A Report by an International Organization Highlights the Deprivation of Education Faced by Children in Conflict Zones
London – Geneva – Sudanhorizon
Save the Children officials stressed in a report on the state of education at the end of this year the need not to prevent children from receiving education and not to occupy or bomb educational institutions where children receive their education.
The Save the Children report comes at a time when reports are coming in that the Rapid Support Militia has prevented school students in some states from attending the Sudanese Certificate exams. Some reports even said that militia soldiers have prevented some examinees from reaching the exam locations and allowed others to pass.
“One in three of the 103 million children living in the world’s most violent and fragile countries are out of school,” said James Cox, Save the Children’s Head of Education Advocacy and Policy. “Too many children are being denied their right to education because their schools have been damaged or destroyed by conflict, climate-related weather disasters, attacks on education, or poverty, exacerbated by crisis, makes it impossible for families to pay for essentials. We know that conflict and crisis are increasing the number of children forced into early marriage or child labour.” “Education in crises is life-saving, protecting children from violence, sexual and gender-based abuse, exploitation and recruitment into armed groups. Providing access to education is as life-saving as keeping children away from unexploded ordnance in their neighbourhoods,” Cox added.
“All parties to conflict must also ensure that schools are not targeted or used as military bases, and that children have access to safe, quality education, regardless of where they live,” he stressed.
A press release published yesterday, on Friday, on the UN news website said that research conducted found that one in about 103 million school-age children living in 34 countries classified by the World Bank as conflict-affected or fragile will miss out on education in 2024.
The report considered this percentage much higher than the global rate of one in six children out of school worldwide, confirming the strong link between conflict or fragility and deprivation of formal schooling opportunities.
The report indicated that in Sudan, there are 17.4 million children Out of school due to the ongoing conflict that began in April 2023.
In Gaza, where 96% of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli airstrikes since October 2023, all 625,000 school-age children have lost the opportunity to receive any formal education.
In Nigeria, which the World Bank considers to be affected by conflict, there is one of the highest rates of children out of formal education in the world and more than 18 million children are out of school, where poverty, insecurity, and social and cultural practices and norms that keep children, especially girls, out of school intersect with formal education.
The situation is exacerbated by an increase in terrorist attacks on schools, especially in the north of the country, as well as devastating climate disasters such as flooding in September that prompted the Borno State government to close all schools.
The statement regretted that there has been no progress towards reducing the number of children deprived of formal basic education for more than a decade due to under-investment in education, restrictive government policies, devastating conflicts in countries such as Sudan, the occupied Palestinian territories and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in addition to climate change-related weather disasters and attacks on education institutions, which are converging to keep children out of school.