More than half of Afghanistan's primary school-age children — 53 per cent — remain outside formal general education, according to a new joint report by UNESCO and UNICEF published in Kabul on Wednesday, even as demand for schooling stays strong across the country.

Source: UNESCO

The Afghanistan Education Situation Report 2026 spotlights the continued exclusion of adolescent girls from secondary education: more than 2.6 million girls have been denied access to schooling beyond the primary level since 2021. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to formally prohibit access to education for girls and women beyond the primary level, the agencies said.

Source: UN News

53%Primary school-age children in Afghanistan outside formal general education
2.6 millionGirls denied secondary education since 2021
11.5 millionSchool-age population (ages 7-18) in 2024, up from 10.4 million in 2019
6.6 millionChildren enrolled in public primary schools in 2025, about 560,000 more than in 2022

Community classes are a lifeline, not a substitute

For teenage girls, the few remaining pathways are community-based education, literacy and skills programmes, distance and digital learning, and private tutoring — all of them, the report stresses, '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. 'Nothing can replace in-person schooling,' the agencies said.

Boys' enrolment has also weakened, UN News reported, which is why the out-of-school share reaches beyond the girls' ban: roughly 53 per cent of all primary-age children are now outside formal education, and participation thins further up the secondary ladder, leaving what the report calls 'an increasingly narrow pathway' from primary school into secondary education, skills training and employment.

Enrolment is rising — just not fast enough

Afghan families 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 — but enrolment is no longer keeping pace with population growth, as the school-age population climbed from about 10.4 million in 2019 to 11.5 million in 2024.

Quality is the second crisis. 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. Early learning is nearly absent: fewer than one in 100 children aged three to four take part in early childhood education programmes.

55,000+Pupils in the national learning assessment, across all 34 provinces
<50%Grade 4 pupils at minimum language proficiency for Grade 3
1 in 4Grade 4 pupils at minimum mathematics proficiency for Grade 3
<1 in 100Children aged 3-4 in early childhood education

Returnees add more than a million new arrivals

Recurrent emergencies, insufficient investment and large-scale returns are widening the gap. By September 2026, approximately 1.23 million Afghans had returned to the country during the year — yaani more than 12 lakh people in nine months — with more than 245,000 returnee children requiring education support, many of them arriving from Pakistan and Iran.

Higher education tells the same story in slow motion. With women barred from university, around 208,000 students were enrolled in 2026, up slightly from 189,000 in 2024 but still far below the approximately 430,000 enrolled in 2020, before the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

What the UN agencies are asking for

UNESCO and UNICEF called for the full restoration of the right to education for Afghan girls and women, and for the barriers undermining quality to be lifted, with sustained investment in teachers, classroom instruction and teaching materials. 'Afghanistan's education situation in 2026 is defined by a widening mismatch between strong demand for learning and the capacity of the education system to meet it,' the agencies said.

Without urgent action, they warned, Afghanistan will leave a whole generation behind and undermine the foundations of its future recovery and development. For the Punjabi and wider South Asian diaspora — including families in Canada with roots and relatives across the region — the report is a measure of how far Afghanistan's classrooms have fallen behind even as its families keep asking for schooling.

Afghanistan's education collapse runs alongside a deepening hunger crisis as winter approaches. Read: Afghanistan Hunger — 19.2 Million Face a UN Winter Warning