WUNRN
Education Under Fire
Direct Link to Full 16-Page 2015 UNICEF Report:
http://www.unicef.org/mena/Education_Under_Fire.pdf
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http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsId=51786#.VexOSa3ovmJ
Conflict Keeps Millions of Children Out of School in Middle East & N
Africa, Warns UNICEF Report - GIRLS
Classmates hold hands while standing beside rubble from a
destroyed part of the Shuje’iyah Girls’ School in east Gaza City. Photo:
UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
3 September 2015 – More than 13 million – that is the
number of children who are prevented from attending school by surging conflict
and political upheaval across the Middle East and North Africa, according to a
new report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today.
“A region which – until just a few short years ago – had
the goal of universal education well within reach, today faces a disastrous
situation,” says the report, Education Under Fire,
which focuses on the impact of violence on schoolchildren and education systems
in nine countries that have been directly or indirectly impacted by violence.
The UNICEF report says attacks on schools and education
infrastructure – sometimes deliberate – are one key reason why many children do
not attend classes.
“In Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya alone, nearly 9,000
schools are out of use because they have been damaged, destroyed, are being
used to shelter displaced civilians or have been taken over by parties to the
conflict,” it says.
Other factors, according to the agency, include the fear
that drives thousands of teachers to abandon their posts, or keeps parents from
sending their children to school because of what might happen to them along the
way – or at school itself.
“The destructive impact of conflict is being felt by
children right across the region,” said Peter Salama, Regional Director for
UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa. “It’s not just the physical damage
being done to schools, but the despair felt by a generation of schoolchildren
who see their hopes and futures shattered.”
In Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, more than 700,000 Syrian
refugee children are unable to attend school because the overburdened national
education infrastructure cannot cope with the extra student load.
“Like children anywhere, they want an opportunity to
learn, and acquire the skills they need to fulfil their potential,” the report
said. “This constitutes a clear challenge to the international community, host
governments, policy makers, and all those who want to see the Middle East and
North Africa emerge from its current turmoil.”
The report highlights a range of initiatives – including
the use of self-learning and expanded learning spaces – that help children
learn even in the most desperate of circumstances. But it says that the funding
such work receives is not commensurate with the burgeoning needs, despite the
fact that children and parents caught up in conflict overwhelmingly identify education
as their number one priority.
In particular, the No Lost
Generation Initiative, launched by UNICEF and other partners in 2013
to galvanize more international backing for the education and protection needs
of children affected by the Syria crisis deserves more support, the report
says.
The report calls on the international community, host governments, policy makers, the private sector and other partners to: reduce the number of children out of school through the expansion of informal education services especially for vulnerable children; provide more support to national education systems in conflict-hit countries and host communities to expand learning spaces, recruit and train teachers and provide learning materials; and in countries affected by the Syria crisis, advocate for the recognition and certification of non-formal Education services.