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Education

Good quality, safe and inclusive education for every child by 2030

We work with international institutions, governments, donors, civil society coalitions and children themselves to advocate for the global policies and financing needed to protect children’s education from the threats of conflict, the climate crisis and inequality.

For children around the world today, the frequency and severity of threats to their education have never been greater. Conflict, the climate emergency, and the hunger crisis have pushed education systems to the brink. Combined, this means that 224 million school-aged children now have their education severely disrupted by crises. 

Even when children are in school, they are not always learning basic literacy and numeracy skills. In fact, an estimated 70% of 10-year-olds in low and middle income countries cannot understand a simple written text. The most marginalised children are most at risk of missing out on education and being left behind. With time running out to reach the promises underpinning Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ensure inclusive and quality education for all by 2030, decisive, innovative action and new funding is urgently needed.

Our priorities

Education in emergencies: Children facing emergencies frequently tell us that education is a big priority for them as it provides a sense of stability and hope for the future, as well as life-saving learning. But over 72 million children affected by crises are out of school and while 127 million are in school, they are not achieving adequate learning outcomes. Save the Children plays a leading role in the education in emergencies field as co-lead with UNICEF of the Global Education Cluster and as a founding member of Education Cannot Wait. We have a particular focus on increasing the prioritisation of education in emergency responses, in supporting specific country responses with global advocacy and in education for refugees.

Financing: Financing for education is woefully low and insufficient to ensure quality education for children across the globe. Low- and middle-income countries are currently facing an estimated $97 billion annual funding gap. We work with key donors, multilateral funds, and national governments to raise more and better funding for education to close the gap.

UK Influencing: The UK government has a history of supporting global education initiatives, but this progress has markedly declined over recent years with spending rapidly decreasing. We work to provide evidence-based solutions to the UK government and the steps required by the UK to restore its leadership role in championing education worldwide through renewed funding commitments and advocating to the international community. We do this through our coalition work with Send My Friend to School and through our own engagement with the UK government.

School safety and resilience: Without preparedness and resilience, continued shocks and stresses threaten to exacerbate an already staggering global education crisis. At the same time, schools have a critical role to play in promoting disaster prevention from all hazards and empowering young people to understand and act on the risks they face. Save the Children works with partners, including through the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES), to advocate for a comprehensive approach to school safety that builds the resilience of children, educators, systems, and communities. 

Our key policy asks

1.    Education in emergencies:  All stakeholders must work together to increase financing and prioritisation of education in emergencies, recognising its lifesaving impact. They must improve coordination, policies, and plans which deliver protective, safe, inclusive, and good-quality learning environments in crisis contexts, including in the first phase of a response.

2.    Education for refugee children: The international community and refugee hosting country governments must ensure that all refugee children have access to good-quality learning opportunities by closing the financing gap; developing and implementing inclusive policies; and increasing the quality of instruction by enabling refugee teachers to become qualified.

3.    Financing: National governments need to raise sustainable domestic resources for education. International donors need to increase their aid budgets for education and ensure key multilateral funds – such as the Global Partnership for Education and the Education Cannot Wait fund - have the funding they need to deliver crucial investments in education.  Donors must also explore the role of innovative financing mechanisms to unlock new sources of funding for education.

4.    Climate: Governments and donors must invest in building education systems that can withstand and recover from increasing climate disasters and hotter temperatures. They must also recognise the key role that education plays in building more resilient and green communities to help tackle the climate crisis in the longer term.

5.    Girls Education: To strengthen learning and wellbeing for the most marginalised girls, and ensure all children are empowered equally through education, governments must address the intersecting barriers to girls’ education by making teaching and learning gender-transformative; establishing girl-friendly, safe, inclusive, and empowering learning environments; strengthening community support for girls’ education and building gender-transformative education policies and systems.    

6.    Resilience: Governments, development partners, and organisations should endorse, implement, report on, and champion the Comprehensive School Safety Framework, using evidence-based solutions to build the resilience of their education systems.

Our Key reports

Read the latest blogs on education

Our Experts

Hollie Warren; Head of Education

Hollie Warren
Head of Education

h.warren@savethechildren.org.uk
@holliewarren__

Hollie Warren is the Head of Education Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children UK. She has worked at Save the Children for over ten years, with seven years' experience of working on both UK and global education policy and advocacy. She is currently the Chair of the Send My Friend to School coalition - the UK coalition of the Global Campaign for Education.  Previously, Hollie worked as an Education Policy Adviser in Save the Children’s UK Poverty department, working on the ‘Read On. Get On.’ campaign focused on early years education and literacy in the UK. 

Emma Wagner

Emma Wagner

Senior Education Policy and Advocacy Adviser
e.wagner@savethechildren.org.uk
@ewagner48

Before joining Save the Children Emma, co-founded Umoja Tanzania, a successful youth education charity in Arusha, Tanzania. She is chair of Umoja UK, a UK registered charity. 

She has worked for over ten years at Save the Children, in Public Affairs and in the Education Team. She is responsible for policy and advocacy on education in emergencies and refugee education. She is co-chair of the Send My Friend to School campaign Steering Group, a member of the International NGO constituency for Education Cannot Wait and INEE.

Carly Munnelly

Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser for Development Financing
c.munnelly@savethechildren.org.uk
@carlymunnelly

Carly is responsible for leading Save the Children’s education financing policy and advocacy work. She works with national governments and international donors to raise more and better funding for children’s rights – including their right to education - around the world.

Before joining Save the Children, Carly worked for a UK consultancy helping businesses and charities build advocacy strategies and campaigns rooted in high quality research insights. She also previously lived and worked in Timor-Leste where she advocated for more of the national budget to be spent on social services, such as education, health and WASH. 

Anja Nielsen

Anja Nielsen

Senior Education Policy and Advocacy Adviser
a.nielsen@savethchildren.org.uk

Anja leads policy and advocacy on comprehensive school safety. She is also the co-chair of the advocacy working group for the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES). She has a background in education advocacy and has worked with a range of organisations including UNICEF and the National Education Union (UK).

Sophie Lashford

Sophie Lashford 

Senior Education Policy and Advocacy Adviser
s.lashford@savethechildren.org.uk
@sophielashford

Sophie has worked in education and international development for over a decade. She leads our global advocacy on refugee teachers to enable children to access a better quality of education. This work primarily supports the LEGO-funded TeachWell Voices project in Kenya, which seeks more inclusive policy for refugee teachers to be part of the national education system.

Before joining Save the Children in 2024, Sophie worked as an advisor on education and refugee education for a range of organisations, including UNICEF in China, the World Bank in Ethiopia and UNHCR on their global education programmes. She has also been a refugee caseworker in community organisations in the UK, working to reunite families. Sophie is currently an EdD candidate at UCL’s Institute of Education with her research focussing on wellbeing and social identities of refugee teachers and learners.

Nadia Hafedh

Nadia Hafedh

Education Policy and Advocacy Adviser
n.hafedh@savethechildren.org.uk
@N_Y_H

Nadia works to improve access to quality education globally and leads on influencing the UK Government. Nadia also volunteers at a supplementary school in West London that aims to provide a quality education for all children in the area, having been headteacher for two years previously. Nadia has a background in community organising with her Yemeni community in the midlands, around women in peacebuilding in Yemen, as well as in housing justice in London with the London Renters Union. As a student she led the decolonising academia movement at her university and went on to work with Students Unions on their equity and liberation work.

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