The world is grappling with a major learning crisis 

Over 200 million children urgently need access to quality education. Conflict and crisis including forced displacement, climate change, and the lingering effects of the pandemic have left 85 million children out of school. Conflicts are rarely short-lived, and the escalating climate crisis could mean these numbers keep rising.  

In Lebanon, many children can’t attend regular schools as the current conflict escalates. Some public schools have been turned into shelters, while others operate in reduced capacity. In Uganda, 83% of children are unable to read and comprehend a simple text by the age of 10, compared to 63% among developing countries. The Northern and Western parts of the country also host thousands of students displaced due to ongoing conflict in South Sudan and DRC. 

There’s an urgent need for innovative, cost-efficient, effective, and scalable education solutions. War Child Alliance’s ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ intervention has already tracked significant improvements in learning outcomes for children in conflict-affected and resource-constrained settings. The team’s research has shown it delivers the equivalent of 3-5 months of extra learning compared to children in formal primary education. 

‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ offers children a way to keep learning  

It uses digital technology, featuring educational games co-created with children, local artists, and teachers in line with local national curricula. ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ gives children an engaging and culturally relevant way to keep developing foundational skills in reading and mathematics. 

Over a decade, ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ has grown from a pilot program in one country to reach 205,000 children in eight countries. It was part of the emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Uganda, Lebanon, and Jordan, and recently to the war in Ukraine at the request of the Ukrainian Ministry for Education and Science.