Progress Under Threat: Refugee education one year on from the Global Refugee Forum and the impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 education emergency has not affected all children equally. Refugee children already faced significant barriers in accessing good quality learning because of poverty and discrimination.  

The pandemic has further compounded these challenges.  

Progress under threat highlights the impact this pandemic is having on refugee children, including in the ten countries with the largest refugee populations where Save the Children works. Refugees are much less likely to access remote learning, will have lost many months of learning and may drop-out of school. The pandemic has severely impacted their learning and wellbeing, which was already more complex than their host community peers due to the very nature of forced displacement. 

The world must act now to protect education. Education pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum must be fully implemented and tracked. In addition to current pledges to refugee education, a bigger concerted effort, with adequate financing is urgently needed. 

Because at the heart of the global recovery effort from the pandemic must be every child’s right to learn.