The world is grappling with a major learning crisis 

Over 200 million children urgently need access to quality education. Conflict and crisis including forced displacement, climate change, and the lingering effects of the pandemic have left 85 million children out of school. Conflicts are rarely short-lived, and the escalating climate crisis could mean these numbers keep rising.  

In Lebanon, many children can’t attend regular schools as a result of conflict. Some public schools have been turned into shelters, while others operate in reduced capacity. There’s an urgent need for innovative, cost-efficient, effective, and scalable education solutions. War Child Alliance’s ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ intervention has already tracked significant improvements in learning outcomes for children in conflict-affected and resource-constrained settings. The team’s research has shown it delivers the equivalent of 3 – 5 months of extra learning compared to children in formal primary education. 

‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ offers children a way to keep learning  

It uses digital technology, featuring educational games co-created with children, local artists, and teachers in line with local national curricula. ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ gives children an engaging and culturally relevant way to keep developing foundational skills in reading and mathematics. In times of conflict, it can help children gain a sense of routine and normality.

Over a decade, ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ has grown from a pilot program in one country to reach over 400,000 children across eight countries. It was part of the emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Uganda, Lebanon, and Jordan, and recently to the war in Ukraine at the request of the Ukrainian Ministry for Education and Science. Currently, in Lebanon, the team is responding to conflict by rolling out ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ in a slightly different format: videos are played at shelters to groups of children, accompanied by worksheets.