Stichting International Sustainable Education Foundation (Isef)

according to the 2020 unesco report, 258 million children and youth were entirely excluded from education, with poverty as the main obstacle to access. the key factors that cause the exclusion of learners in education systems worldwide include background, identity and ability (i.e. gender, age, location, poverty, disability, ethnicity, indigeneity, language, religion, migration or displacement status, sexual orientation, incarceration, beliefs and attitudes). the educational exclusion during the covid-19 pandemic worsened as almost half of the low and lower-middle-income countries have not supported disadvantaged learners during the temporary school shutdown. disparities exist even within a particular country. in nigeria, for example, 71% of the most impoverished children and over 50% from the north have never been to school. in comparison, only 3% of the children from wealthy families do not attend school only on other than financial reasons (ethnicity, religion, disability). in the