By Irina Bokova

March 1, 2011 04:41PMT

Contrary to popular belief, classrooms, kids and education systems are not merely “collateral damage” in the case of conflicts. They are more and more deliberately considered as legitimate targets. School children are the silent victims of attacks on schools, forced recruitment into armed militia, and an epidemic of rape and sexual violence.

Armed conflicts do not destroy just schools. They destroy opportunities for generations of children. Yet this issue remains widely neglected. UNESCO’s 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR), launched today in New York and Nairobi, throws the spotlight on this hidden crisis. One-third of the rapes reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo involve children, 13 percent of them under the age of 10. Girls are being pulled out of schools from fear.

The facts are alarming. Forty-two percent of the world’s total number of primary school age children who are not enrolled in school live in a conflict affected country, i.e. 35 countries in total from 1999 to 2008, 15 in sub-Saharan Africa. All of this entrenches the vicious circle of war. Children lacking an education face a future blighted by poverty and poverty is a very persuasive recruitment sergeant for armed groups. Low education attainment is one of the few statistically significant predictors of violence.

This is an immediate human rights crisis. It is also a long term development disaster. Countries affected by armed conflicts feature the deepest gender inequalities and lowest literacy levels in the world, along with some of the highest child death rates. What is more, education is often the first budget line cut by governments facing conflict. Armed conflicts in the world’s poorest countries are one of the greatest barriers facing the Education for All goals. Twenty-one developing countries currently spend more on arms than on primary schools, with no evidence of a global improvement on security. Cutting these military expenditures by 10 percent would put 9.5 million additional children in school. According to the GMR, Chad, with some of the world’s worst education indicators, spends four times as much on arms as on primary schools. Of course, every country has to ensure its security, but military spending is a significant drain on public expenses.

The international community must pull its weight more. Communities affected by conflict are making heroic efforts to defend education but the same cannot be said of aid donors. Education accounts for 2 percent of humanitarian aid.

No sector has a smaller share of humanitarian appeals actually funded. And it would take just six days of military spending by rich countries to close the US$16billion basic Education for All financing gap.

To address this crisis, we must act at three levels. Our immediate priority must be to stop appalling violations of human rights. Governments must bring those responsible to account and not allow attacks on children, systematic rape, or the destruction of school facilities to go unpunished. The United Nations must do its part to monitor, report and investigate egregious violations of human rights. UNESCO should be mandated and resourced to develop a robust reporting system. The Hague Convention protects cultural heritage in the event of armed conflicts. Would it be so difficult to extend it to school facilities? Second, we need to invest more in education as a core part of both humanitarian and development assistance. Education cannot remain the poor cousin of international efforts. It is the best way to protect the green shoots of peace after a conflict. It is often the first real peace dividend for girls and boys, for communities struggling to get back on their feet.

The world’s refugees face major barriers to education. The refugee camp complex in Dadaab, in north eastern Kenya, shelters around 250,000 Somalis who have fled the conflict ravaging their country. As a humanitarian catastrophe unfolded in Somalia, Dadaab’s population more than doubled in four years. An education system that catered for fewer than 30,000 children in 2005 is now struggling to provide for more than 60,000. In the meantime, financing has suffered from continued shortfalls and uncertainty. To enable a sustainable scaling up of education in camps, planners need multiyear commitments and a greater flexibility to face changing circumstances.

The past decade has seen marked advances towards Education for All in sub-Saharan Africa. The region has increased primary enrolment rates by one third, despite a large rise in the school-age population. In Kenya and Zambia, this increase has not compromised the quality of education nor the results on test scores. The Republic of Tanzania even recorded improvements in average levels of learning while almost doubling the number of children enrolling in primary school. All this proves that change can happen.

Finally, education must rise on the agenda of peace building. We know the wrong type of education can fuel conflict.

The use of education systems to foster hatred has contributed to the underlying causes of conflicts, from Rwanda to Sri Lanka, but also in Guatemala and Sudan. Over 60 percent of the population in some countries, including Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone is under 25, compared with less than 25 percent in OECD countries. In the Middle East and North Africa, 23 percent of the youth labour force was unemployed in 2008. We need to make sure inclusive education systems provide youth with the skills and civic values they need to escape poverty, unemployment and the economic despair that often contributes to violent conflict. Education is indeed on the frontline of our global security.

Irina Bokova is Director General at UNESCO

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Reader Comments (1)

Posted by Gary Teale, Avivara on Mar 08 2011

I am in full agreement with your article, and was particularly struck by the fact that just five days of military spending would close the $16 billion dollar education gap. Our organization is working to improve education in Guatemala, and we encounter on a daily basis how underfunded the schools are in the rural areas. Guatemala now has the fourth highest homicide rate in the world and this is partially driven by the lack of education and economic opportunity for young people in that country. We struggle to raise funds for our organization and were not surprised at how little aid goes towards education. When will folks learn that even though education costs money, ignorance costs even more.

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