New York – Europe and the Arabs

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned that nearly 6 million refugee children worldwide were out of school in 2025, at a time when escalating funding cuts threaten to deprive millions more of access to education and undermine years of progress made in refugee education.
This warning came in a new report on education released by the agency, which revealed that 44% of the total 13.1 million school-age refugee children globally were out of school last year.
Titled "Pathways to the Future: Education, Opportunity, and Self-Reliance," the report noted that the transition to secondary education remains one of the greatest challenges facing refugee students. While primary school enrollment for refugee children stood at 65% in 2025, secondary school enrollment did not exceed 32%, according to the daily news bulletin received on Friday morning.
The report highlighted a critical situation regarding the transition of refugee girls to secondary school; while enrollment rates for girls and boys are largely comparable at the primary level, the gap widens sharply at the secondary level. Factors such as poverty, protection risks, early marriage, and other pressures cause increasing numbers of adolescent girls to drop out of school.
A Means of Protection
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih emphasized that education serves as a means of protection and a pathway to opportunity and self-reliance. He added: "When I look back on my years as a refugee, I fully grasp the significance of this. Education provided me with opportunities that displacement might otherwise have denied me; it helped me rebuild my life and shape my future."
He warned that, given the severe pressure on funding for humanitarian and development operations, cutting education allocations risks squandering decades of collective investment and shutting the door of opportunity on an entire generation of young people.
Despite this situation, the report noted that refugee enrollment in higher education reached a record high of 11% in 2025—up from 9% in 2024—with more than 450,000 refugees enrolling in higher education for the first time, the highest figure recorded to date.
UNHCR urged the international community and development partners to safeguard education funding and invest in the national systems of refugee-hosting countries.