UNICEF: Yemen’s conflict forced 1.8 million children out of school

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Sunday 26 Jul 2015 - 11:00 Makkah mean time-10-10-1436 Photo: UN News Centre Geneva (IINA) – The UN children's agency (UNICEF) said the ongoing conflict in Yemen is having a devastating impact on the country’s education system, and on the chances of millions of children to access learning. UNICEF said in a statement issued Friday that the fighting forced more than 3,600 schools to close and driven students and their families to safer areas of the country. At least 248 schools have been directly damaged, 270 others are hosting internally displaced people (IDPs) and 68 are occupied by armed groups. The UN agency stated that it is supporting catch-up classes for over 200,000 students, just some out of around 1.8 million children whose schooling has been interrupted for two months or more. UNICEF is asking for $11 million dollars to support the rehabilitation of damaged schools, provision of teaching and learning resources, training of teachers and community workers to provide psychosocial support, and to carry out a “Back-to-School” campaign. “Giving Yemen’s children an education is crucial for their own futures as well as those of their families and communities,” said Julien Harneis, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.  “We are doing all we can to return children to school so that they don’t completely lose out on their education. We urge the parties to the conflict to respect the safety of schools so as to give children a chance to learn”, he added. The next school year is scheduled to start on September 5, but much will depend on the security situation. Before the conflict, UNICEF said, the net school enrolment rate for Yemen stood at 79 percent, while 2 million children of school age were out of school due to poverty, discrimination, poor quality learning and conflict. AB/IINA