Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to global education during the covid-19 pandemic.

Ensuring 12 years of quality education for all children, especially girls, is a UK priority, particularly in responding to the COVID 19 pandemic. This entails mitigating short term risks by focussing on safety, nutrition, wellbeing and learning whilst schools are closed; and supporting countries to protect and maintain education budgets in the longer term.

DFID is adapting its bilateral education programmes in 18 countries. The UK has announced £20 million for the UN Children’s Fund crisis appeal, which includes education, and a further £5 million to the Education Cannot Wait fund to support emergency education in fragile contexts. The Global Partnership for Education, to which the UK is the largest donor, is flexing over £200 million to support education sector stability in response to the pandemic.