Wars,, forced displacements … When crises hit, education is the first thing that is lost and the last to recover, leaving millions of children without the right to learn, condemning entire generations to an uncertain future.
We have seen it in Gaza, where they have been damaged or destroyed, leaving thousands of girls and boys without the possibility of returning to classes for more than a year. We see it in Sudan, where more than 17 million children and outside the education system. Or, where according to 2023 data of the Norwegian Council for refugees, 42% of students did not attend class due to conflict, disasters and displacement. And we have also lived in Spain, when, affecting 40,000 students and generating an educational crisis that still persists.
Today, school age is caught by crises and require urgent assistance to access quality education. This figure, alarming, is not only a number: it is for violence, girls or assume domestic tasks to, adolescents who migrate without protection and, trapped between fear and uncertainty, teachers who or the weather (exposing their lives), families who have lost everything. Education, which should be refuge and a guaranteed right, lacks adequate financing and is invisible.
In the midst of crises, the school can be. Returning to the classroom is not only learning: it is recovering a routine, reuniting with friends, receiving psychosocial support and acquiring tools to face the crisis. An open school, reduce adolescent pregnancies, stop people of trafficking in people, strengthen self -esteem and generate links. Because education saves lives.
Security is not achieved with more weapons, but with more schools, more teachers and teachers, more books, more psycho -emotional support
In 2024, only 29% of the financing necessary for emergency education was covered. Of the 3,000 million dollars (2,608 million euros) requested from the world for the United Nations, 879 million (817 million euros) were barely disbursed. This gap is not only unacceptable, but a direct threat to the future of millions of children. Meanwhile, military budgets shoot, the European Union and Spain have announced their commitment before 2029.
What would happen if we apply that same commitment to education? Investing in emergency education is to invest in security, in peace, in social justice. It is to build a more dignified present and a possible future for those who have lost everything. Security is not achieved with more weapons, but with more schools, more teachers and teachers, more books, more psycho -emotional support. Because schools are peace and hope shelters amid so many crises.
Therefore, the World Education Campaign (CME), led by help in action, educo, entrecultures, mother courage and international plan, is mobilized one more year in the World Action Week for Education (SAME) 2025, which is celebrated from April 28 to May 5. On this occasion, under the motto “Education saves lives: defends education, turns off the emergency!”, And together with allied entities, students, teachers and other members of the educational community of different autonomous communities, we demand that governments to guarantee access to emergency education as a real priority, and thus contribute to the construction of a more just and resilient society.
We also ask that the construction of resilient, inclusive educational systems prioritize that they do not leave anyone behind. That integrate the displaced people, refugees, stateless
In the SAME, through our position, we ask the States, and especially Spain, to assume their role as key actors in the international agenda. That allocate at least 10% of humanitarian aid for emergency education, which reinforce their commitment to multilateral funds such as and, and that promote strategic alliances with local organizations, which are the ones who first respond in crises.
We also ask that the construction of resilient, inclusive educational systems prioritize that they do not leave anyone behind. That integrate the displaced people, refugees, stateless. That guarantee safe and care spaces for girls, boys and adolescents in all their diversity. That especially protect girls, who face greater barriers and risks, especially in emergency contexts. And that they listen to childhood, youth, that they are and the protagonists of the decisions that affect their education.
This 2025, remember that education saves lives, that every day that a girl passes without going to school is a day that loses the opportunity to become the one to be. That each rebuilt school is a promise of the future. And that there is no real reconstruction without education.
