COVID-19 and education
- Learning losses from missed in-person schooling amounting to 2 trillion hours of lost learning.
Source: UNICEF, 2022 - As of March 2022, 23 countries – home to over 400 million schoolchildren – have yet to fully open schools, with many children at risk of dropping out.
Source: UNICEF, 2022 - On June 1st 2020, GPE doubled its COVID-19 emergency funding window to US$500 million to help lower-income countries mitigate both the immediate and long-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on education.
Source: GPE Secretariat
- More than 80% of the 66 accelerated grants to help countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 included initiatives that targeted children with disabilities to ensure learning continuity.
Source: GPE Secretariat - On April 1st 2020, just three weeks after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, GPE unlocked US$250 million to help 67 lower-income countries mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on education.
Source: GPE Secretariat - On March 25, 2020, GPE provided US$8.8 million to UNICEF to kickstart education systems’ response to COVID-19 in 87 lower-income countries.
Source: GPE Secretariat - COVID-19 education grants have provided over $35 million across GPE partner countries to help teachers adapt to new distance learning methods.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
Globally, 72% of countries (146 of 204) have included teachers in one of several priority groups to be vaccinated.
Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.1 -
Content for remote learning was provided to teachers by 58% of all countries ranging from 81% in Europe and Northern America to just 29% in sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.7 -
Globally 40% of countries trained three quarters or more of teachers on distance learning methods including various forms of ICT in 2020, ranging from 65% of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to just 8% in sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.8 - Aid to education could be reduced by as much as $2 billion by 2022.
Source: GEMR Policy Paper 41 – July 2020, p.1 - 41% of lower income countries reduced their spending on education after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with an average decline in spending of 13.5%.
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.4 - Global learning losses from COVID-19 could cost this generation of students close to US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings, which far exceeds the original estimate of US$10 trillion made immediately after the pandemic outbreak and even the US$17 trillion estimated in 2021 (Azevedo et al. 2022).
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.4 - Total global education spending over the last 10 years before COVID-19 increased steadily, from US$4 trillion in 2010 to US$4.9 trillion in 2018, and then stagnated with the onset of the pandemic.
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.10 - An estimated 24 million learners may never see the inside of a classroom again because of COVID-19, with girls, children from poor families, and children with disabilities facing the greatest risks.
Source: UNESCO, 2020 - 88% of low-income countries and 76% of lower-middle-income countries received development assistance to cover COVID-related costs in education (UNESCO, UNICEF, and World Bank 2020).
Source: Education finance watch 2021. P12 - 368.5 million children across 143 countries who normally rely on school meals for a reliable source of daily nutrition must now look to other sources.
Source: The impact of COVID-19 on children. UN Policy Brief, April 2020, p. 9 - 20 million more secondary school girls could be out of school following the pandemic.
Source: Malala Fund - Due to pandemic-related disruptions in prevention programs, 2 million cases of female genital mutilation could occur over the next decade that would otherwise have been averted.
Source: UNFPA, April 2020 - 13 million girls could be forced into early marriage as their parents grapple with the economic fallout of COVID-19.
Source: World Bank, 2020 - Before the pandemic, over 50% of the world’s children left primary school without even the most basic reading skills. An estimated 70% of children now face this harsh reality.
Source: The World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF, The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery. 2021, P.5 - Only 15 countries are offering distance instruction in more than one language.
Source: The impact of COVID-19 on children. UN Policy Brief, April 2020, p. 8 - At the peak of school closures, 1.6 billion learners were out of school, with 810 million in low-income countries.
Source: UNESCO - Between 119 and 124 million people may be pushed into extreme poverty due to the pandemic.
Source: World Bank, 2021
Gender equality
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One additional school year can increase a woman's earnings by 10% to 20%.
Source: World Bank, Returns to Investment in Education (2002) -
Nearly 1 in 3 adolescent girls from the poorest households around the world has never set foot in a classroom.
Source: UNICEF, Addressing the learning crisis: An urgent need to better finance education for the poorest children, p.3, January 2020 -
Twice as many girls are on the path of gender equality in partner countries.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
73% of girls finished primary school in 2020 in partner countries compared to 70% in 2013.
Source: GPE results report 2022, p.90 -
52.5% of girls completed lower-secondary school in 2020 in partner countries compared to 46% in 2013.
