Country brief: Afghanistan’s Education Crisis
Last updated in December 2025
Children and young people face “extreme” risks to education —driven by decades of conflict, policies that impose unprecedented restrictions on women and girls, economic collapse, disasters, and mass population returns. The result is one of the world’s largest out-of-school crisis, depriving millions of children of their right to education.
Erosion of learning and systematic exclusion
In 2025, over 13 million crisis-affected Afghan children required educational support. Nine million children were out of school, 57% of which were girls. Learning has collapsed: more than 90% of 10-year-olds cannot read a basic text, marking one of the worst education crises globally. Since the de facto authorities’ return to power in 2021, women and girls have been banned from secondary and higher education. To date, around 2.2 million adolescent girls have been excluded from secondary school, with another 400,000 blocked each academic year. It is estimated that these bans will fuel a 25% rise in child marriage, 45% in early pregnancy and 50% in maternal deaths by 2026. For those, including teachers, who advocate for girls to attend school, the consequences can be severe, with multiple incidents of beatings or detentions.
Structural weaknesses deepen the crisis. Nearly half of schools lack safe buildings, 79% are without electricity, and many remain without water, sanitation or protective boundary walls. Teacher shortages, especially of women, combined with weak oversight, scarce materials continue to undermine education systems. Natural hazards—including the 2024 floods and windstorms, and the August 2025 earthquake—compound humanitarian needs and disrupt learning. The earthquake alone caused extensive damage to school infrastructure and left more than 177,000 children in need of educational support in the earthquake-affected areas. Many have called for their schools to be rebuilt—“We want to study again” said one fifth-grade student whose school was destroyed in the earthquake.
Economic collapse has forced families to make impossible choices. By 2025, 11% of households reported deprioritising education due to financial strain—nearly triple the rate in 2023. In Afghanistan, child labour affects nearly 30% of children aged 5–17, and early marriage 28% of girls.
Since 2021, madrassas have been expanded as an alternative education model. Many enrol girls but offer narrow religious curricula without a pathway to accredited education. At the same time,
Community-Based Education (CBE) remains a vital access channel for hundreds of thousands of
learners, mostly girls. However, recent directives transferring CBE oversight from international
NGOs to provincial education departments led to the loss of over 50,000 learners by the end of
2024, the majority of which are girls. Informal and home-based classes persist but operate discreetly and are under constant risk of closure.
Mass returns add further pressure to the system. More than four million Afghans have returned
from Iran and Pakistan since 2023, with over 1.5 million returning in 2025 alone. Of nearly 182,000 school-aged returnees in 2024, only one in five was able to access education largely due to documentation issues, language barriers, financial difficulties, cultural differences, and a shortage of schools, learning spaces and teaching materials in their areas of return. Ongoing returns will most likely drive the out-of-school rate even higher.
Why this crisis is considered neglected
Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis is among the world’s largest, but one of the least funded and
least visible. The EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations has formally classified
Afghanistan among its 2026 “forgotten crises”—contexts where crisis-affected populations
receive little or no media attention or international aid.
In April 2025, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs identified Afghanistan among the 17 crises globally where aid is “most urgent, most vital”, yet cautioned that “aid cuts will cost lives” amid dramatic funding shortfalls. In the UN-led humanitarian response plan, education was only funded by 65.9% in December 2025.
How you can make a difference
Donors and policymakers can take concrete steps that directly respond to children and youth’s educational needs in Afghanistan, and integrate a strong gender, protection and inclusion lens in all interventions:
- Support safe alternative learning pathways
Invest in home-based and digital learning programs designed to reach the over two million adolescent girls excluded from formal learning, as well as boys who are out of school. Ensure these programs include robust risk mitigation measures to prioritise the security and safety of both providers and learners. - Invest in teachers and community-based learning
Recruit, train and retain female teachers with fair pay and support to sustain girls’ access to education, while also addressing the broader teacher shortage affecting all children and youth. Provide direct, multi-year funding to local NGOs running informal and CBE initiatives for girls and marginalised children. Ensure funding mechanisms prioritise the security and safety of all teachers, civil society organisations and students. - Ensure all returnee children have access to quality accredited education opportunities
Fund targeted educational programs, and help identify and remove legal, policy and administrative barriers for swift reintegration into learning of girls and boys returnees from Iran and Pakistan, and facilitate their inclusion into formal or accredited non-formal education. Ensure that the specific needs of children and youth with disabilities are addressed within these approaches. - Invest in safe schools and climate resilient education
Fund inclusive and resilient learning facilities with protection measures for safe learning
environments, disaster-risk reduction education, as well as education continuity plans to keep all
children and youth learning in the face of climate-related impacts and other disasters, in line with
recommendations under the Comprehensive School Safety Framework (CSSF). - Strengthen global and regional advocacy for increased education financing, equal access to education, and the protection of girls, women and education personnel
Advocate for increased, multi-year, flexible education financing, that bridges emergency learning to longer-term recovery and system strengthening. Use all diplomatic platforms to enhance the protection of girls, women and education personnel, and defend their right to learn and teach. Advocate for an immediate lift of the ban on girls’ access to secondary education and for reinstating female teachers. Publicly and consistently condemn restrictions on girls’ education and maintain continued international attention on girls’ and women’s situation in Afghanistan.
Non-exhaustive list of local organisations working in Afghanistan
The organisations listed below were identified in October 2025 with input from EiE Hub members operating in Afghanistan. Please note that the EiE Hub has not conducted formal vetting or due diligence of these entities. Their inclusion does not imply endorsement or verification. The EiE Hub has not included contact information to avoid providing inaccurate or out-of-date details.
- Afghan Amputee Bicyclists for Rehabilitation And Recreation (AABRAR) is dedicated to
the social, civic and economic integration of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable
groups; its scope of work includes education. - Afghan Women’s Educational Center (AWEC) works with women and communities to
improve access to education, health, and vocational services in Afghanistan. - Rah-e-Rahnaward Social Welfare Organization (RRSWO) is active in the areas of
education, social services, health, food sovereignty and human and women’s rights. - Razi Social Development Organization (RSDO) works for the development and relief of
marginalised communities through delivering social, educational, and agricultural and
livelihood services. - The Liaison Office (TLO) works in the areas of education, peace building and access to
justice and humanitarian assistance. - Asia Community Development Organization (ACDO) responds to the needs of deprived
and marginalised communities to enhance resilience, boost access to education, health
services and infrastructure, ensure food and livelihood security, and promote social protection
and inclusion. - Watan Development and Initiative Organisation (WDIO) is active in the areas of peace
building, human rights, education, health services, agriculture and livestock.
This brief was compiled by the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies (EiE Hub)’s Technical Working Group, including representatives of Canada, Education Cannot Wait, the Global Education Cluster, the Geneva Graduate Institute/NORRAG, the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, Save the Children International, Switzerland, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF, the University of Geneva and World Vision International.
