Education in emergencies

Millions of children in Sudan have missed nearly 500 days of learning since the war started in April 2023 in what has become one of the world’s longest school closures, surpassing the worst shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The armed conflict in Northern Mozambique has triggered a severe child rights crisis, leaving 441,721 children and 5,365 teachers in urgent need of humanitarian education support, with 138 schools closed and 82,800 children having their learning interrupted. Despite the critical scale of this emergency, humanitarian education funding has alarmingly declined over the past four years, dropping from 37.5% coverage in 2022 to just 5.1% in 2025, marking the lowest funding level across all humanitarian clusters. Save the Children, alongside its allies, is therefore demanding urgent action from donors, UN agencies, and government stakeholders to demonstrate their duty of care and commitment to reverse this situation, protect the right of conflict-affected children to safe and uninterrupted learning, and prevent long-term, intergenerational impacts resulting from a lack of education.

Uganda hosts over 1.9million refugees, making it Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country. In Palabek Refugee Settlement alone 90,000 refugees, of whom 83% women and children, face challenges in accessing education and protection services. Today, Save the Children is launching “Strengthening education and child protection services for refugee children in Palabek Settlement, Northern Uganda”, a two-year project in partnership with a Japanese clothing brand UNIQLO/Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. The project is supported through UNIQLO’s PEACE FOR ALL global campaign.

Record numbers of attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine in the past two months have forced school closures and also disrupted the remote learning that children have relied upon for nearly four years of war, said Save the Children

The world is recognising the impact of local initiatives’ said one of our local partners, having been involved in an innovative approach to localisation in Education Cannot Wait’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme II in Uganda (MYRP II). As a result of purposefully developing more equitable avenues for funding, 29% of ECW’s investment to Save the Children is now being implemented through local and national NGOs (L/NNGOs). This is a large increase on the MYRP I and more than the global target set by the Grand Bargain. We encourage others to take inspiration from this approach, so that we can drive progress towards our collective commitments to reallocate power, influence and resources more directly to communities.

The growing children refugee influx in Uganda (over one million refugee children) prompted urgent action from Save the Children and partners under the Building Resilient Inclusive Systems for Locally Led Education and Protection project (RISE project). According to the Uganda Comprehensive Refugee Response Portal[1], Uganda currently hosts 1,898,338 refugees[2] and over million of these are children. [1] Country - Uganda, [https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/uga] Accessed on 27th Aug, 2025[2] Ibid. The figures were last updated on 31st July 2025. (They are updated on end of month basis)

On the International Day for the Protection of Education from Attack, the safety and protection of children and education personnel in schools in Mozambique remain a national priority in the face of ongoing conflicts and the increasing impact of climate change. Based on IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix data, over 600,000 people have been displaced due to conflict in Northern Mozambique, including more than 320,000 children, making the urgency for a collective and robust response greater than ever. Data estimates show that over 110,000 children are not attending school, highlighting the serious threats to their fundamental right to education. The challenges are compounded by frequent cyclical natural disasters, which further disrupt learning.

Children in frontline areas of Ukraine have lost 25% more days of learning due to the war than the world’s longest COVID-19 school closures, as a lack of bomb shelters means it is still too dangerous to for children to attend class, Save the Children said today.

Violence in Cabo Delgado has displaced tens of thousands of people, with over 49,000 arriving in Chiúre district, where an organisation is leading a comprehensive humanitarian response. This response includes family reunification, psychosocial support, nutritional screening, vaccination, and distribution of essential goods. However, needs are growing at an alarming rate, outstripping resources and requiring more help to protect vulnerable children and families.

KYIV, 28 May, 2025 – Air raid sirens forced children in Ukraine to miss an average of one in every five school lessons during the past academic year that ends this week with pupils preparing the third consecutive summer under war, Save the Children said.