 http://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/build-better-futures/education http://www.warchild.net/intervention-cwtl/ http://plan-international.org/publications/still-we-dream/   Jan. 2025   Special Rapporteur on Right to Education calls for prioritising safety as fundamental element for ensuring right to education. (OHCHR)   States can only be deemed serious about their obligation to ensure the right to education if they prioritise safety as a crucial element of learning, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed said today.   In the course of 2024, Shaheed raised the alarm about the destruction of educational institutions, systematic attacks against schools, threats to students and teachers by gangs or armed groups, the insecurity surrounding children on their road to school, or police invading university campuses to silence students.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/01/special-rapporteur-calls-prioritising-safety-fundamental-element-ensuring http://protectingeducation.org/   Jan. 2025   Ensuring the Continuity of Education for Girls with Disabilities   Observing the International Day of Education, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) published a new report entitled Beyond Access Ensuring the Continuity of Education for Adolescent Girls with Disabilities on education for adolescent girls with disabilities.   Thereport sheds light on barriers girls with disabilities face in accessing and continuing their education. Drawing on extensive interviews with young people and their families, it highlights key challenges and opportunities to improve inclusive education.   The report analyzes obstacles, including social norms, economic constraints, and the lack of accessible learning environments. It also provides recommendations to governments, donors, and education stakeholders, calling for urgent action to create inclusive and protective educational settings.   Globally, over 63 million adolescents are out of school, and adolescent girls with disabilities are among the most excluded. They face challenges like stigma, discrimination, and a lack of support that make staying in school incredibly difficult. In low and middle-income countries, 40% of children with disabilities are out of primary school, and 55% are out of lower secondary school.   For adolescent girls with disabilities, this risk of dropping out is even greater due to the intersection of age, gender, and disability. Only 41.7% of girls with disabilities have completed primary school, compared with 50.6% of boys with disabilities and 52.9% of girls without disabilities.   http://www.hi-us.org/en/beyond-access--ensuring-the-continuity-of-education-for-adolescent-girls-with-disabilities   Jan. 2025   Global Snapshot of Climate-Related School Disruptions in 2024. (UNICEF)   At least 242 million students in 85 countries had their schooling disrupted by extreme climate events in 2024, including heatwaves, tropical cyclones, storms, floods, and droughts, exacerbating an existing learning crisis, according to a new UNICEF analysis released today.   For the first time, Learning Interrupted: Global Snapshot of Climate-Related School Disruptions in 2024 – released on International Day of Education – examines climate hazards that resulted in either school closures or the significant interruption of school timetables, and the subsequent impact on children from pre-primary to upper secondary level.   Heatwaves were the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year, with over 118 million students affected in April alone, according to the data. Bangladesh and the Philippines experienced widespread school closures in April, while Cambodia shortened the school day by two hours. In May, temperatures spiked to 47 degrees Centigrade/116 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of South Asia, placing children at risk of heat stroke.   “Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts and flooding,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Children’s bodies are uniquely vulnerable. They heat up faster, they sweat less efficiently, and cool down more slowly than adults. Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat, and they cannot get to school if the path is flooded, or if schools are washed away. Last year, severe weather kept one in seven students out of class, threatening their health and safety, and impacting their long-term education.”   Some countries experienced multiple climate hazards. For example, in Afghanistan, in addition to heatwaves, the country experienced severe flash floods that damaged or destroyed over 110 schools in May, disrupting education for thousands of students.   Meanwhile, the most frequent climate-induced disruptions occurred in September - the start of the school year in many parts of the world. At least 16 countries suspended classes at this critical academic point due to extreme weather events, including Typhoon Yagi, which impacted 16 million children in East Asia and the Pacific.   According to the analysis, South Asia was the most affected region with 128 million students facing climate-related school disruptions last year, while in East Asia and the Pacific, 50 million students’ schooling was affected. El Nino continued to have a devastating impact on Africa, with frequent heavy rainfall and floods in East Africa, and severe drought in parts of Southern Africa.   