It’s temporary, of course: the winter holiday has been extended so schools are closed during the month-long tournament.
But there are 43 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who are truly unable to attend school, according to the United Nations Development Programme – just over a third of the 115 million of children around the world who are out of school. Many millions more struggle to get an education under testing conditions – inadequate buildings, overworked teachers facing enormous classes.
