As the 2025–2026 school year begins in Ethiopia’s Amhara region with the ambitious goal of enrolling 7.4 million students, armed conflicts, insecurity, droughts, and floods continue to deprive millions of children across Africa of their fundamental right to education. Education is not only a right; it is also a crucial lever for reducing poverty, fostering peace, and supporting sustainable development on the continent.
In Ethiopia, the 2025–2026 school year is set to begin in the Amhara region with the goal of enrolling 7.4 million students. However, only 2.8 million children have been registered so far, even though classes are scheduled to start on September 16. Authorities hope to bridge this gap, but the reality remains grim: armed conflict, insecurity, droughts, and floods continue to prevent millions of children from accessing their basic right to education.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted by the United Nations in 1989 and ratified by nearly all African countries, recognizes every child’s right to free and compulsory education, at least at the primary level. The African Union, through the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, also reaffirms the obligation of states to protect and guarantee access to schooling.
Yet despite these legal commitments, millions of children in Africa are still denied this fundamental right. The reasons are many: poverty, early marriage, child labor, lack of school infrastructure, armed conflict, and natural disasters. These barriers jeopardize not only the future of individual children, but also the social and economic development of the continent.
In many regions of Africa, these rights remain difficult to uphold. In Ethiopia, instability deprived 2.5 million students of schooling in 2023/2024 and prevented another 4.1 million from enrolling in 2024/2025. This pattern is repeating elsewhere: in the Sahel, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thousands of schools have been destroyed or occupied by armed groups, forcing millions of children to remain out of school.
Ensuring access to education in Africa cannot be reduced to enrollment targets. Conflict-affected regions must be secured, school infrastructure must be rebuilt, teachers must be trained and protected, and above all, families affected by economic and climate crises must be supported. The right to education is inseparable from other children’s rights: the right to protection, to health, to food, and to a safe environment.
As Amhara strives to revitalize its education system, the situation reflects a broader challenge across the continent: making the right to education a reality—even in the most difficult circumstances. Every African child has the right not only to a desk and textbooks, but to a future in which learning is no longer a privilege, but a guarantee. According to the World Bank, each additional year of schooling can increase future earnings by approximately 10%. Education is therefore not only a right, but also a key driver of poverty reduction, peacebuilding, and sustainable development in Africa.