RIYADH: Greater emphasis should be placed on educating refugees to ensure inclusivity and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, as per the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to UNESCO said on Wednesday. Speaking at the inaugural Future of Education, Science and Culture International Organizations Forum, Princess Haifa bint Abdulaziz Al-Mogrin said that no one should be forgotten in the global effort to end extreme poverty and promote peace. “There should be more focus on refugee education, because we want to leave no one behind. And those no ones are increasing,” she said. The UN Development Program’s SDGs are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity both now and in the future. SDG 4 aims to ensure equitable quality education for all, though recent studies suggest refugee children are missing out. The COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated the situation as poor and vulnerable groups, like refugees, had been unable to attend virtual classes, Princess Haifa said. “There is need for capacity building to meet the gap. There is a need to provide proper education in those areas.” She urged regional organizations and the private sector to engage in infrastructure building. Dr. Said Ould Voffal, head of education surveys at UNESCO, said that COVID-19 had had a huge impact on the education system, affecting more than 1.5 billion students around the world and especially in less privileged areas. Between February 2020 and February 2022 the global average for how long schools were fully closed was 20 weeks, but in South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean the figure was between 35 and 37 weeks, he said. The closures also deprived many poorer people of other services, such as school-based healthcare and support, and the opportunity for social interaction, he added. Voffal said that in 2019, 52 percent of children around the world were unable to read by the age of 10. But according to a World Bank report from last year, that figure had likely risen to 64 percent. Speaking at the forum, which is being held at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, Dr. Allan E. Goodman, CEO of the Institute of International Education, highlighted the need for shared commitment. “If every university in the world today is committed to take one refugee of displacement we would be on the road to preventing a lost generation,” he said.