Rising temperatures, storms, floods, and other climate hazards can damage school infrastructure and supplies, hamper routes to school, lead to unsafe learning conditions, and impact students’ concentration, memory, and mental and physical health.   In fragile contexts, prolonged school closures make it less likely for students to return to the classroom and place them at heightened risk of child marriage and child labour. Evidence shows that girls are often disproportionately affected, facing increased risks of dropping out of school and gender-based violence during and after disasters.   Globally, education systems were already failing millions of children. A lack of trained teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and differences in the quality of – and access to – education have long been creating a learning crisis that climate hazards are exacerbating.   The analysis shows almost 74 per cent of affected students last year were in low and lower-middle income countries, but no region was spared. Torrential rains and floods hit Italy in September, disrupting schooling for over 900,000 students as well as Spain in October, halting classes for thousands of children.   The report notes that schools and education systems are largely ill-equipped to protect students from these impacts, as climate-centered finance investments in education remain strikingly low, and global data on school disruptions due to climate hazards is limited.   In November, UNICEF warned in its State of the World’s Children report that climate crises are expected to become more widespread between 2050 - 2059, with eight times as many children exposed to extreme heatwaves, and three times as many exposed to extreme river floods, compared to the 2000s.   UNICEF is calling on all actors to act urgently to protect children from increasing climate impacts by:   Ensuring national climate plans – including Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans – strengthen child-critical social services, such as education, to be more climate smart and disaster resilient, and contain adequate emission reduction pledges to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.   Investing in disaster resilient and climate-smart learning facilities for safer learning. Accelerating financing to improve climate resiliency in the education sector, including investing in proven solutions. Explicitly integrating climate change education and child-responsive commitments across the board.   “Education is one of the services most frequently disrupted due to climate hazards. Yet it is often overlooked in policy discussions, despite its role in preparing children for climate change,” said Russell. “Children’s futures must be at the forefront of all climate related plans and actions.”   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nearly-quarter-billion-childrens-schooling-was-disrupted-climate-crises-2024-unicef   Jan. 2025   Unhealthy levels of pollution in Asia are forcing schools to shut - Save the Children   Nine out of the top 10 cities globally with the worst air pollution were in Asia with unhealthy levels of pollution forcing some schools to shut temporarily, Save the Children said.   Real-time data on 22 January by Swiss group IQAir, which operates the world’s largest free real-time air quality monitoring platform, showed Dhaka, Karachi, Kathmandu, Hanoi, Bangkok and cities in China among the top 10 cities with the worst air pollution.   The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in an announcement on Wednesday urged people in the Southeast Asian city to wear masks, avoid outdoor activities and work from home while schools in areas where air pollution levels exceeded safe thresholds for more than three days have been advised to shut temporarily.   Air pollution accounted for 8.1 million deaths globally in 2021, becoming the second leading risk factor for death after malnutrition including for children under five. More than 700,000 deaths in children under 5 years were linked to air pollution.   Bangkok’s city government has said that emissions generated by cars, buses and lorries are partly to blame for the smog and poor air quality.   On Wednesday, fine particulate matter under 2.5 microns (PM 2.5) in Bangkok stood at 100, which is 20 times the World Health Organization guideline.   In Nepal, respiratory issues such as asthma and pneumonia are prevelant among children. In group discussions shared in a report by Save the Children in Nepal last year, children and young adults said air pollution has a profound affect on their mental well-being and education.   Air pollution causes immediate and long-term health effects in children that are often irreversible. Children breathe faster than adults and take in more air relative to their body weight, often through the mouth, which takes in more pollutants and air pollution is linked to respiratory conditions in children such as such as bronchitis and asthma.   It can also effect their learning when children miss school because of air pollution related illnesses.   Save the Children is calling on governments and decision-makers to give more support to communities to cut pollution and fossil fuel use and ensure clean air for all children.   