As conflicts escalate in the Middle East and Africa, more than 13 million students are not getting an education as schools caught in the crossfires shut down, the United Nations said.
In a report Thursday on the effects of wars on education, the world body focused on nine nations and territories.
It said in some cases, children are coming under fire or going through active frontlines just to get to class. Teachers have quit their jobs while some parents are opting to keep their children at home.
“Attacks on schools and education infrastructure — sometimes deliberate — are one key reason why many children do not attend classes,” the U.N. children’s fund said in a statement.
A generation’s hopes, dashed
In Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, about 9,000 schools have been damaged and destroyed and are now converted into shelters for the displaced, it said.
Some students have fled to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, overloading already overburdened systems. More than 700,000 children who’ve escaped to those nations are unable to attend school, the United Nations said.
The damage is not limited to buildings, said Peter Salama, the regional director for UNICEF.
“It’s not just the physical damage being done to schools, but the despair felt by a generation of schoolchildren who see their hopes and futures shattered,” he said.
The report urged the nations involved to expand and certify informal education and support education systems in conflict regions. It focused on Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and the Palestinian territories.
Migrants pour into Europe
The report comes as the number of desperate migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty continued to pour into Europe, only to be confronted with backlash in some countries.
As the patchwork of European Union nations struggles to come up with a consensus on the plight of refugees — Italy, Germany and France sought a united response.
The nations’ respective foreign ministers presented the European Union with a joint document calling for a revision of asylum rules and a fairer distribution of refugees, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry.
The effort comes as the photo of a toddler’s lifeless body — one of 12 people who drowned off Turkey and washed up on a beach — has come to symbolize the gravity of the crisis. He was in a group of Syrian refugees.
Tired and weak
The surge does not appear to be lessening any time soon.
Another batch of refugees arrives in the German city of Munich with almost every train that pulls up.
Tired, hungry and weak from the heat, they speak of a harrowing journey — and the joy of escaping the bloody chaos in their nations.
In Syria, cities lie in rubble while South Sudan is ravaged by war and poverty.
In Libya, warlords maraud; people suffer while in Iraq. ISIS is running amok and videotaping its slaughter of innocents.
But authorities in some European nations are denying the migrants entry. Hundreds wait.
Hungary, a transit point for migrants trying to make their way north, has responded to the crisis by erecting a fence along its border with Serbia.
Germany has been more accepting of asylum seekers, but political leaders there have had to contend with xenophobic protests.
And in France, migrants shut down the Eurostar service between England and France as they poured onto the tracks near Calais, the French entry to the channel tunnel.
