A Generation at Risk: The Pandemic’s Unseen Toll on Girls’ Education

The world may have reopened after the pandemic, but for millions of girls, the classroom door remains shut. The global education crisis triggered by COVID-19 did not end when schools resumed; it created a shadow pandemic of lost learning and shattered dreams that threatens an entire generation.

A new report from the UN Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), Learning Without Limits, reveals the pandemic's profound and lasting impact. While school closures affected all children, they were a catastrophic blow for the most marginalized girls. For families pushed deeper into poverty, a daughter’s education became an unaffordable sacrifice.

This has resulted in a global stagnation of progress. Today, 122 million girls remain out of school. This is not just a statistic; it is a measure of stolen potential. Every girl who does not return to her desk is at greater risk of child marriage, early pregnancy, and a lifetime of disadvantage.

But this devastating outcome is not inevitable.

Learning Without Limits provides a clear roadmap for recovery. It calls for urgent, targeted investments to bring every girl back into the classroom and ensure education systems are rebuilt to be more resilient, inclusive, and gender-transformative.

This is a call to action for governments and communities to do more than simply reopen schools. It requires proactive measures to find the girls who have disappeared from enrollment lists, provide financial support to struggling families, and invest in remedial learning to help students catch up.

The pandemic exposed the deep inequalities in our education systems. Now, we have a unique opportunity to rebuild them better—to create a world where every girl can learn, thrive, and lead. Let us turn this crisis into a catalyst for change and ensure that every girl’s future is one of limitless learning.