From Gaza to Sudan to Nepal, more than 500 million children are in desperate need of education

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In a stifling sixth grade classroom in war-torn Sudan, a very motivated teacher was giving a lesson to 120 very committed children. Among them: an 18-year-old girl uprooted three years ago by fighting, forced into marriage and motherhood too soon, but determined to finish her education. That wasn’t all, Maysa Jalbout, the director of Education Can’t Wait, recounted of her visit to the school a few weeks ago.

Even with a classroom temperature of 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) and no water or electricity, “She pleaded with me to make sure that her siblings and her cousins and her orphan friends are also able to attend school.” But the school was so small that hundreds more kids waiting outside couldn’t get in, Jalbout said. They asked her and the other visitors to deliver a message to build more schools – and she said that’s what she has been urging at the U.N.’s annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations this week. The plight of the more than 500 million children in desperate need of an education has been one of the key issues on the sidelines of the meeting – and the appeal for money to make it possible is having some success.

Climate change and conflict are major impediments Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister is now the U.N. special envoy for global education. He said Thursday that 273 million children are not in school and 270 million others are at school but aren’t learning enough to read and write or be proficient in arithmetic by age 11.

Many of them are in areas affected by conflict or climate change, he said. “The message, I think, is clear,” he said. “Instead of the world developing only some of the potential of some children in some countries, we must be determined to develop the potential of all children at all times in every country.” Governments whose children are not in school must be reminded, he said, that they promised 20% of their spending would go to education, and to remind countries giving aid that in 2015 they signed up for U.N.

development goals including achieving quality education for all children by 2030. “We’re so far away from the goal.” Brown said it’s disappointing that the numbers of children not going to school isn’t falling and the message is clear: “If you deny a child the basic right to education, you are doing something that will affect their whole life and, indeed… Many of them are in areas affected by conflict or climate change, he said.“The message, I think, is clear," he said.