World / Asia-Pacific
UN agencies report widespread exclusion from schooling in Afghanistan
More than half of Afghanistan’s primary-school-age children remain outside formal education, the United Nations said Nov. 4, citing a joint UNESCO-UNICEF report.
Source-checked brief: attributed UN primary-source account; no on-location reporting.
More than half of Afghanistan’s primary-school-age children remain outside formal education, according to a joint UNESCO-UNICEF report released Nov. 4, the UN spokesperson’s office said.
The report puts the share at 53% and highlights the continued exclusion of adolescent girls from secondary schooling. More than 2.6 million girls have been denied secondary education since 2021, the agencies said, according to UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
UNESCO and UNICEF said community-based education, literacy and skills programs, distance and digital learning, and private tutoring remain among the few learning pathways open to adolescent girls. The agencies said those options are not sufficient.
Dujarric summarized the report at the daily UN briefing in New York. The briefing did not include a response from Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, and it did not announce new funding or programs tied to the findings.
What we know / what we don't
What we know
- More than half of Afghanistan’s primary-school-age children remain outside formal education, the United Nations said Nov. 4, citing a joint UNESCO-UNICEF report.
What we don't know
- This brief is based on the attributed UN statement; it is not independent field reporting.
The source record