Source: GPE results report 2022, p.90
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Partner countries are close to gender parity in primary completion, with an average of 96 girls completing primary school for every 100 boys.
Source: GPE Results Report 2022, p.118 - Annex J -
Of all active implementation grants in FY 2022, 83 percent mainstreamed gender equality.
Source: GPE Results Report 2022, p.46 -
4 out of every 5 girls who are out of primary school across GPE partner countries live in a country affected by fragility and conflict, as do 2 out of every 3 girls who are out of lower secondary school.
Source: GPE results report 2021, p.36 -
There are 37% more girls than boys out of primary school across GPE partner countries affected by fragility and conflict, compared to only 4% more girls in other GPE partner countries.
Source: Data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics for 2014 -
Primary enrollment for girls has increased by 65% in partner countries.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
Each year of secondary education reduces the likelihood of marrying as a child before the age of 18 by five percentage points or more.
Source: Economic impacts of child marriage: Global synthesis report (2017), p.5 -
Human capital wealth could increase by almost 22% globally with gender equality in earnings.
Source: Unrealized potential: the high cost of gender inequality in earnings, p.7 -
Educating girls averted more than 30 million deaths of children under five years old and 100 million deaths in adults 15 to 60 years old.
Source: The Learning Generation, p.34 -
Universal secondary education could virtually end child marriage.
Source: Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, p.52 -
If all girls get 12 years of schooling, human capital wealth could increase by $15-30 trillion.
Source: Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, p.5 -
Women with primary education (partial or completed) earn 14% to 19% more than those with no education at all. Women with secondary education may expect to make almost twice as much, and women with tertiary education almost three times as much as those with no education.
Source: Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, p.4 -
129 million girls worldwide are out of school.
Source: UNICEF -
Only 35% of all university students enrolled in STEM-related fields are women.
Source: Cracking the code: girls' and women's education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), UNESCO, 2017, p.11 -
Girls are 1.5 times more likely than boys to be excluded from primary school. That's 15 million girls of primary school age who will never have the opportunity to learn to read and write in primary school, compared to about 10 million boys.
Source: UIS/GEM Report Policy Paper 27/Fact Sheet 37, p.5 -
Some countries lose more than US$1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys.
Source: Plan International: Paying the price: The economic cost of failing to educate girls, p.10 -
In low income and lower-middle income countries, women account for only a third or less of human capital wealth.
Source: Unrealized potential: the high cost of gender inequality in earnings, p.5 -
Globally, 9 in 10 girls complete their primary education, but only 3 in 4 complete their lower secondary education. In low-income countries, less than two thirds of girls complete their primary education, and only 1 in 3 completes lower secondary school.
Source: Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, p.2 -
Approximately 60 million girls are sexually assaulted on their way to or at school every year.
Source: Global Women’s Institute, School-Based Interventions to Prevent Violence Against Women & Girls, p.2
Education in crisis situations
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Each year of education reduces the risk of conflict by around 20%.
Source: World Bank. Doing well out of war (Paul Collier), 1999 , p. 5 -
Children in fragile, conflict-affected countries are more than twice as likely to be out of school compared with those in countries not affected by conflict; similarly, adolescents are more than two-thirds more likely to be out of school.
Source: GEM Report, Policy Paper 21, June 2015, p.2 -
68.3% of children completed primary school in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict in 2020 compared to 66% in 2013.
Source: GPE Results Report 2022, p.90 -
63% of GPE implementation grants were allocated to partner countries affected by fragility and conflict in 2021 compared to 44% in 2012.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
In GPE countries affected by fragility and conflict, the number of girls completing school for every 100 boys rose from 74 to 88 for primary, and from 67 to 83 for lower-secondary between 2002 and 2015.
Source: GPE estimate based on UIS data
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106 million more children enrolled in school in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict since 2002.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
21 partner countries have accessed a total of US$277 million in accelerated funding to mitigate the impacts of crises on children’s education as of June 2022.
Source: Factsheet: Supporting countries affected by fragility and conflict, p.1 -
78 million children were supported by GPE in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict in fiscal year 2022.
Source: GPE Results Report 2022, p.72 -
52% of GPE funding have been spent in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict.
