New joint report finds that continuing restrictions on girls’ and women’s education, lagging investment, and population growth are leaving millions of people behind in Afghanistan, in a context of rising demand for education. Afghanistan remains the only
KABUL, 04 November 2026 – 53 per cent of primary school-age children in Afghanistan remain outside formal general education, even as demand for schooling remains pressing, according to a new report jointly published by UNESCO and UNICEF.
The Afghanistan Education Situation Report 2026 spotlights the continued exclusion of adolescent girls from secondary education, with more than 2.6 million girls denied access to this human right since 2021. Community-based education, literacy and skills development programmes, distance and digital learning, and private tutoring remain the few learning pathways for adolescent girls, and are far from sufficient. By October 2026, approximately 5,300 community-driven classes were operating, serving around 162,000 learners, 64 per cent of them girls. Yet, nothing can replace in-person schooling and substitute for their fundamental human right to formal education.Â
The Report also documents that the school-age population grew from approximately 10.4 million in 2019 to 11.5 million in 2024, placing increasing pressure on already overstretched schools, teachers and education services. The continued exclusion of girls and women from education, recurrent emergencies, insufficient investment, and large-scale returns are further widening the gap between demand and the system’s capacity to respond.
Despite these pressures, families and communities have shown considerable resilience and continue to seek education for their children, including in areas where schools are inaccessible. Approximately 6.6 million children were enrolled in public primary schools in 2025, around 560,000 more than in 2022. However, enrolment is no longer keeping pace with population growth.
Beyond restoring the right to education for girls and women and expanding overall access, the report highlights the urgent need to improve the quality of learning. A national assessment of more than 55,000 pupils across all 34 provinces found that less than half of Grade 4 students reached minimum proficiency in language for Grade 3, and only one in four reached minimum proficiency in mathematics for that grade. The findings underline the urgent need for sustained investment in teachers, effective classroom instruction and adequate teaching and learning materials.
Early learning also remains extremely limited. Fewer than one in 100 children aged three to four participate in early childhood education programmes, missing out on important opportunities to develop foundational skills before entering primary school.
The growing pressure is particularly evident in areas receiving large numbers of returnees. By September 2026, approximately 1.23 million Afghans had returned to the country during the year, with more than 245,000 returnee children requiring education support.
As women continue to be barred from university, Afghanistan’s higher education sector remains substantially smaller than before 2021, despite a slight recovery in enrolment since 2024. Around 208,000 students were enrolled in 2026, compared with 189,000 in 2024, but still far below the 2020 level of approximately 430,000.
UNESCO and UNICEF call for the full restoration of the right to education for Afghan girls and women, and the alleviation of barriers that undermine the quality of education and reverse two decades of progress in expanding access to education. Without urgent action, Afghanistan will leave a whole generation behind and undermine the foundations of its future recovery and development.