Guillaume Rachou, Executive Director, Save the Children Thailand:   "The effects of air pollution on children, the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions are wide ranging and incredibly damaging. Air pollution can also be extremely disruptive and it impacts children’s ability to learn and to play with their friends. Clean air is non-negotiable and immediate action is needed by policy makers to reduce emissions, improve air quality and protect vulnerable communities.”   http://www.savethechildren.net/news/nine-10-cities-worst-air-pollution-globally-asia-schools-closed-some-cities   Jan. 2025   One of the most important—and simplest—things that governments can do to ensure children’s education is to make it free, says Jo Becker children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch:   In the 1990s, when many countries began to eliminate school fees at the primary level, they saw dramatic results.   Malawi, for example, abolished primary school fees in 1994, and within a year, enrolment had surged by 50 percent, with 1 million additional children enrolled. After Kenya abolished primary school fees in 2003, 2 million new children enrolled.   The sudden influx of new students strained education systems, challenging countries to train additional teachers, build more schools, and to ensure quality. But today, virtually all of the world’s children enjoy free primary education, and nearly 90 percent of children globally complete primary school.   But it’s a different story for children at the pre-primary and secondary level, where cost often remains a significant barrier to schooling.   Fewer than 60 percent of the world’s children complete secondary school, and about half miss out on pre-primary education, which takes place during the early years when children’s brains are rapidly developing, and provides profound long-term benefits.   Existing international law—dating back more than 70 years—only guarantees free education for all children at the primary level.   In Uganda, for example, our recent investigation with the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights found that most children miss out on pre-primary education entirely, because the government provides no funding for early childhood education, and families are unable to afford the fees charged by private preschools.   Without access to pre-primary, children typically don’t perform as well in primary school, are twice as likely to repeat grades, and are more likely to drop-out. Many of these children never catch up to their peers, exacerbating income inequality.   According to the World Bank, every dollar invested in pre-primary education can yield up to $14 in benefits. Early education boosts tax revenues and GDP by improving children’s employment prospects and earnings, and enables parents—especially mothers—to increase their income by returning to work sooner.   In Uganda, a recent cost-benefit analysis found that 90 percent of the cost of government-funded free pre-primary could be covered just through the expected reduction of repetition rates and inefficiencies at the primary school level. It concluded that “investments in early childhood have the greatest rate of return of any human capital intervention.”   As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all countries have agreed that by 2030 they will provide access to pre-primary education for all, and that all children will complete free secondary education. But political commitments to free education are simply not enough, and progress is too slow.   A growing number of countries see the expansion of free education beyond primary school as an essential investment. Ghana, for example, became the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to expand free education to the kindergarten years in 2008, guaranteeing two years of free and compulsory pre-primary education. In 2017, it committed to full free secondary education, and according to the latest statistics, now has the third-highest enrolment rate in Sub-Saharan Africa in both pre-primary and secondary school. Its free secondary education policy has reduced poverty rates nationally, particularly for female-headed households.   It’s no surprise that UNESCO reports that countries with laws guaranteeing free education have significantly higher rates of children in school. When Azerbaijan adopted legislation providing three years of free pre-primary education, for example, participation rates shot up from 25 percent to 83 percent in four years.   Given the proven benefits of free education, it’s baffling that approximately 70 percent of the world’s children live in countries that still do not guarantee free pre-primary and free secondary education by law or policy.   In July 2024, the UN Human Rights Council approved a proposal from Luxembourg, Sierra Leone, and the Dominican Republic to consider a new international treaty to explicitly guarantee free public pre-primary (beginning with one year) and free public secondary education for all children.   To be sure, a new treaty will not immediately get every child in school. But it will provide a powerful impetus for governments to move more quickly to expand access to free education and an important tool for civil society to hold them to account.   Negotiations for the proposed treaty are expected to begin in September. Governments should seize this moment to advance free education for all children, without exception.   