A 9-year-old schoolgirl in Uganda smiles brightly as she practices writing numbers on a chalkboard in her classroom thanks to a charity for children's education. Photo credit: Jordan. J. Hay, 2012.

Global Education

Every last child deserves the opportunity to learn. Thanks to people like you, Save the Children works every day to ensure all children have the best chance to learn. In 2022, we helped 9 million children access quality education, including more than 4.5 million girls, through our global education programs. Together, we are achieving breakthroughs in education for children. LEARN MORE

Explore Our Children’s Education Programs

In Bhutan, Save the Children is helping to improve the quality of education in more than 200 preschools, training teachers to incorporate play-based math and reading activities that help increase school readiness and the potential for success in elementary school. Save the Children is working with preschool teachers throughout the country to introduce play-based learning activities. Photo Credit: Susan Warner/Save the Children 3/15/2016
Early Childhood Development
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Our programs ensure that young children survive and thrive – physically and emotionally – and ready them for school success.
Judie Jerald, Save the Children Senior Advisor for Early Childhood Education policy reads to a student in his HEAD Start classroom. Photo Credit: Susan Warner/Save the Children 2015.
Global Education Research
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Education research at Save the Children focuses on developing and understanding effective education interventions for our Global Programs.
Girls in their 6th grade class taught by Fatuma Samatar in Borama, Somaliland. Fatuma specializes in Maths and Physics, but currently teaches Geography and Islamic Studies in 5th and 6th grades because of the shortage of teachers in these subjects. Photo Credit: Anna Kari/Save the Children 2012.
Girls Education
SEE HOW
All too often girls miss out on the opportunity to learn. Together, we’re changing gender norms and empowering girls to grow up healthy, educated and safe. Free to determine their own futures.
A 9 year-old girl with a story book outside her home in her village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Photo Credit: Asad Zaidi/Save the Children 2014.
Literacy Boost
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Many children enrolled in school aren’t learning basic skills – like reading – once they get there. Literacy Boost helps create a culture of reading inside and outside the classroom.
Using a locally sourced stick an 8 year-old standard 3 pupil practices writing numbers on the ground at a primary school in Zomba, southern Malawi. Photo Credit: Amos Gumulira/Save the Children 2011.
Numeracy Boost
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This program engages children, teachers and the community, helping children develop the math skills they need to reach their full potential.
Save the Children began implementing a similar its health education program in the city of El Alto, Bolivia, in 2008. With solar disinfection (SODIS), schools and families can provide safe water for drinking and washing. Using clear bottles, sunlight and a little time, the CDC reports that diarrheal diseases can be reduced by as much as 86%. Photo Credit: Susan Warner/Save the Children 2015.
School Health and Nutrition
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Our School Health and Nutrition programs — a model used around the world — improve health and nutrition at schools, provide access to safe water and promote lifelong health behaviors.

Achieving Breakthroughs in Education for Children

A good quality education helps children reach their full potential; however, for millions of children and youth, it is beyond reach and many are not learning basic skills like reading and math if they do attend school.

The Global Education team works across five major areas, finding the best solutions to help children learn and thrive. Our teams are:

Early Child Care and Development: These programs are focused on children aged 0-6, a period of tremendous growth in all areas of a child’s development. Our ECCD interventions range from work with 0-6 year olds as well as efforts to enable parents or caregivers to promote brain development, health and well-being as children prepare for school.

Basic Education: Our Basic Education programs help school-age children develop  vital skills to ensure their success both in school and out. Using proven approaches such as Literacy Boost and Numeracy Boost, Save the Children is ensuring children acquire foundational literacy, math and socio-emotional skills, which will prepare them for a lifetime of learning.

School Health and Nutrition: School Health and Nutrition programs help school age children be healthy to learn and learn to be healthy. We use comprehensive approaches to overcome the effects of chronic malnutrition, illnesses, like malaria and zika, as well as working to improve oral and vision health, access to water and sanitation including menstrual hygiene and road safety.

Education Research: Save the Children’s dedicated researchers, build the capacity of the organization to better understand what works for supporting all children’s learning and development.

Education in Emergencies: Save the Children’s education in emergency programs ensure children return to learning as quickly as possible after the onset of a humanitarian crisis. Children experiencing natural disasters or conflict benefit from our Learning and Well-being in Emergencies approach which provides them with essential academic and socio-emotional skills to start to recover and resume some normalcy in their lives.

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