UN says 5.8mil refugee children out of school

Some 5.8 million refugee children were out of school in 2025, the United Nations said Friday, warning that funding cuts threatened to make the situation worse.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 44% of the world’s 13.1 million school-age refugee children were out of school last year.

“Education is protection. But it is also a pathway to opportunity and self-reliance,” said Barham Salih, the UN high commissioner for refugees.

“At a time of severe pressure on humanitarian and development financing, cuts to education risk reversing decades of collective investment and closing opportunities for a generation of young people.”

The former Iraqi president, who was a refugee, said that looking back on his own life, “education gave me opportunities that displacement might otherwise have denied me”.

“Displacement should not determine the limits of a child’s life.”

UNHCR said that while 65% of refugee children of primary school age were enrolled in education in 2025, only 32% were enrolled in secondary.

Refugee tertiary education enrolment reached a record 11% in 2025.

Earlier this week, UNHCR said its available funding had fallen from US$5.2 billion in 2024 to US$3.9 billion in 2025, while the number of people it is mandated to protect is hovering around historically high levels.

UNHCR said it needed $8.5 billion this year to protect refugees, but by the end of July had received only 32% of that amount (US$2.7 billion).

UNHCR said nearly 8.3 million refugees and other forcibly displaced people faced losing vital assistance from the agency as protection services crumble due to the “severe” funding cuts.