Social and behaviour change | UNICEF

Education transforms societies.  

It gives children the knowledge and skills they need to shape their future. It provides stability, structure and – especially for children growing up through conflict and violence – a sense of protection. Education plays a critical role in challenging harmful social and gender norms. 

But worldwide, millions of children are denied these rights and benefits. Some aren’t able to enrol in school or attend regularly due to economic constraints and additional barriers to access. Others face discrimination, inequitable treatment and even violence in and around school.  

UNICEF estimates that by 2030, hundreds of millions of children will not have learned basic literacy and numeracy skills. Millions more will be subjected to some form of violence in and around the classroom – many in countries where the legal system does not fully protect them from corporal punishment. 

Experiences of violence, discrimination and exclusion lead children worldwide to skip class or drop out of school entirely. Too often, this can happen in places where learning poverty is already high. And too often, it happens because education systems inadvertently reproduce the harmful norms, behaviours and stereotypes that thwart social equity and prosperity. 

But when policymakers understand how children, parents and school managers experience the education system, they can design more effective policies and programmes for safe, inclusive schools. 

UNICEF’s SBC approach to education examines every level of the system to identify and address social, behavioural and intersectional barriers to learning. We help decision makers better understand why children are out of school, or left behind in learning, by looking beyond resource constraints to create safe, inclusive learning environments for every child.