Source: GPE Results Report 2022, p.136 -
Since January 2020, GPE has allocated US$218.6 million in accelerated funding in 19 grants to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia – Federal, Somalia – Puntland, Vanuatu, Yemen and Zimbabwe .
Source: GPE Secretariat -
34 GPE partner lower-income countries are fragile or affected by conflict in fiscal year 2022.
Source: GPE Secretariat based on UNESCO and World Bank classifications -
GPE partner countries affected by fragility and conflict are home to more than 200 million children of primary and lower secondary school age.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
GPE partner lower-income countries are home to almost 4 million refugee children, about 45% of the world’s refugee children population.
Source: UNHCR and GPE data as of 2016. UNHCR data only accounts for refugees for whom demographic data is available. - The average annual cost of educating refugees is less than 5% of public education expenditure in developing nations hosting 85% of the world’s refugees
Source: World Bank and UNHCR. The Global Cost and Inclusive Refugee Education, 2021 - Developing regions hosted 92% of the world’s school-age refugees in 2017.
Source: UNHCR. Turn the tide: refugee education in crisis (2018), p.14 -
If the enrollment rate for secondary schooling is 10 percentage points higher than the average, the risk of war is reduced by about 3 percentage points (a decline in the risk from 11.5% to 8.6%).
Source: World Bank. Understanding Civil War, 2005 , p. 16 -
Just 5 % of refugee students are currently enrolled in university.
Source: UNHCR -
Education’s share in global humanitarian aid has tripled from 1% 2014 to 3% in 2019 and quintupled in 5 years.
Source: GEMR Policy Paper 41 – July 2020 (p. 9) -
An estimated 128 million primary and secondary-aged children are out of school in crisis-affected countries, including 67 million girls.
Source: Plan International, Left Out, Left Behind: Adolescent girls’ secondary education in crises, Plan International, UK, 2019, p.30 -
There were more than 5,000 incidents of attacks on education and cases of military use of schools between January 2020 and December 2021.
Source: GCPEA Education under attack, 2022, p.11 -
In the past five years, funding requests for education in emergencies have increased by 21%.
Source: GEM Report, Policy Paper 31, p.7 -
Girls are almost two and a half more likely to be out of school if they live in conflict-affected countries, and young women are nearly 90% more likely to be out of secondary school than their counterparts in countries not affected by conflict.
Source: GEM Report, Policy Paper 21, June 2015, p.3 -
Over the last five years, 41 countries suffered at least 5 attacks on education
Source: Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. May 2018 - 68% of refugee children are enrolled in primary school but only 34 % are enrolled in pre-primary or secondary schools and just 5% in higher education.
Source: UNHCR 2021 Refugees education report. Staying the course: the challenges facing refugee education. P. 6-7, 12 - Half of all refugee children (48%) remain out of school.
Source: UNHCR 2021 Refugees education report. Staying the course: the challenges facing refugee education. P. 11 - By the end of 2017, there were more than 25.4 million refugees around the world. More than half of the global refugee population – 52%– were under the age of 18.
Source: UNHCR. Turn the tide: refugee education in crisis (2018), p.10 - There are 17 million school-age refugees and internally displaced children in countries affected by conflict.
Source: ODI Education cannot wait. Proposing a fund for education in emergencies, p. 7 - 20 years on average: length of forced displacement due to crises and conflicts.
Source: UNHCR, 2016, Global trends – Forced displacement in 2015, p.20
Inclusive education
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In low and lower-middle income countries, around 40% of children with disabilities are out of school at primary level and 55% at lower secondary level
Source: UNICEF, Towards Inclusive Education. The impact of disability on school attendance in lower-income countries. 2016 -
Of all active implementation grants in FY 2022, 65 percent support children with disabilities. The total amount supporting children with disabilities is estimated at $93 million.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
GPE supported the education of nearly 32.7 million children between 2015 and 2020.
Source: GPE results report 2021, p.6 -
US$640 million in GPE funding supported activities promoting equity, gender equality and inclusion between 2016 and 2020.
Source: GPE results report 2021, p.81
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66.7% of partner countries reported key education statistics disaggregated by children with disabilities.
Source: GPE results report 2022, p.7 -
In 2022, 62,163 children with disabilities were supported through 17 grants that reported these data.
