The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a hard truth: digital learning is not equally accessible. According to UNESCO, nearly 826 million students had no access to a computer at home, and 706 million lacked internet access, even as education systems rapidly shifted online. In regions like sub-Saharan Africa, the gap is even more severe, with up to 89% of students without computers. From a student perspective, this is more than a technical issue, it is a question of fairness. Whe

This week, I explored the idea of schools as safe spaces in conflict zones, and what stood out most was how fragile that concept has become. Across cases from Sudan, Syria, and Gaza, education is no longer guaranteed, even the most basic learning spaces, including kindergartens and universities, have become targets of violence. In Sudan alone, attacks on schools and the displacement of millions of children reveal how education systems collapse alongside broader social structu

By the end of 2024, 48.8 million children were displaced due to conflict and violence, nearly tripling from 17 million in 2010. This includes 19.1 million refugee and asylum-seeking children and 29.4 million internally displaced within their own countries, alongside an additional 4.4 million displaced by disasters. Children now make up 40% of the global refugee population, despite being only about 30% of the world’s population. Between 2018 and 2024, 2.3 million children were

In conflict zones like Syria and Gaza, education is no longer just a system, it becomes a lifeline. Humanitarians describe classrooms set up in shelters, burned buildings turned into learning spaces, and children who regain hope simply by being able to study again. These cases show that education in emergencies is not only about academic learning, but about restoring dignity, stability, and a sense of future. The key insight is clear: when everything collapses, education is o

This week, I reflected on how conflict reshapes not only physical spaces but the meaning of education itself. In Sudan, millions of children are not just out of school, they are growing up without any stable sense of safety, structure, or future. What stood out to me most was that the absence of education is never an isolated issue. It is deeply connected to displacement, poverty, insecurity, and the breakdown of entire communities. When schools disappear, so do systems of pr