According to the NEAP, the focus of literacy and non-formal education programmes is on out-of-school children, youths and adults but especially women and girls and those who have never been to school such as former child soldiers.

UNESCO: Country Profile: Sierra Leone

That bit longer eventually turned into six years living in Cambodia and that first school building turned into an education NGO (non-governmental organisation).

BBC: Viewpoint: Is gap year volunteering a bad thing?

However, it extends beyond formal education to non-formal and informal learning for out-of-school youth and adult citizens.

UNESCO: The UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels and the European Youth Forum push for recognition of non-formal education | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

However, with support from international organizations, the government set to restructure the education system by introducing laws such as free and compulsory education for children up to age 16, and increased the budgets for school system expansion, human resources development and adult non-formal education programmes.

UNESCO: Herder Families Literacy and Life Skills

Despite these impressive gains in primary and secondary education, most Bahraini children, particularly those from poor families, still have limited access to comprehensive and quality early childhood education (ECE) due to: poverty and limited State investment in or support of ECE programmes (in fact, comprehensive early education programmes are non-existent in the country) and the fact that child participation in pre-school classes is largely seen as a luxury.

UNESCO: The Mother-Child Home Education Programme (MOCEP)