In Yemen, thousands of schools have stopped after they were reduced to rubble due to the five-year-old war, which was an obstacle to the continuation of education in the country, as well as the violations that Yemeni teachers were subjected to, and the suffering they suffered as a result of the disruption of their salaries, as a result of the ongoing conflict.
Millions of male and female students in Yemen receive a new academic year on the rubble of schools that were destroyed due to the raging war in the country since 2014, and this year will not be more fortunate for the Yemenis than previous years, in light of the continuation of the war and the exacerbation of differences between the conflicting parties.
Schools turned to rubble
The new school year was not more fortunate than previous years, along with the war that has been going on in the country for more than 5 years, but that every year with the continuation of the war, violations increase and the number of destroyed schools multiply.
At the beginning of the year 2020, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, in a report on the state of education, that the number of schools that stopped working due to the conflict in Yemen reached more than 2,500 schools, about two-thirds of them (66 percent) destroyed due to direct violence, 27 percent of them have closed, and seven percent are used for military purposes or as shelters for the displaced.
As documented ” Mwatana” more than 2000 caught violating the schools since the start of the conflict until 2019. During 2018 only documented “citizen” at least 60 incident assault and the use of schools, of which 2 incident aerial attack, and 22 incident occupation, and 36 incident to other forms As intrusions, In addition to the explosion of ammunition stored in warehouses near schools, which caused great losses among children.
Teachers salary victims
During the period of the ongoing war, education in Yemen suffered great damage to its infrastructure, and nearly 200,000 teachers have been suffering from salary cuts since 2016, which has negatively affected their psychological and economic condition.
In Sanaa, a teacher began to commit suicide, after the world closed its doors to him, and he was living in tragic circumstances of extreme complexity.
The teacher threw himself from the medicine tower building in Sana’a, after he was unable to pay his accumulated debts due to the suspension of his salary three years ago.
Teacher Abdullah Amira is the other, like other teachers, has endured harsh living conditions after salaries have been cut for five years. The sidewalk and public gardens squares were a safe haven and his first stop in which he stretched out his exhausted body and slept deeply, and the restaurants of the capital, Sanaa, were his second stop where he went during the lunch and dinner periods. People used to feed him with what was left of their tables in order to fill his hunger, and his conditions were more severe, as the owner of the house expelled him after he was unable to pay the rents accumulated on him, and he was unable to buy medicine to make his kidneys sick.
In light of the conflict in Yemen, teachers have been subjected to various grave violations, in violation of all human rights laws, including kidnapping, killing, and suspension of salaries. And human rights reports speak of more than 1,700 teachers killed and wounded since the outbreak of the war in Yemen.
Education is a difficult issue
After Yemenis lost their salaries and their only source of income, the process of providing school supplies for their children has become a difficult and expensive issue, which has exacerbated the school dropout rate that Yemen has been suffering greatly since the outbreak of the war
Student Yaqoub Abdo (15 years old) also complains about his family’s living situation and says that his family gives priority to providing basic food and drink requirements over meeting school requirements.
And Jacob adds to Humans Of Taiz:
My father’s inability to provide the basic requirements for us in the village due to unemployment and war forced me to leave school and travel to the city of Damna to work as a cleaner in a hotel.
On October 5 of this year, a joint statement by the Education Cannot Wait Fund, the Global Partnership for Education, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) mentioned that the dire situation in Yemen has led to more exits. Of the two million children from school.
The statement added that 5.8 million children were enrolled in school and are now at risk of dropping out.
Education is in danger
On the International Teacher’s Day, UNICEF and UNESCO issued a joint statement, which suggested that further delay in paying teachers’ salaries would lead to “the complete collapse of the education sector and affect millions of Yemeni children,” declaring that “at least $ 70 million is required to pay the salaries. Teachers in Yemen during the 2020/2021 academic year.
According to UNICEF, the suspension of teachers ’salaries threatens to deprive (4.5) million children in Yemen from studying, and exposes (13) thousand schools, representing about (78%) of the total schools in Yemen, to the risk of closure.
The “Mwatana” and “Sisfire” organizations had warned in their recent report that “the reality of the educational process in Yemen has become more tragic than ever before.”
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