The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced that 53 percent of primary school-age children in Afghanistan are deprived of access to formal education.
On Wednesday, November 4, UNICEF said in a joint report with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that population growth, educational restrictions imposed on girls and women, and insufficient investment have exacerbated the challenges facing Afghanistan’s education system.
According to the report, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are officially barred from education beyond the primary level.
As of October 2026, approximately 5,300 active learning centres were operating, providing education to nearly 162,000 students, 64 percent of whom were girls.
The two organisations said that the remaining educational opportunities for adolescent girls, including learning centres, literacy programmes, skills training and distance education, are insufficient to meet their needs.
