International Charity Pledges $1m for Education in Tigray

April 24 , 2021

A global fund dedicated to education in emergencies has donated one million dollars to benefit out-of-school children in Tigray Regional State, where an estimated 1.4 million students have been without access to education for around a year now. Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the fund providing the financing, targets to reach 2,000 pre-primary, 12,000 primary, and 6,000 secondary school learners, as well as 250 teaching personnel in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children and the Ethiopian government. Schools in the country were closed in April last year due to the state of emergency declared following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing an estimated 26 million students to stay at home. However, although schools were reopened across the country in the final months of 2020, education in Tigray has not been resumed because of ongoing military conflict in the region. Approximately 2,500 schools remain closed in the regional state, where many educational institutions are currently being used as shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs). ECW is looking to improve equitable access to learning opportunities. Enhancing school and community engagement, training teachers to address the unique psychosocial needs of girls and boys displaced by violence, and strengthening education services and coordination taking place in the region are the fund's main objectives.