School dropout high in conflict areas – Report

The Education For All (EFA) – Global Monitoring Report 2012 shows that 28.5 million of the 57 million children out of school in 2011, live in conflict-affected countries, the majority of whom are girls.

It says any progress that has been made in reducing out-of-school numbers in recent years had not reached children living in conflict-affected countries.

The report says they now make up 50 per cent of children who are denied an education, an increase from 42 per cent in 2008.

Entitled “Children battling to go to school,” the report, which was made available to the Ghana News Agency on Saturday by the EFA Global Monitoring Report Team; reveals a persistence of the ‘hidden crisis’ presented in the since 2011.

“This hidden crisis is exemplified by a continued failure to recognize education as part of a humanitarian response.

“Education accounted for just 1.4 per cent of humanitarian aid in 2012, down from 2 per cent in 2009,” it states.

It notes that these funds only reach around a quarter of the amount requested – the smallest proportion of any sector.

The GMR team released the report in cooperation with the Save the Children to mark Malala Yousafzai’s 16th birthday, which fell on July 12,

Malala, who was shot by the Taliban as she was exercising her right to go to school in Pakistan in October 2012, is not alone in her fight to go to school.

Source: GNA