Report
Education Cannot Wait (ECW)’s report, Breaking Barriers: Understanding Educational Exclusion in Crises, finds 258 million school-aged children affected by crises. Of these, 93 million are out of school, while many enrolled children face conditions that limit learning and raise dropout risks.
Early learning challenges are increasingly becoming access crises in adolescence. Evidence shows food insecurity (IPC Phase 2+) is linked to poorer learning outcomes, lower progression, and reduced secondary enrolment, especially in protracted crises. Evidence also shows that school feeding programmes help offset the effects of food insecurity, improving attendance and leading to measurable gains of 0.1–0.2 standard deviations in learning outcomes.