UNESCO calls for equal opportunities in children's education
Every child should have the right to education. UNESCO announced on World Education Day (January 24) that 617 million children and adolescents in the world still cannot read or write.
Thursday, January 24, marked the first-ever World Education Day. UNESCO and the UN Refugee Agency called for better education for children. German schools also need more attention.
UNESCO criticized the poor educational opportunities for children on the occasion of the first World Education Day. The UN education agency announced that 262 million children and adolescents in the world still do not have access to education and 617 million are illiterate. UNESCO also called for equal opportunities in education in Germany.
Germany is particularly acutely facing a teacher shortage. With the number of students increasing and many teachers retiring, Germany now needs thousands of new teachers every year.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, a German agency based in Bonn and a partner of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, refugee children are particularly deprived of education. Four million children from refugee families do not go to school.
"It is of great importance that refugee children receive an education so that they can create better prospects for their lives. Therefore, children from refugee families must be given the opportunity to receive an education," the organization said in Bonn on Thursday.
This UN partner has supported education projects with a total of three million euros in recent years. Of this, 1.9 million euros were spent in Kenya, where it supported education projects for children in refugee camps. 150,000 euros were also spent on education projects in Germany.
A report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) states that worldwide, only 61 percent of children from refugee families attend school. Education conditions are inadequate in most countries hosting refugees.
This situation worsens as refugee children get older. Worldwide, only one percent of refugee children go to university.
Source: DW
