KANO, NIGERIA, 14 May 2013 (IRIN) - Around 15,000 children in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, have stopped attending classes since February 2013, according to a Borno State Ministry of Education official who preferred anonymity, as Boko Haram extremists continue a wave of attacks on state schools.
Most of the children are primary school students, according to the official. Thus far Boko Haram (BH) has burned or destroyed 50 of the state’s 175 schools, he said. Teachers in the state confirmed the estimate.
Education takes a hit in Myanmar’s Kachin State
“The biggest problem is we need more teachers. However, many who are qualified are afraid to work in the area because of the ongoing conflict and the recent attacks,” Haundang said.
Some 47,000 people are in IDP camps in KIA-controlled areas, with thousands more staying with host families, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 18 April.
Thousands of school-age children have been affected by the conflict, with varying access to education facilities.
In KIA-controlled areas, volunteer teachers have been used to maintain education services for the displaced. However, financial support for this effort is lacking. A comprehensive assessment of the education sector is urgently needed to better determine the number of children in need of education support, gaps in school supplies, and the absorption capacity of existing schools, OCHA said.
23 April 2013 – Calling for quick action by authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today warned that education was becoming another casualty of the months-long conflict, with half the country’s schools shuttered and hundreds of thousands of students at risk of missing out the entire year.
At least 250,000 children who started the 2012-2013 primary school year, and 30,000 who were in secondary school at the start of the crisis, could lose the entire school year if schools do not re-open in the coming weeks, the agency said in a news release. (via United Nations News Centre - Children’s education in Central Africa Republic devastated by conflict, UN says)
[HOMS, SYRIA] In an unfinished housing complex in Al-Wa’ar neighbourhood, where many displaced families from other parts Homs have taken shelter … young boys and girls huddled closely together in the heated rooms, the sound of children’s laughter bouncing off walls decorated with brightly-coloured drawings and educational posters.
These makeshift classrooms are often the only form of education available for displaced children in Homs. “I wake up every morning excited to come to class,” said Oula, an 8-year-old girl. “I miss my old school. But at least here I can learn, draw and play with friends.”
(source: Children find a safe space to learn in conflict-torn Homs, Syrian Arab Republic)
Schools are protected by international human rights law; they should be safe places for children to play, learn and develop. But in Syria, schools have come under direct attack, denying children their right to education in a safe learning environment. An eight-year-old boy from Aleppo refused to talk for more than two weeks after fleeing Syria. When he eventually did speak, his first words were,“They burned my school.”
(via Save the Children)
![DAKAR, 15 March 2013 (IRIN) - Aid workers and experts are calling for more attention to education in Mali, where 200,000 children are out of school due to the crisis but where money for emergency education has yet to come forward.
Though most schools in northern Mali are closed or thinly staffed, and thousands of children risk missing two years of schooling, donors have once again de-prioritized education to focus on what they say are more direct life-saving activities.
[ … ]
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says dozens of schools in the north have been closed, destroyed, looted or, in places, contaminated with unexploded ordnance. It estimates the education of 700,000 children across Mali has been disrupted by the crisis. In the north, some 5 percent of schools have reopened in Timbuktu; a handful in Kidal; and more in Gao, but only 28 percent of teachers were estimated to have returned to work there as of the end of February, said UNICEF. Many teachers are too afraid to return to the north, while already overcrowded schools in the south cannot cope with the influx.
(via IRIN Africa | Call to end neglect of emergency education in Mali | Burkina Faso | Mali | Mauritania | Niger | Chad | Aid Policy | Children | Conflict | Education | Natural Disasters | Refugees/IDPs)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/5fba142b8d208e063f50401d54a56b8b/tumblr_mjq5rhiMer1qb8rnio1_500.jpg)
DAKAR, 15 March 2013 (IRIN) - Aid workers and experts are calling for more attention to education in Mali, where 200,000 children are out of school due to the crisis but where money for emergency education has yet to come forward.
Though most schools in northern Mali are closed or thinly staffed, and thousands of children risk missing two years of schooling, donors have once again de-prioritized education to focus on what they say are more direct life-saving activities.
[ … ]
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says dozens of schools in the north have been closed, destroyed, looted or, in places, contaminated with unexploded ordnance. It estimates the education of 700,000 children across Mali has been disrupted by the crisis.
In the north, some 5 percent of schools have reopened in Timbuktu; a handful in Kidal; and more in Gao, but only 28 percent of teachers were estimated to have returned to work there as of the end of February, said UNICEF.
Many teachers are too afraid to return to the north, while already overcrowded schools in the south cannot cope with the influx.
BAMAKO/TIMBUKTU/DAKAR, 4 February 2013 (IRIN) - Children returned to school in Timbuktu in northern Mali on 1 February, a week after Islamist groups fled.
Teachers say about half of all schoolchildren fled northern Mali in 2012 when Islamist groups took over much of the north and shut down many public schools, dismantled the curricula in others, and sent some children to Koranic schools.
“You cannot imagine the joy I felt in returning to this classroom,” said the director of Timbuktu’s main primary school, Coulibaly Ami Doucaré. She abandoned the school last April when Timbuktu was taken over by Islamist group Ansar Dine.
![[Thailand] Some 160 teachers have been killed and many schools set ablaze in continuing ethnic violence. (via Teachers targeted in Thai conflict - Features - Al Jazeera English)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/bee6ac6e454abe432e7affffc41af016/tumblr_mhum3xMCLY1qb8rnio1_500.jpg)
[Thailand] Some 160 teachers have been killed and many schools set ablaze in continuing ethnic violence. (via Teachers targeted in Thai conflict - Features - Al Jazeera English)
KINSHASA, 10 December 2012 – New clashes in the North Kivu province have more than doubled the total number of schools affected by conflict this year to over 600, UNICEF said today. At least 240,000 students have missed weeks of schooling as a result of the conflict since April. In the aftermath of the recent fighting that led to the displacement of more than 130,000 people, families and parties involved in the conflict have since September, occupied or looted some 250 additional schools in North and South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
[March 7, 2012, Nairobi] The militant Islamist group Boko Haram has set more than a dozen schools on fire in northern Nigeria, Human Rights Watch said today. Since the beginning of 2012, suspected Boko Haram members have attacked, damaged, and, in a few cases, destroyed at least 12 schools in and around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, temporarily leaving several thousand children without access to education.
“Boko Haram’s attacks on schools represent a new and reprehensible development since the group began its campaign of violence in 2009,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy children’s rights directorat Human Rights Watch. “Children and educational institutions should be left alone, full stop.”
