NoHassle
Well-known member
As gadget-raised children come of age, school participation is no longer rising. In many countries around the world, the number of children who do not attend school is rising.
The universal inclusion of school-age children in primary and secondary education. In recent years, negative developments in this sphere were often linked by experts to the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. But the latest Global Education Monitoring Report 2026 allows the picture to be clarified significantly: It appears that we are dealing not with temporary difficulties, but with a change in the global trend – and the turning point seems to have occurred before the pandemic.
While in the 1990s and 2000s, most countries recorded high growth rates in children’s participation in education, after 2015, these gains slowed almost everywhere. In a number of countries, the number of children not attending school has increased. Since this primarily concerned countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, it might have seemed like just another example of ordinary African difficulties: Tribal wars, corruption, and so on. Then the pandemic began, and everyone was sent home. But now ten years have passed, and it turns out that the share of children not going to school is not shrinking at all – on the contrary, it is growing, and on a global scale.
In 148 countries – almost all the countries of the world – full upper secondary education is de facto not universal; 131 countries do not ensure lower secondary education for all children, and in 128 countries, a noticeable share of children do not even attend primary school.
At the same time, in 66 countries, the share of children who do not attend school has risen over the past decade. So, the number of countries mentioned turns out to be very large indeed.
Why did growth in school participation stop in 2015, and why did the number of children not attending school begin to rise? Because eight years earlier, in 2007, a new era began: The release of the iPhone launched the mass spread of smartphones, providing constant connection to the internet and apps – that is, instant access to entertainment and remote communication. This caused a fundamental shift of attention and an explosive rise in time devoted to digital leisure. And then, seven years later, the first human generation raised with gadgets reached school age. After that, every year there were more children with gadgets – and at the same time, more children not attending school.
Incidentally, the children who do attend school are also children with gadgets, who at best part with them only during class hours. Field research shows that in countries where students spent a lot of time using gadgets for entertainment during the school day, test results fell sharply from 2012 to 2022. So non-attendance is only the most vivid negative effect of informatization from childhood, not the only one.
The universal inclusion of school-age children in primary and secondary education. In recent years, negative developments in this sphere were often linked by experts to the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. But the latest Global Education Monitoring Report 2026 allows the picture to be clarified significantly: It appears that we are dealing not with temporary difficulties, but with a change in the global trend – and the turning point seems to have occurred before the pandemic.
While in the 1990s and 2000s, most countries recorded high growth rates in children’s participation in education, after 2015, these gains slowed almost everywhere. In a number of countries, the number of children not attending school has increased. Since this primarily concerned countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, it might have seemed like just another example of ordinary African difficulties: Tribal wars, corruption, and so on. Then the pandemic began, and everyone was sent home. But now ten years have passed, and it turns out that the share of children not going to school is not shrinking at all – on the contrary, it is growing, and on a global scale.
In 148 countries – almost all the countries of the world – full upper secondary education is de facto not universal; 131 countries do not ensure lower secondary education for all children, and in 128 countries, a noticeable share of children do not even attend primary school.
At the same time, in 66 countries, the share of children who do not attend school has risen over the past decade. So, the number of countries mentioned turns out to be very large indeed.
Why did growth in school participation stop in 2015, and why did the number of children not attending school begin to rise? Because eight years earlier, in 2007, a new era began: The release of the iPhone launched the mass spread of smartphones, providing constant connection to the internet and apps – that is, instant access to entertainment and remote communication. This caused a fundamental shift of attention and an explosive rise in time devoted to digital leisure. And then, seven years later, the first human generation raised with gadgets reached school age. After that, every year there were more children with gadgets – and at the same time, more children not attending school.
Incidentally, the children who do attend school are also children with gadgets, who at best part with them only during class hours. Field research shows that in countries where students spent a lot of time using gadgets for entertainment during the school day, test results fell sharply from 2012 to 2022. So non-attendance is only the most vivid negative effect of informatization from childhood, not the only one.
