United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has issued an urgent global appeal warning that nearly six million refugee children remained out of school worldwide in 2025, with severe international funding cuts threatening to reverse decades of hard-won progress in refugee education and community integration.

According to UNHCR’s latest annual education report, titled Pathways to the Future: Education, Opportunity and Self-Reliance, an estimated 5.8 million, or 44%, of the world’s 13.1 million school-aged refugee children lacked access to formal schooling last year. The data highlights a widening educational gap between displaced children and their non-refugee peers globally. While gross enrollment rates for refugees stand at 38% for pre-primary, 65% for primary, and 42% for secondary education, post-secondary and higher education enrollment remains critically low at just 7%, far behind the global non-refugee average.

The report highlights that the crisis is being compounded by sharp reductions in international humanitarian assistance and shrinking foreign aid budgets. These financial shortfalls have forced essential learning programs, teacher support initiatives, and infrastructure projects to scale back or shut down entirely across major host nations in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

UNHCR stresses that investing in refugee education goes far beyond emergency aid. The report urges donor governments, multilateral organisations, and private sector partners to integrate refugee students into national public education systems. By directly strengthening host-country infrastructure, training local educators, and funding long-term educational policies, international partners can foster economic self-reliance, reduce reliance on long-term aid, and protect displaced youth from child labor, exploitation, and early marriage.

–ChannelAfrica/UNHCR–