Afghanistan

Afghanistan's education system suffers the world's largest gender gap due to the Taliban's ban on secondary education for girls, affecting 1.1 million adolescents and erasing two decades of progress. Female enrollment plummeted from 33% in 2020 to just 6% in 2024, a decline 50% steeper than #7 Eritrea's gender disparity. The ban has resulted in a 60% dropout rate among girls, outpacing the average for conflict-affected nations, with no improvement expected by 2026.