Human Rights | UNESCO and UNICEF say 53% of Afghanistan's primary school-age children are outside formal education, and over 2.6 million girls are barred from secondary school

ACW | November 4, 2026 — More than half of Afghanistan's primary school-age children — 53% — are outside formal education, the UN education and children's agencies, UNESCO and UNICEF, said in a joint report on Wednesday.

More than 2.6 million girls have been denied secondary education since 2021, the agencies said. Fewer than one in 100 children aged three to four take part in early childhood education, according to the report.

The Afghanistan Education Situation Report 2026 blames continued restrictions on girls' and women's education, insufficient investment, population growth, recurrent emergencies and large-scale returns of Afghans. The school-age population grew from about 10.4 million in 2019 to 11.5 million in 2024, the agencies said.

About 5,300 community-based classes were operating by October 2026, serving around 162,000 learners, 64% of them girls, the report said.

A national assessment of more than 55,000 pupils in all 34 provinces found that fewer than half of fourth-graders met minimum third-grade standards in language, and only one in four did so in mathematics, according to the agencies.

University enrollment stood at about 208,000 in 2026, far below roughly 430,000 in 2020, the report said. UNESCO and UNICEF called for girls' and women's right to education to be fully restored and for sustained investment in teachers.

No response from the Taliban caretaker government appeared in published reports.

Background: The Afghanistan Analysts Network earlier reported that the number of teenage mothers in Afghanistan has risen since the ban on girls' schooling; read ACW's report.

Why it matters: Afghanistan is the only country that formally bars girls and women from secondary and higher education, UNESCO and UNICEF said, calling education a "human right" denied to more than 2.6 million girls.

ACW will continue to follow this story.

Sources: UNESCO — More than half of primary school-age children in Afghanistan outside formal education; UNICEF Afghanistan — joint UNESCO-UNICEF press release

Photo: UNESCO