
WASHINGTON D.C., January 24, 2025 – On the International Day of Education, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and its partners have launched “Answer the Call,” a campaign to ring the alarm on the global education crisis which is rapidly deepening global inequalities.
While artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly transforming education in high-income countries, in lower and lower middle-income countries, over 250 million of children remain out of school and 70 percent of 10-year-olds cannot read and understand a simple story.
Uneven connectivity and access to technology is deepening learning inequalities. More than half of the world is still offline, while the other half is making unprecedented investments in developing AI tools that can enhance and increase learning.
“AI is transforming classrooms at breakneck speed, but it is also magnifying the widening learning gap between high and low-income countries with the potential to entrench global inequalities and render a more peaceful, equal and prosperous world more elusive,” said Laura Frigenti, CEO of GPE. “The international community and national governments should answer the call and urgently invest in education as key to an inclusive digital transition to a brighter world for everyone.”
Rallying a wide network of youth, influencers and advocates, the “Answer the Call” campaign aims to shed light on the education crisis in lower-income countries and highlight the importance of universal quality education as the foundation of an inclusive, peaceful, prosperous and climate-resilient future. The campaign seeks to mobilize the international community, particularly decision makers in high-income countries, to urgently invest in education to build a brighter future for all.
Global demographic shifts have increased the urgency for investment in education. Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the largest population of young people on the planet in 2023, and by 2050, 40 percent of all those below the age of 18 will be in Africa. Yet, in 2021, Africa accounted for only 3 percent of total expenditure on education globally.
Now more than ever, we must all to work together to meet the global challenge of giving all children, wherever they are, the skills they need to navigate and thrive in an ever-changing world. Failing that, we are putting their future, and that of our world on hold.
ENDS
Answer the Call campaign partners
- ActionAid
- Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE)
- Campaña Latinoamericana por el Derecho a la Educación- CLADE
- Center for Economic and Social Rights
- Coordinamento italiano delle diaspore per la Cooperazione internazionale - CIDCI ETS
- Education Cannot Wait
- Education For All Somalia (EFASOM)
- Educaid.be
- Felm
- Finn Church Aid (FCA)
- Fondazione AVSI – ETS
- Fondation Paul Gérin-Lajoie
- Foro Dakar Honduras
- Girls Not Brides
- Global Campaign for Education (GCE)
- Global Partnership for Education (GPE)
- Gravissimum Educationis
- Cultura per l'Educazione
- Humanity & Inclusion
- Inclusion International
- MANI TESE ETS
- Oxfam
- Plan International
- REAL Centre Cambridge
- Results UK
- Save the Children
- School Meals Coalition
- Sightsavers
- The Global Goals
- The LEGO Foundation
- The World's Largest Lesson
- Theirworld
- UNGEI
- UNESCO
- World Bank
- World Food Programme
- World Vision International
About the Global Partnership for Education
GPE is a shared commitment to ending the world’s learning crisis. We mobilize partners and funds to support 90 lower-income countries to transform their education systems so that every girl and boy can get the quality education they need to unlock their full potential and contribute to building a better world.
www.globalpartnership.org
Media contact:
Tamara Kummer, GPE Head of Communications
@email
Tel: +1 202 948 5395
