How Africa’s classrooms face the world’s toughest test

Fatima Ahmed, a primary school teacher in Khartoum, Sudan, still remembers the time when nearly three quarters of her Grade 3 pupils disappeared.

“It was early 2025 when it happened,” she tells TRT Afrika. “One day, 22 children simply didn’t show up. Their families had fled rising violence. Within a week, my lively classroom of 44 became 12.”

Fatima now teaches under various makeshift structures whenever duty calls following the repurposing of her school building as a shelter.

She didn’t know it then, but her students became part of a worrying global trend: for the seventh consecutive year, the number of children and young people out of school has risen—now reaching 273 million worldwide, according to UNESCO’s 2026 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report.

The report published on 25 March, 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.

“One in six,” Fatima notes. “That’s not just a statistic. Those are my students.”

Shared textbooks

In Malawi, Chisomo Kalonga, now 17 in the capital Lilongwe once dreamed of becoming a nurse. She started primary school like most children—Malawi boasts high enrolment rates of 88–90%. But staying in school proved harder.

“The classroom had about 40 children and only four textbooks for every ten of us,” she says. “I kept failing exams and repeating grades. Eventually, I dropped out.”

Despite primary education being free in Malawi since 1994, the completion rate is as low as 33%, with only about half of children who enter school ever finishing. Poverty forces many into labor. Long distances, poor infrastructure, early marriage, and pregnancy drive girls out especially in higher grades. Roughly 25% of students repeat grades, raising dropout risks further.

“That was our reality,” Chisomo states. “My younger brother is still out of school.”

25 kids in class every minute

Despite the challenges, several African nations have made meaningful gains.

Madagascar and Togo have reduced out-of-school rates among children by at least 80% since 2000, according to UNESCO data. Côte d’Ivoire halved its out-of-school rates across all age groups, while Ethiopia raised primary enrolment from 18% in 1974 to 84% in 2024—a remarkable leap.

Conversely, the sharpest slowdown in progress has occurred across sub-Saharan Africa, driven by population growth. Conflict-affected nations including Burkina Faso, Mali, and South Sudan see millions of children locked out of classrooms. In the Middle East, ongoing regional tensions have forced widespread school closures, leaving an entire generation at risk.

Here is the paradox: since 2000, global enrolment has grown by 327 million—equivalent to more than 25 additional children accessing school every minute. Pre-primary enrolment rose 45%, post-secondary an extraordinary 161%. Yet at current rates, the world would not achieve 95% upper secondary completion until 2105. That’s 80 years from now.

What works, what doesn’t

No single policy fixes exclusion but evidence helps. In 14 African countries, making education compulsory—not just free—added over a year of schooling. Electrification in Cambodia added nearly a full extra year. School meal programmes add half a year of learning per $100 spent. However, as donor funding retreats, these programmes face collapse. Only 8% of countries globally are effectively redistributing education resources toward disadvantaged populations.

“This report confirms an alarming trend, with more and more young people deprived of education around the world each year,” notes UNESCO’s Director-General Khaled El-Enany. “However, there is hope. Since the year 2000, enrolment in primary and secondary education has increased overall by 30%, and many countries are making meaningful progress,” UNESCO says.

“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,” the GEM Report Director Manos Antoninis states.

In Sudan, Fatima Ahmed hasn’t given up. Each morning, she prepares for class at some of the shelters that have incorporated lessons under tents and other makeshift structures.

“For the children who will come back,” she says. “I’ll be here when they return.”