http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/01/new-chance-expand-childrens-access-education/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/10/un-rights-council-takes-big-step-treaty-free-education http://childrightsconnect.org/working_groups/children-and-the-right-to-education/ http://www.abidjanprinciples.org/   Jan. 2025   Addressing the teacher shortage crisis: A Global Imperative. (Education International)   The Global Status of Teachers 2024 report highlights a stark reality: teacher shortages constitute a crisis with profound implications for education systems in many countries.   Drawing on insights from 204 teacher unions across 121 countries, the report provides an overview of the current challenges and opportunities facing the profession.   A key finding of the report, based on teacher unions perceptions, is the widespread shortage of teachers across all educational levels, with particularly acute deficits in special education, STEM fields, and secondary education, in many countries. This crisis is viewed as stemming not only from insufficient recruitment but also from alarmingly high rates of attrition. According to unions, the most significant factor contributing to these shortages is inadequate pay and compensation.   Beyond individual working conditions and professional status, unions report that teachers are concerned about the broader education systems in which they operate. The report highlights their commitment to equity, advocating for fair resource distribution and meaningful access for marginalised students, including those affected by disability, immigration status, or socioeconomic disadvantage.   Teachers express concerns about the growing privatisation of education, which threatens to exacerbate inequities by favouring some students at the expense of others. The report highlights two key ways privatisation can undermine equity and challenge teachers: it diverts essential resources and quality educators away from public schools, widening the gap between private and public education, and fosters profit-driven priorities that override educational quality and inclusivity. This exacerbates disparities, leaving public school teachers under-resourced and disproportionately responsible for supporting marginalised and disadvantaged students.   http://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/29409:addressing-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-a-global-imperative http://www.ei-ie.org/en/dossier/1537:go-public-fund-education http://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/29279:trade-unions-reject-austerity-policies-in-the-education-sector
	Multiple diseases in children have been linked to manufactured synthetic chemicals by Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health   Jan. 2024   Children are suffering and dying from diseases that scientific research has linked to chemical exposures, findings that require urgent revamping of laws around the world, according to a new paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).   Authored by more than 20 leading public health researchers, including one from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and another from the United Nations, the paper lays out “a large body of evidence” linking multiple childhood diseases to synthetic chemicals and recommends a series of aggressive actions to try to better protect children.   The paper is a “call to arms” to forge an “actual commitment to the health of our children”, said Linda Birnbaum, a former director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and a co-author of the paper.   In conjunction with the release of the paper, some of the study authors are helping launch an Institute for Preventive Health to support the recommendations outlined in the paper and to help fund implementation of reforms.   The paper points to data showing global inventories of roughly 350,000 synthetic chemicals, chemical mixtures and plastics, most of which are derived from fossil fuels. Production has expanded 50-fold since 1950, and is currently increasing by about 3% a year – projected to triple by 2050, the paper states.   Meanwhile, noncommunicable diseases, including many that research shows can be caused by synthetic chemicals, are rising in children and have become the principal cause of death and illness for children, the authors write.   Despite the connections, which the authors say “continue to be discovered with distressing frequency”, there are very few restrictions on such chemicals and no post-market surveillance for longer-term adverse health effects.   “The evidence is so overwhelming and the effects of manufactured chemicals are so disruptive for children, that inaction is no longer an option,” said Daniele Mandrioli, a co-author of the paper and director of the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center at the Ramazzini Institute in Italy. “Our article highlights the necessity for a paradigm shift in chemical testing and regulations to safeguard children’s health.”   Such a shift would require changes in laws, restructuring of the chemical industry and redirection of financial investments similar to what has been undertaken with efforts to transition to clean energy, the paper states.   The paper identifies several disturbing data points for trend lines over the last 50 years. They include incidence of childhood cancers up 35%, male reproductive birth defects have doubled in frequency and neurodevelopmental disorders are affecting one child in six. Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in one in 36 children, pediatric asthma has tripled in prevalence and pediatric obesity prevalence has nearly quadrupled, driving a “sharp increase in Type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents”.   “Children’s health has been slipping away as a priority focus,” said Tracey Woodruff, a co-author of the paper and director of the University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) program on reproductive health and the environment. “We’ve slowly just been neglecting this. The clinical and public health community and the government has failed them.”   The authors cite research documenting how “even brief, low-level exposures to toxic chemicals during early vulnerable periods” in a child’s development can cause disease and disability. Prenatal exposures are particularly hazardous, the paper states.   “Diseases caused by toxic chemical exposures in childhood can lead to massive economic losses, including health care expenditures and productivity losses resulting from reduced cognitive function, physical disabilities, and premature death,” the paper notes. “The chemical industry largely externalizes these costs and imposes them on governments and taxpayers.”   The paper takes issue with the US Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1977 and amendments, arguing that even though the law was enacted to protect public health from “unreasonable risks” posed by chemicals, it does not provide the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the authorities needed to actually meet that commitment.   Instead, the manner in which the law is implemented assumes that all manufactured chemicals are harmless and beneficial and burdens government regulators with identifying and assessing the chemicals.   “Hazards that have been recognized have typically been ignored or downplayed, and the responsible chemicals allowed to remain in use with no or limited restrictions,” the paper states. “In the nearly 50 years since TSCA’s passage, only a handful of chemicals have been banned or restricted in US markets.”   Chemical oversight is more rigorous in the European Union, the paper says, but still fails to provide adequate protections, relying heavily on testing data provided by the chemical industry and providing multiple exemptions, the paper argues.   The authors of the paper prescribe a new global “precautionary” approach that would only allow chemical products on the market if their manufacturers could establish through independent testing that the chemicals are not toxic at anticipated exposure levels.   “The core of our recommendation is that chemicals should be tested before they come to market, they should not be presumed innocent only to be found to be harmful years and decades later,” said , a co-author who directs the program for global public health and the common good at Boston College. “Each and every chemical should be tested before they come to market.”   Additionally, companies would be required to conduct post-marketing surveillance to look for long-term adverse effects of their products.   That could include bio-monitoring of the most prevalent chemical exposures to the general population, Mandrioli said. Disease registries would play another fundamental role, he said, but those approaches should be integrated with toxicological studies that can “anticipate and rapidly predict effects that might have very long latencies in humans, such as cancer”. Clusters of populations with increased cancer incidences, particularly when they are children, should trigger immediate preventive actions, he said.   Key to it all would be a legally binding global chemicals treaty that would fall under the auspices of the United Nations and would require a “permanent, independent science policy body to provide expert guidance”, the paper suggests.   The paper recommends chemical companies and consumer product companies be required to disclose information about the potential risks of the chemicals in use and report on inventory and usage of chemicals of “high concern”.   “Pollution by synthetic chemicals and plastics is a major planetary challenge that is worsening rapidly,” the paper states. “Continued, unchecked increases in production of fossil-carbon–based chemicals endangers the world’s children and threatens humanity’s capacity for reproduction. Inaction on chemicals is no longer an option.”   http://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/08/health-experts-childrens-health-chemicals-paper http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMms2409092 http://toxicfreesolutions.org/international-experts-call-for-urgent-action-to-protect-childrens-health-from-harmful-chemicals/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5752-pollution-information-portals-strengthening-access-information http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-toxics-and-human-rights/about-toxics-and-human-rights http://ceh.unicef.org/ceh-essentials/overview-risks   * UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Children have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. States are responsible not only for protecting children’s rights from immediate harm, but also for foreseeable violations of their rights in the future due to action, or inaction, today. States can be held accountable for environmental harm occurring both within their borders and beyond:   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/urgent-action-states-needed-tackle-climate-change-says-un-committee-guidance
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