Sudan’s Severe School Dropout Crisis
Recent Developments
01January 2026: Save the Children said children in Sudan had missed nearly 500 days of learning since the war began, with North Darfur the most affected region and only 3% of more than 1,100 schools open.
022026: UNESCO reported that Sudan’s war has left 19 million children out of school and said many schools have been converted into shelters or damaged.
032026: The Education Cluster said 54% of schools were in active conflict or unstable zones and 18% were being used as shelters.
042026: UNICEF-linked reporting cited an education response funding gap of US$92 million to get children back to learning in Sudan.
Interventions
- UNICEF is providing education and protection services for over 4 million children, mothers, and families across Sudan.
- UNICEF is supporting Learning Passport and e-learning options aimed at reaching 500,000 girls and boys, especially in active-conflict, displaced, or mobile populations.
- The Education Cluster and UNESCO-led education coordination efforts are prioritizing safe access, quality learning, system support, and resource mobilization.
What Works
- Safe, continuous access to learning, including reopening schools only where security allows and preventing schools from being used as shelters when alternatives exist, is identified by UNESCO and the Education Cluster as a core priority.
- Remote and blended learning tools such as the Learning Passport can help sustain education for displaced children when schools are inaccessible, according to UNICEF.
- Protecting education facilities and restoring basic school inputs such as furniture, water, sanitation, and teaching materials are repeatedly identified in UN reporting as necessary for recovery.
How to Help
- Donate to humanitarian education organizations working in Sudan, including UNICEF, Save the Children, UNHCR, UNESCO partners, and Education Cluster response actors.
- Support local and international NGOs that provide emergency learning, child protection, and psychosocial support for displaced children in Sudan and neighboring host countries.
- Advocate for increased humanitarian funding, school protection, and support for displaced Sudanese children with elected representatives and relevant aid agencies.
Make an Impact
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Verified Organizations
Organizations Helping(8)
UNESCO works on Sudan’s education collapse by coordinating system-level recovery and planning. In Sudan, UNESCO helped launch the Transitional Education Plan with the Global Partnership for Education and Sudan’s Local Education Group. This approach focuses on restoring learning through coordinated sector planning, mobilizing major funding for education recovery, and supporting the rebuilding of an education system disrupted by war.
ECW supports education in Nigeria by funding safe learning spaces, teacher professional development and well-being support, vocational training, teaching and learning materials, WASH facilities designed for gender and disability inclusion, child safeguarding, and reintegration of out-of-school children and girls into formal education. In north-eastern Nigeria, it has used both First Emergency Response grants and longer-term Multi-Year Resilience Programmes to move children from emergency access into sustained learning.
This working group does not directly run a single service delivery program; instead, it coordinates ministries, humanitarian organizations, and education actors to prioritize interventions, agree on standards, advocate for funding, improve capacity, and align education-in-emergency responses in Nigeria, especially in the north-east where crisis has disrupted schooling.
Education Above All works in Sudan through partnership with UNICEF to support out-of-school children affected by conflict. Its approach includes safe learning spaces and education access programming designed to help children resume learning and gain life skills despite displacement, insecurity, and school disruption.
