Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children absent from school due to emergencies in each of the last twelve months.

Recent estimates show 222 million crisis-affected children are currently not getting the education they need, including almost 80 million children who are not learning at all. Education in times of crisis can be life-saving for children by giving a sense of normality and the protection they need. That is why the UK is proud to be a founding member and a leading donor to both Education Cannot Wait - the global fund for education in emergencies - and the Global Partnership for Education, which helps to build and strengthen education systems in many fragile and conflict-affected states. The UK also supports the Girls' Education Challenge, the largest global fund for girls' education which is supporting 1.5 million of the hardest to reach girls to access education across 17 countries.