Children and youth out of school
In 2024, an estimated 273 million children and young people were out of school.
UNESCO / GEM Report🌍 EXPLORE THE WORLD · EDUCATION
How are learning and opportunity distributed?
Education can open pathways to knowledge, health, participation and opportunity. But access to school does not automatically mean access to learning.
Explore what global data reveal about who gets to school, who completes it, what children learn, and how differences in wealth, gender, geography and other circumstances shape educational opportunity.
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SDG 4
Quality Education
Inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
WHY EDUCATION MATTERS
Education is more than going to school.
A global education system can be explored through several connected questions: Can children enter school? Do they remain in school? Do they complete their education? Are they learning? Do they have qualified teachers and safe learning environments? And are opportunities distributed fairly?
GHE principle: Being counted in school is important — but learning, opportunity and inclusion matter too.
GLOBAL SNAPSHOT
What does the latest evidence show?
Global education data reveal both remarkable progress and persistent gaps. Look carefully at what each number measures.
Primary completion on time
Globally, 88% of the relevant cohort completed primary education on time in 2024.
UNESCO / SDG 4 monitoringLearning challenge
UNICEF estimates that about two thirds of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple text.
UNICEFPrimary teachers meeting academic qualification requirements
Globally, about 90% of primary teachers meet minimum national academic qualification requirements.
UNESCO / GEM ReportLOOK CLOSER
Access to school is not the same as learning.
Imagine two places where nearly every child attends school. Their education systems might still produce very different learning outcomes.
Attendance tells us whether children are participating in education. Completion tells us whether they progress through a level. Learning indicators ask a different question: what knowledge and skills are children actually developing?
ACCESS
Can children enter and participate in education?
COMPLETION
Do children progress through and complete their education?
LEARNING
Are children developing foundational knowledge and skills?
EXPLORE THE SYSTEM
Education has many dimensions.
SDG 4 is not a single indicator. UNESCO's education monitoring framework follows a broad set of targets covering access, learning, equity, teachers, environments and lifelong learning.
Access
Who can enter and participate in education?
Completion
Who progresses through each level and completes it?
Learning
What foundational knowledge and skills are learners developing?
Equity
How do opportunities differ by wealth, gender, location and other factors?
Teachers
Who teaches, what preparation do they have, and where are shortages greatest?
Learning environment
Are schools safe, inclusive, accessible and equipped for learning?
Digital skills
Who can use digital technologies effectively, safely and meaningfully?
Lifelong learning
How can people continue learning across different stages of life?
EQUITY
The average can hide the difference.
A national education average can look encouraging while important groups remain behind.
UNICEF and UNESCO emphasize the importance of examining education by factors such as household wealth, gender, geography, disability and other circumstances.
GHE explorers should therefore ask:
- Who is included in the average?
- Who may be missing?
- Which groups experience lower access or learning?
- Does the gap change over time?
Wealth
Gender
Location
Disability
EDUCATION
THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE LEARNING POSSIBLE
Education systems depend on teachers.
Buildings, technology and textbooks matter — but learning also depends on people.
82%
Professional qualification
Globally, about 82% of primary teachers meet professional qualification requirements.
Qualification standards differ between countries, so percentages should always be interpreted in context.
UNESCO reports that teacher qualification gaps are particularly important in low-income settings. This reminds us that an education indicator should be connected to the wider education system.
WHERE LEARNING HAPPENS
A school is more than a classroom.
Safe and supportive learning environments are part of education quality. Water, sanitation, hygiene, electricity, safety and protection can all influence the conditions in which students learn.
Water
Access to safe drinking water is part of a healthy learning environment.
Hygiene
Handwashing facilities can support health and a safer school environment.
Electricity
Reliable infrastructure can influence what learning resources schools can use.
Safety
Students need learning environments that are safe, inclusive and free from violence.
A useful GHE question:
What conditions around a learner might shape
their ability to learn?
EDUCATION IN A DIGITAL WORLD
Technology can expand learning — but it does not replace good teaching.
UNESCO's work on technology in education emphasizes that digital tools should support learners and teachers rather than substitute for human interaction.
Digital access also creates a new data question: who has the opportunity to use technology meaningfully?
01
Access
Can learners connect?
02
Skills
Can they use technology?
03
Purpose
Does it improve learning?
04
Equity
Who benefits?
SDG
4
EDUCATION & THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Quality education is a global commitment.
Sustainable Development Goal 4 calls for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Education also connects with many other Sustainable Development Goals — including health, gender equality, poverty reduction, decent work, reduced inequalities, climate action and peace.
GHE DATA SKILL
Before comparing education data, ask six questions.
01
What is being measured?
02
Who is being measured?
03
What year is the data from?
04
What is the denominator?
05
Are the places comparable?
06
Who produced the data?
Remember: A percentage is not a conclusion. It is evidence that needs context.
BECOME A DATA EXPLORER
What questions would you ask?
Good global health exploration does not stop when we find a number.
Where?
Which places have higher or lower education indicators?
Who?
Which population groups experience different opportunities?
When?
Is the situation improving, worsening or changing in another way?
Why?
What social, economic, environmental or system factors might be connected?
What connects?
How might education connect with health, poverty, gender or environment?
What next?
What new question does the evidence make you curious about?
TRUSTED DATA GATEWAYS
Explore education data from the source.
GHE encourages young explorers to go beyond summaries and learn where global education statistics come from.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Official international education statistics and SDG 4 indicators across countries and regions.
Explore UNESCO UIS ↗UNICEF Data
Child-focused data covering education, attendance, completion, learning and inequalities.
Explore UNICEF Data ↗United Nations SDG Indicators
Follow global progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the wider 2030 Agenda.
Explore UN SDG Data ↗UNESCO Global Education Monitoring
Explore evidence on access, equity, quality, teachers, technology, finance and learning environments.
Explore the GEM Report ↗REFLECT
Education is an opportunity — but opportunity is not distributed equally.
The data help us see differences. Understanding those differences requires curiosity, context and respect for the people represented by the numbers.
Look at the data. Notice the differences. Ask better questions. Imagine what could change.