Source: GPE results report 2022, p.72 -
69% of partner countries are at or close to gender parity in primary completion.
Source: GPE results report 2021, p.36 -
Out of 35 countries with active grants in 2018, 34 mention disability, special needs, or inclusive education in education sector analyses and plans.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
Almost 40% of partner countries provide pre-service or in-service teacher training on inclusive education.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
One third of GPE partner countries plans to build new schools or renovate existing schools to make them accessible for children with disabilities.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
Approximately one billion people in the world are living with a disability, with at least 1 in 10 being children and 80% living in lower-income countries.
Source: World Report on Disability -
Between 93 million and 150 million children are estimated to live with disabilities.
Source: EFA GMR 2015, p.100 -
The literacy rate for adults with disabilities is 3%. For women with disabilities the literacy rate is even lower, at 1%
Source: UNGEI. Still left behind: Pathways to inclusive education for girls with disabilities, p.12
Early childhood education
- Aid to early childhood development has increased in recent years, from US$1.3 billion in 2002 to US$6.8 billion in 2016. As a share of total ODA, ODA for ECD has increased from 1.7% to 3.8% between 2002 and 2016.
Source: Just Beginning: Addressing Inequality in Donor Funding for Early Childhood Development (2018), p.5 - Despite rapid progress in the past two decades, the pre-primary gross enrollment ratio stood at 61.5% worldwide in 2019.
Source: Right from the start: build inclusive societies through inclusive early childhood education. GEMR Policy paper 46. July 2021. P.2 - 62% of children were enrolled in pre-primary education in GPE partner countries in 2020 compared to 19% in 2002.
Source: GPE results report 2022, p.23 - GPE has invested US$270 million in more than 35 partner lower-income countries to support ECCE.
Source: GPE Secretariat - Around 90% of GPE grants with an ECCE component provide financial and technical support to countries to strengthen the role of pre-primary teachers through training and learning materials, construction of teacher training centers and by increasing salaries and incentives.
Source: Policy brief: GPE’s work for early childhood care and education, p.6
- Pre-primary enrollment is nearly at gender parity, with girls at 59% compared to 62% overall.
Source: GPE results report 2022, p.23 -
$260 million were invested to support early childhood education in 59 active implementation grants in FY 2022.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
Among the 20 countries with the world’s lowest preschool participation rates, 14 are in Africa.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.127 - Just 20% of children are enrolled in pre-primary education in low-income countries.
Source: Global education monitoring report, 2021/2: non-state actors in education: who chooses? who loses? UNESCO 2021, p. 251 - 1 in 4 children are not in education during the year before the official entry to primary school. 4 in 10 are not in education by the time countries expect them to be in school.
Source: Right from the start: build inclusive societies through inclusive early childhood education. GEMR Policy paper 46. July 2021, p.15 - Only 63 (over 193) countries have adopted legal provisions for free pre-primary education, and 51 countries have adopted pre-primary education as a compulsory level in national legal frameworks.
Source: UNESCO, 2021 - In 2017, only 6% of domestic education budgets globally were allocated to pre-primary education.
Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, A World Ready to Learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education, UNICEF, New York, April 2019, p. 98 - Less than 5% of children have access to pre-primary school in some countries affected by conflict.
Source: GEM Report: Education for people and planet: Creating sustainable futures for all (2016), p.428 - Only 1% of all early childhood development aid funding goes to pre-primary education.
Source: Just Beginning: Addressing Inequality in Donor Funding for Early Childhood Development (2018), p.5
Learning and literacy
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53% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries are unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text.
Source: World Bank. 2019 -
In 2017, the UIS estimates that more than 617 million (or six out of ten) children and adolescents of primary and lower secondary school age do not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics.
Source: UIS Fact Sheet N°48, February 2018 p.12 -
$328 million were invested in activities to improve learning in FY 2022.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
70% of partner countries with available data saw improvements in learning outcomes between 2010–15 and 2016–19.
Source: GPE results report 2021. p.26 -
89% of grants supported EMIS and/or learning assessment systems in 2020.
Source: GPE results report 2021. p.6
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56 million textbooks have been distributed in GPE partner countries thanks to the support of GPE grants in fiscal year 2022.
Source: GPE results report 2022. p.71 -
The proportion of implementation grants supporting learning assessment systems increased from 67% in 2016 to 83% in 2020.
