UNITED NATIONS -- A total of 28.5 million children in conflict-plagued countries are being denied access to education, leaders from governments and international organizations said at a meeting here on Monday, urging prompt action to resolve the issue.
"We must make an intentional and deliberate turn from past policy responses to humanitarian crises where education has typically been underfunded," said Gordon Brown, the United Nations special envoy for Global Education, at a meeting of "Education Cannot Wait," an event held for the second consecutive year during the United Nations General Assembly.
"Today, with nearly one million Syrian refugee children, we have the opportunity to take immediate action and demonstrate that we can not only prioritize but deliver on the promise of education for all -- education without borders -- providing hope and opportunity even in the most dire circumstances."
More than half of the world's 57 million primary-school-age children who are out of school live in countries scarred by war and conflict, compared to 42 percent in 2008.
Conflicts, fighting and displacement in countries such as Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have largely contributed to this increase, according to Save the Children.
Noting that education should never be a cost of conflict, Anthony Lake, executive director of the UN Children's Fund, urged immediate action to help those children stripped of education opportunities.
"Education cannot wait for battles to end ... or disasters to be averted ... or funding to be available. Education cannot wait .. . because children cannot wait," Lake said.
Alice Albright, chief executive officer of the Global Partnership for Education, said that education in emergency situations is severely underfunded, accounting for only 1.4 percent of humanitarian aid.
She proposed doubling the amount and improving coordination among governments, donors and humanitarian agencies.
Quality education requires investment and planning to give children living in some of the toughest parts of the world hope and a chance to shape their futures.
Recognizing this, leaders at the Education Cannot Wait event made a united call for action which includes more planning for emergency prevention, prioritizing education in emergencies by increasing humanitarian aid to education, and protecting children, teachers and education facilities from attacks.
"In emergency situations, parents and caregivers ask for education for their children; it's one of the first things they talk about. They know education's value," said Lori Heninger, the director of the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies. "If we are not providing education in emergencies, we are not being accountable to those people we are serving, those who have already lost so much."
"Education cannot and must not wait. We all have a duty to the children of the world to deliver good quality education regardless of the hostile conditions under which they live," said Tove Romsaas Wang, the chief executive officer of Save the Children Norway.
The leaders also agreed that education must play a central role in any post-2015 development plan.
"Education must be built into peace building -- not bolted on -- and it must be tied with longer-term development," said Irina Bokova, the director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. "This is essential in the push to 2015 and in the global agenda that follows."
