New York: Almost 30 million children are out of school in emergency or conflict-affected countries following the targeting of schools and the displacement of millions of children forced from their homes and studies, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said.

"For children living through emergencies, education is a life line," said Josephine Bourne, Unicef's head of global education programmes, in a statement to the press Monday, noting that the 30 million children whose schooling has been derailed by conflict make up about half the worldwide number of out-of-school children.