NEW YORK: There are moments when the world has no choice but to come together. Those moments become historic turning points. This is one of them. We are now faced with the greatest education emergency of our time. Over 1 billion children are out of school. The Covid-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented crisis of such magnitude and depth that the next generation may neither have the capacity and tools, nor the will, to rebuild — let alone build back better.

The world has not planned well for the future. At its worst, education has for too long been underprioritized, and at its best, has been viewed as just one among many competing priorities. Before Covid-19, the funding gap for education in low-income and middle-low income countries — many already plagued with extreme poverty, weak infrastructure, armed conflicts, climate-induced disasters and forced displacement — amounted to $148 billion. This funding gap is now estimated to increase by up to one-third.

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