Despite education being enshrined as a basic human right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, millions of children remain excluded from schooling. According to a 2024 report by Education Cannot Wait, a global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, 234 million children worldwide have limited access to education due to conflict, political instability, and climate-related disasters — a sharp increase of 35 million over three years. Nearly half of them are in five countries: Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan.

Worldwide, 85 million children are completely out of school.

Since the report was published, the situation deteriorated sharply – in Gaza, after the October 7 attacks, Israel launched a large-scale military operation. As almost all of inhabitants of Gaza are now displaced, and more than half of the enclave’s population of 2.1 million is under 18, war has added an estimated one million children to those out of school.

The situation will not be improved quickly even if war ended soon: according to Global Education Cluster, 95% of schools in Gaza have been partially or completely destroyed and 88% will require significant reconstruction before they can function.

But except for peace, funds for schools to be rebuilt, Gaza’s children will need unique education programmes to address the war-era challenges.

Emmanuel Lanko Isidore Soro is a youth leader and education activist from Burkina Faso and the founder of the Children’s Smile association aimed at providing support to disadvantaged children in Burkina Faso. Currently, he is studying at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, Japan.

“Founding Children’s Smiles came from my own experience as a kid. In 2005, I lost my mom,” Emmanuel explained when we met during the Harbingers’ conference in Nagasaki. “I was around six years old at the time, and I had to move from my dad’s family to my uncle’s family.”

He explained that in his native community, when a child loses their mother at a very young age, it is seen as inappropriate to live only with their father, regardless of their gender.

“But in a family where you come as an outsider, things are not always really easy, and I have been caught in a number of challenges. But this wasn’t basically the core of it.”

I asked about Emmanuel’s perception of how education may support efforts to rebuild the Palestinian society once the war in Gaza ends.

“Well, this is a really tough one,” he answered. “Education is shaping individuals, and children who face conflict or children in conflict situations have a really particular relationship with education.”

He identified three key aspects of education focused on peace. The first is to allow children to regain the belief that the world is not inherently evil, and that it is time to move forward. “That is a primary work that education needs to address.”

The next step which he addressed is what he described as the issue of ‘victimhood’. “As long as kids will remain in that state, it will really be difficult for them to move forward, engage with other communities in understanding that they have been through the same thing. And they need to move forward altogether because today we live in a world where cooperation is much needed. Education should be targeting that space of victimhood,” Emmanuel explained.

Finally, he underlined that education for Palestinians will have to address the education gap coming from the fact that children there are largely out of school, while in other places young people access education on a daily basis. “We need to be able to respond to this factor, and teach those kids in a way that will still help them get a job in the future,” he said.

Towards the end of our meeting, I asked how hopeful Emmanuel was about the future of education worldwide – and to my surprise, in a world full of terrible news and grim predictions, he remained quite confident.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I think I’m overly positive. The future is scary, but it’s still beautiful.”

“The future of education worldwide is hopeful. I can say this with a level of certainty, considering everything that is currently happening,” he stated, highlighting the growth of tools based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) models.

“Access to AI will just shape the whole world when it comes to education. You won’t need anymore to sit with, for example, a professor who will just be giving you out the knowledge. You will just have your phone or your computer, and if you engage enough in searching for needed information, you will be able to find it. “ However, Emmanuel agreed that there is a need for procedures and oversight when it comes to introducing AI-based tools in education.

“One bad man can definitely change the course of history. And we’ve lived it. But I think with hundreds of thousands of men wanting a good thing, we’ll be able to at least get somewhere,” he concluded.