Islamabad, Sep 24 (IANS): Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, has announced the release of an emergency grant worth $5 million in response to the deadly floods in Pakistan.

The 12-month investment will reach more than 80,000 girls and boys across Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, Xinhua news agency quoted the ECW as saying on Friday.

"The climate crisis is an education crisis. These devastating floods have taken lives, destroyed as many as 22,000 schools ... and ripped families apart," said ECW Director Yasmine Sherif.

"We need to act with speed. ECW and our strategic partners are sprinting to deliver a fast-acting response to bring children back to school without further delay and deepening suffering."

The extraordinary monsoon rains in Pakistan have caused massive flooding and landslides across the nation.

More than 1,400 people have lost their lives and the government estimates that 22,594 schools have been damaged or destroyed, said the ECW.

The new response builds on the ECW's ongoing Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Pakistan, and focuses on providing equitable access to inclusive and quality learning environments, establishing temporary learning spaces, and providing children with the psychosocial supports they need to avoid dropping out of school permanently, said the fund.

Teaching and learning materials will be provided to children in both formal and temporary learning spaces. Teachers will be supported to adapt their teaching methods to best suit the new context. The investment will also ensure that gender-based violence mitigation measures will be implemented, with a particular focus on protecting adolescent girls, said the ECW.

Worldwide, 222 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents are in need of urgent education support.

The ECW and its partners are calling on world leaders to provide at least $1.5 billion in urgent funding for the '222MillionDreams' campaign.