Source: GPE results report 2021. p.7 -
74% of active implementation grants in fiscal year 2022 invested in activities related to learning assessments.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
US$775 million in GPE funding was allocated to activities designed to improve learning, representing 36% of GPE implementation funding approved between 2016 and 2020.
Source: GPE results report 2021. p.26 -
78% of active implementation grants in fiscal year 2020 invested in activities related to learning assessments.
Source: GPE results report 2021. p.26 -
Only 14 countries representing 15% of the school-age population in Africa have at least two data points on minimum learning proficiency that would allow the long-term trend to be estimated.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.43 -
Since 2015, only 19 countries in reading and 18 countries in mathematics have reported data from school surveys.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.43 -
According to household survey data, the proportion of grade 2 students with foundational reading skills is near zero in many countries.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.43 -
In 16 out of 22 sub-Saharan countries, at most one third of students are taught in the language they speak outside of school.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.79 -
PASEC and SACMEQ data found that having their own textbook can increase a child’s literacy scores by up to 20%.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.79 -
In 10 out of 14 participating francophone countries in PASEC 2019, reading scores of students with a female head teacher were significantly better than those of students with a male head teacher.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.115 -
The global youth literacy rate is 91%, meaning 102 million youth lack basic literacy skills.
Source: Meeting commitments: are countries on track to achieve SDG 4? 2019, p.9 -
There are 92 literate women for every 100 literate men globally, and in low-income countries, 77 literate women for every 100 literate men.
Source: Meeting commitments: are countries on track to achieve SDG 4? 2019 p.9 -
In sub-Saharan Africa, only 64% of primary and 50% of secondary school teachers have the minimum required training, and this proportion has been declining since 2000.
Source: Meeting commitments: are countries on track to achieve SDG 4? 2019 p.9 -
On current trends, by 2030 more than half of all school-aged children will not master basic secondary-level skills including key competencies such as literacy, numeracy, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Learning loss due to COVID-19-related school closures may worsen this trend.
Source: Brookings, 2019 -
More than 80% of the 617 million children and adolescents who are not learning enough to meet minimum proficiency levels come from low- and lower-middle-income countries, although these countries are home to only 60% of the global school-age population.
Source: UIS Fact Sheet N°48, February 2018 p.12 -
Globally, two-thirds of children – 68% or 262 million out of 387 million – are in school and will reach the last grade of primary but will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading. About 60% or 137 million adolescents are in school but not learning.
Source: UIS Fact Sheet 46, p.10 -
91% of primary school-age children in low-income countries will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and the rate is 87% in math compared to 5% and 8% respectively in high-income countries.
Source: UIS Fact Sheet 46, p.16 -
93% of secondary school-age adolescents in low-income countries will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading compared to 27% in high-income countries.
Source: UIS Fact Sheet 46, p.11 -
Low- and middle-income countries spend 2% of their GDP each year on education costs that do not lead to learning.
Source: The Learning Generation, executive summary, p. 7 -
771 million adults lack basic literacy skills (women account for two thirds).
Source: UIS -
Approximately 1 in 4 young people in low and lower-middle income countries is illiterate.
Source: GEM Report 2013/2014, p. 208
Quality teaching
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By 2030, countries must recruit 69 million teachers to provide every child with primary and secondary education: 24.4 million primary school teachers and 44.4 million secondary school teachers.
Source: UIS factsheet #39, October 2016, p.1 -
67 million more children have access to quality teachers since 2002.
Source: GPE Secretariat - Nearly 1.6 million teachers were trained under GPE grants between FY16 and FY20
Source: GPE Secretariat
- 39% of partner countries had fewer than 40 students per trained teacher in 2020, compared to 25% in 2015.
Source: GPE Secretariat - 91% of GPE implementation grants active in FY22 included support for teachers and teaching-related activities, such as in-service training, pre-service training, teacher coaching and mentoring, teacher management, and teaching tools such as teachers’ guides and other pedagogical resources. This amounts to a combined total of more than $528 million.
Source: GPE Secretariat - More than 675,000 teachers were trained with GPE funding in FY 2022, compared to 98,000 in 2014.
Source : GPE Results Report 2022. p.71 - 77% primary teachers had minimum required qualifications.
