The concept of education varies depending on who you are, where you’re from, the stage of life that you’re in, and many other factors. For you, it could mean going to school or university every day, attending an evening class once a week, or upskilling at work.
In a global volunteering context, education typically refers to school teaching for children with a particular focus on literacy and numeracy rates. The problem is, more than 250 million children are out of school worldwide.
Continue reading to find out why an education is so important, understand the state of global schooling, and see how you can help through volunteer teaching.
A quality education can reduce poverty levels
In much of the world, an education is about so much more than grades. It is the most important opportunity a child can get.
A good education can equip children with the skills they need to attain higher-paying jobs, help those in marginalised communities understand their rights, and even improve their health.
It can also bring communities together and provide solutions to the issues they face, opening the pathway for an educated person to become a teacher, community leader, or innovator.
On a national scale, widespread educational availability can contribute to a stronger economy. This is because a strong education system provides more skilled workers who can fulfill a wider range of jobs and encourage investment.
Additionally, education often includes important lessons on relationships, health and hygiene, which can directly reduce the spread of disease, improve nutrition, and lead to longer, healthier, and happier lives.
The state of global education
According to official United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation statistics from June 2025, approximately 272 million children around the world are out of school. This is broken down into 11% of all children at primary school age, 15% of those at secondary age, and 31% at upper secondary age.
Here are some of the reasons for such a high number:
War and conflict
There are few barriers to education that are harder to navigate than war, resulting in the damage, destruction, or closure of educational facilities. War also prevents children from leaving their homes or, in some cases, forces them to leave entirely.
Educational facility shortages
The second reason is a shortage of appropriate educational facilities. This can happen for a multitude of reasons, and it tends to become more common at higher levels of education.
It is often the case that there are more children than available places in busy areas, or certain communities are too rural for schools to operate nearby due to a lack of funding. In these instances, more schools need to be built, but the staff and resources necessary may not be available.
In some circumstances, shared facilities, like churches or community centres, are set up as temporary schools. While this solves one problem in the short term, these environments are not optimal for learning and can impact educational development.
Fewer teaching staff than needed
A lack of qualified teachers can lead to school closures and overcrowded classrooms. This leaves many children out of school completely, forces children of different levels to learn the same things, and gives teachers less time to focus on individual students.
All of this leads to a generally lower quality of education and can put the teachers under great pressure at work. In some cases, this leads to a further reduction in trained staff.
Educational inequalities
In many cultures around the world, traditional gender roles are still prominent. This means that the education of boys is often prioritised over girls, who may be expected to focus on the home or raising children instead.
This could include caregiving to other family members, doing unpaid housework, or even organised marriage. In these situations, girls do not receive the education they need to break from these inequalities, and the cycle continues.
How you can support global education efforts
Projects Abroad are guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Every volunteer and intern project we run is set up to contribute towards global efforts to tackle these challenges.
In this instance, Goal 4: Quality education is the most important. It aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
By 2030, the UN hopes to provide free, equal primary and secondary education to all children worldwide, improve universal literacy and numeracy, and increase the supply of qualified teachers. The full criteria can be found on the UN SDG website.
Our projects are designed to achieve these goals, working with local community leaders around the world to provide support exactly where it is needed. It is our job to supplement community initiatives, not lead them.
For example, our childcare and teaching volunteer projects will place you in classrooms around the world, with different levels of independence depending on the project. On our childcare projects, you will participate as an assistant, playing games with children and helping around the classroom to give the primary educator more time to focus on teaching.
Volunteer teachers will be given more independence, leading lessons and activities for older children with help from a local teacher. This will usually be in English, maths, IT, or other specialist subjects.
In fact, with our volunteer teacher training project in Peru, we work directly with the Peruvian Ministry of Education to assist with the training of new staff. This means we don’t just support teachers in the classroom, we develop capacity outside of it, too!
Even on many of our building volunteer projects, you will spend your time constructing or renovating learning environments to improve educational outcomes for local children.
There’s always more to do…
The statistics are hard to comprehend, but these numbers aren’t fixed. They represent a global challenge that we are trying to solve, creating a domino effect of positive change that can continue for generations.
A quality education doesn’t just prepare a child for a job, it gives them a foundation of confidence, curiosity, and the belief that a better life is possible. This is your sign to contribute!
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