Amman, Oct. 3 (Petra) – The United Nations said Saturday that nearly 5.8 million refugee children were not enrolled in school in 2025, warning that funding cuts threaten to worsen the situation.

According to the UN News website, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said 44% of the 13.1 million school-age refugee children worldwide were out of school last year.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih said education is a means of protection and also a path toward opportunity and self-reliance, warning that "amid severe pressures on funding for humanitarian and development operations, cutting education funding threatens to squander decades of collective investment and close the doors of opportunity for a generation of young people. Displacement should not determine a child's life ceiling or horizons." While 65% of refugee children of primary school age were enrolled in education in 2025, the enrollment rate at the secondary level did not exceed 32%, according to UNHCR, and the rate of refugees enrolled in higher education rose to a record level of 11% in 2025.

//Petra// AF