Prepared by: ANECD’S (Arab Network for Early Childhood) Media and Communication Department

In Gaza, genocide. In the occupied West Bank, the violence of occupation, settlers and land grabbing. In Lebanon, a blatant Israeli war and aggression and a collapsing economic situation. In Sudan, bloody fighting. In Yemen, poverty, hunger, and a volatile security situation. In Libya, divisions and the weight of a long war. The crises in these countries differ in the details of their contexts, but they share the most affected segment of the population: young children. Among the rights violated against them: education. 

The past decade has brought many complications for children’s education in most countries in our region. The wars and conflicts that these countries have been going through for years have affected the educational context (more than 13 million children were out of school in 2015, according to UNICEF). This comes in a region where, just a few years ago (before 2015), the goal of universal education was within reach. 

Many countries have recovered over the past few years and have pushed education forward with local, regional, and international support. However, education remains an unresolved issue in several Arab countries for a variety of reasons, mainly conflicts, wars, genocide, and aggression. UNICEF’s latest warnings in this regard spoke of the long-term consequences and the possibility of what the organisation described as a ‘trans-generational’ disaster if urgent measures are not taken in light of the wars and turmoil in a number of Arab countries. What is also dangerous is that half of the children in the region suffer from ‘learning poverty’, meaning that they cannot read or understand an age-appropriate text by the age of ten, according to the international organisation. In short, the 2024-2025 academic year begins with millions of children in Arab countries unable to attend school and their teachers without work. 

Gaza and the West Bank: The systematic destruction of the education sector 

As a result of the Israeli blockade, children in the Gaza Strip already suffer from a shortage of educational resources and supplies, and teachers’ ability to participate in international conventions, study visits (because they are not granted exit permits by the occupation), and cooperation with the Ministry of Education in the occupied West Bank. 

Since the genocide of 7 October, Israel has adopted a policy of systematic destruction of the education sector, as it has done in all sectors, increasing the suffering of children and educational staff in ways that are difficult to explain. 

Due to increasingly restricted access to the field across the Gaza Strip, intensive Israeli bombardment and the closure of wired and wireless communications, it is difficult to quantify the damage to the education sector. However, statistics released in September of this year by the Education Cluster provided shocking figures, including the following: 

• 94.7% of Gaza schools were damaged to varying degrees, including 378 schools hit by direct Israeli shelling (an increase from the previous month). 
• One-third (378) of the schools that were directly bombed and 115 of those destroyed are UNRWA schools.
• 97.9% of the destroyed schools are in the northern Gaza governorate, the highest number among the governorates, followed by the Gaza governorate (92.3%) and Khan Younis (77.6% of its schools were directly hit). This comes at a time when the northern Gaza Strip, specifically the Jabalia refugee camp, is under unprecedented siege and bombardment.
• 60.4% of schools that housed displaced people were directly hit by shelling. 
• At least 87.4% of schools require complete reconstruction or extensive rehabilitation. 
• According to UNICEF, 625,000 children are out of school, many of whom cannot transition to higher education. 
• Schools that have been directly bombed previously served 65.2% of the student population and 65% of the teaching staff.
• There are numerous reports, photos and videos showing the use of schools by the occupation army for military purposes, including detention centres and military bases. Satellite imagery provides further evidence of this use. 

In the occupied West Bank, since before 7 October, children and educational staff have been subjected to Israeli violations, including the arrest of students and teachers or their interception of the way to and from school. The frequency of these violations has increased dramatically over the past year, with teachers and students being violently targeted, educational facilities destroyed, and schools and their surroundings subjected to Israeli military operations and raids, settler violence, movement restrictions and bureaucratic obstacles.

The education system in Lebanon is under tremendous pressure, the latest being the Israeli conflict, which puts children at risk of falling behind in their studies or dropping out entirely (UNICEF).

Lebanon and the ambiguity of “organisation”? Will the school year be lost? 

Lebanon’s education system has been under tremendous pressure for years due to accumulated factors, most recently the Israeli war, putting children at risk of falling behind at school or dropping out altogether, or inequality in the provision of the right to education. 

To date, the Lebanese government has postponed the start of the school year twice. The first was until 11 October, and the second was until 4 November. Despite the succession of official decisions and statements related to this issue – the latest of which was the plan to distribute students, teaching staff, contractors, and workers to schools that are not approved as shelters for refugees for the academic year 2024/2025 – the issue is still between the tug of war between educational and political forces for educational and even security considerations. 

It is also shrouded in uncertainty about the effectiveness of the mechanism that will be used: Remote learning, blended learning, or both? How to implement this? How to register in schools? How to ensure equal access to education between displaced students and others? How to ensure the safety of teachers in face-to-face education? What are the criteria for considering a school located in a safe area? Most importantly, how to deal with calls to evacuate some schools from IDPs and place them in tents supervised by international institutions, while 60% of schools are currently used as shelters, according to UNICEF? 

So far, there are civil and social initiatives in some displacement centres to respond to emergency education in order to avoid the loss of a school year for children. Still, to date, official institutions have not taken up these initiatives. 

In short, 1.2 million children and young people need immediate access to quality and inclusive education, according to UNICEF. These are always the victims. The issue is very complex and lacks the necessary planning. 

Sudan: The Biggest Education Emergency  

In Sudan, nearly 80% of children do not go to school. According to UNICEF, more than 19 million children are currently out of school, of which 12.5 million are newly displaced. “This is the largest education emergency right now, and it will have an impact across Sudanese society for generations to come,” the organisation says, calling this disaster ultimately a protection crisis, as “education provides not only the academic education that students expect in the classroom but also a protective environment.”

Another cross-country crisis is using schools as centres for internally displaced persons (IDPs), which means that “other homes must be found for these (displaced) people so that children can use classrooms again.” UNICEF also warns that without immediate action, the learning and earning losses for a generation in Sudan could reach $26bn a year.

You can read more about education in Sudan on ANECD’s blog. 

The education system in Yemen is severely exhausted (UNICEF).

Yemen: A strained education system 

In Yemen, which UNICEF describes as having a severely strained education system, there are conflicting figures on the number of children outside it. While UNICEF indicates that 2.7 million children are outside the system, Save the Children noted in a detailed report on 25 March 2024 titled “Hanging in the Balance: Yemeni Children’s Struggle for Education” that there are 4.5 million out-of-school children, two out of every five children, and that displaced children are twice as likely to drop out of school compared to their peers. 

According to UNICEF, 8.6 million children need support to continue their education, with some 2,800 schools destroyed, damaged or reused for non-educational purposes. The Save the Children report noted that a third of the surveyed Yemeni households had at least one child who had dropped out of school in the past two years (2022-2024), despite the UN-brokered truce that came into effect in 2022.

Libya: Divisions have decimated education 

The severe divisions that have plagued Libya for years have taken a toll on education, whether in terms of its quality, the number of teachers, or children’s enrolment in school. UNICEF has highlighted the crisis of declining school enrolment in Libya, noting that it is becoming increasingly common, especially among internally displaced children. In figures, the international organisation indicated that more than 175,000 children are at risk and in need of protection, while about 111,000 children are on the verge of losing access to education if humanitarian assistance is not urgently provided to them.