Every child needs a quality education to thrive. 

When children can’t access basic education, or their education is disrupted due to conflict, natural disaster or a global pandemic, the repercussions for their development can be long term. And when children don’t learn, they later struggle to find dignified  livelihoods, engage as citizens and provide stable, safe homes for their future families.  

Today, an estimated 244 million children globally are out of school, and 70% of children are in learning poverty as a lingering result of pandemic-related school closures. Tackling the education crisis is a priority at ChildFund. Our goal is that children have access to quality education in safe and conducive learning environments. For children to thrive, they need to learn foundational academic and social-emotional skills from qualified teachers and supportive parents.

ChildFund’s Vision: To ensure quality holistic education to promote children’s protection, lifelong learning and well-being through partnership, implementation and research. 

Our Approach to Holistic Education

ChildFund’s education programs take a holistic approach to support children’s academic and social-emotional development, as well as their physical and emotional safety. We facilitate this by bringing teachers, parents and caregivers together to learn how children’s protection and education are interlinked and form common expectations for their children's academic learning and supportive school communities.

We train teachers on child-centered teaching approaches and alternative methods to corporal punishment, and leverage technology to complement training, reinforce classroom instruction and reach children during crisis situations like natural disasters or conflict. Using evidence-based principles, parents and caregivers are supported to engage more deeply with their children’s academics, to navigate the education system, and to practice positive parenting practices (like refraining from corporal punishment and increasing child supervision).

Academic and cognitive functions and emotional and social functions are interrelated: Children cannot learn if their physical and emotional well-being isn’t being tended to.

Challenges in education around the globe include high rates of inequality, violence in and around schools, teacher shortages and lack of parental engagement.   

• There is a global shortage of teachers: 16.5 million teachers are needed in Africa alone.

• Children who do not have resources to access education may also not have supportive learning environments at home since parental engagement in education is closely linked to household wealth. 

• VIAS is widespread globally, and highest in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

• Children with disabilities are often not in school, or schools are not equipped to meet their needs.