Education under Fire
Surging conflict and political upheaval across the Middle East and North Africa are preventing more than 13 million children from going to school, according to a new UNICEF report. The report, “Education under Fire,” focuses on the impact of violence on schoolchildren and education systems in nine countries* that have been directly or indirectly impacted by violence. 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. 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. #EmergencyLessons