Source : GPE Results Report 2022. p.7 - At the primary level, 76% of teachers meet their national minimum qualification standards across partner countries, with little to no difference by gender.
Source : GPE Results Report 2022. p.36 - Across GPE partner countries, 58% of pre-primary teachers, 79% of primary teachers, and 71% of lower and upper secondary teachers have the required minimum qualifications. Even with minimum qualifications, many teachers’ pedagogical and content knowledge is low.
Source: GPE Secretariat based on UIS data - 72% of primary teachers and 65% of lower-secondary teachers received pre-or in-service training in partner countries in 2017.
Source: GPE Secretariat - COVID-19 education grants have provided over $35 million across GPE partner countries to help teachers adapt to new distance learning methods.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
Globally, 83% of primary and the same proportion of secondary teachers hold the minimum required qualifications. In primary, this proportion ranges from 98% in South-East Asia to 67% in sub-Saharan Africa, while in secondary, it ranges from 97% in Central Asia to 61% in sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.4 -
On average, there are 56 school children per trained teacher in sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.101 -
The global average pupil/trained teacher ratio (PTTR) in primary education was 27:1 ranging from 56:1 in sub-Saharan Africa to 17:1 in Europe.
Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.5 -
Sub-Saharan Africa will need to recruit 11.2 million primary and secondary teachers by 2025 based on increasing school-age populations and replacements due to teacher attrition. This gap will widen to 15 million teachers needed by 2030.
Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.3 -
Of the 24.4 million teachers needed for universal primary education, 21 million will replace teachers who leave the workforce. The remaining 3.4 million, however, are additional teachers who are needed to expand access to school and support education quality by reducing the numbers of children in each class to a maximum of 40.
Source: UIS factsheet #39, October 2016, p. 1 -
Teacher shortages are most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where 70% of countries face shortages at primary level and 90% of countries at secondary level.
Source: ISU, 2016 -
In one-third of all countries, less than 75% of teachers were trained according to national standards in 2013.
Source: EFA GMR 2015, p.122 -
Countries with more female primary teachers are more likely to have higher enrollment rates for girls in secondary schools. Unfortunately, in some countries, less than 25% of primary teachers are female.
Source: UNESCO eAtlas of Teachers
Domestic financing
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71% of partner countries increased their share of education expenditure or maintained it at 20% or above.
Source: GPE results report 2022, p.7 -
GPE partner countries (43 with data) allocated 18.6% of their budget for education in 2021.
Source: GPE Secretariat -
Government per capita spending on education was on average nearly 150 times higher in high-income countries than in low-income countries.
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.11 -
Between 2010–11 and 2018–19 government education spending as a percentage of GDP remained at 4.3% in lower-middle-income countries, and increased from 3.2 to 3.5% in low-income countries.
Source: Education finance watch 2021. P4
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In low- and middle-income countries, spending on education rose by 5.9% a year between 2009 and 2019.
Source: Education finance watch 2021. P3 -
More than three quarters (76%) of global education spending stems from government, and households contributed a little less than one-quarter in 2020. But in low-income countries that share was 35%. In comparison, households in high-income countries contributed 16% of total education spending.
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.11 -
Education spending in low- and lower-middle-income countries would need to increase from 3.5% to 6.3% of GDP between 2012 and 2030 to deliver universal pre-primary, primary and secondary education.
Source: Education finance watch 2021. P5 -
One in three countries spend less than 4% of their GDP and less than 15% of their budget on education.
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.3 -
Three-fifths of education resources in low-income and lower middle-income countries come from domestic public expenditure, primarily supplemented by private household expenditures.
Source: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education financing, May 2020 -
Households in low- and lower-middle-income countries continue to bear a significant portion of education costs, accounting for 39% of the total spending in education compared to 16% in high-income countries.
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.3 -
About 40% of low- and lower-middle-income countries spend below international benchmarks for public education spending.
Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.7 -
In sub-Saharan Africa, households account for 38% of total education spending, ranging from less than 5% in Ethiopia, Lesotho and Sao Tome and Principe to more than 67% in Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria.
Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.145 -
In 2018–19, low-income countries spent approximately US$48 per school-aged child compared to US$8,501 in high-income countries.
Source: Education finance watch 2021. P5