UN spotlights education crisis affecting 500 million children

Advocates at the United Nations annual gathering warned that more than 500 million children urgently need education amid conflict, displacement and climate shocks. UN education envoy Gordon Brown said Thursday that 273 million children are out of school and another 270 million attend school but lack basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills by age 11. "We're so far away from the goal," Brown said, adding that denying a child education affects their whole life and family. Education Cannot Wait director Maysa Jalbout described meeting an 18-year-old girl in an overcrowded Sudan classroom who was displaced by fighting, forced into early marriage and motherhood, and still determined to finish school. Hundreds of children outside could not get in and asked visitors to urge more schools. She announced $3 million to help up to 13,000 children in Gaza and the West Bank, where 660,000 have been out of school a third year, and $22 million for Sudan, where about 8 million remain out of school. The Global Partnership for Education said Wednesday it mobilized $3.5 billion for education systems in more than 90 lower-income countries. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said the funds help nations like Nigeria break barriers keeping children, especially girls, out of school.