Indian school children observe two-minutes of silence and make a human chain to pray for the victims who were killed in an attack at the army-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan. File Picture: SANJEEV GUPTA
Johannesburg - September 9 marks the International Day to Protect Education from Attack – a United Nations day in its third year that will be marked by an event at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris.
To date, statistics remain depressing – and African countries are disproportionately affected. According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) – of which the Education Above All Foundation (EAA) is a founding member, there were more than 5 000 separate attacks on education facilities, students and educators, or incidents of military use in 2020 and 2021, a significant increase over the last two years, despite so many schools being closed down due to the pandemic.
The GCPEA recorded that attacks has left more than 9 000 students, teachers, and academics harmed, injured, or killed.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Palestine were the countries most affected by attacks on schools, experiencing over 400 each. Attacks also rose in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ethiopia, Mali, and Myanmar during this reporting period, compared to 2018-2019.
This year EAA and its partners are unveiling TRACE, the Track Attacks on Education Data Portal, a new data portal which applies humanitarian technology to generate reliable, timely data on attacks on education, to be freely shared.
“We must do all in our power to hold those who perpetrate attacks on education accountable. When criminals strike schools they strike the very heart of a community and its culture and children’s futures are destroyed,” said EAA chairperson and Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, who is giving a keynote address at the high-level event in Paris.
Despite the passing of the UNSCR 2601 in October 2021 which reaffirms the right to education and underlines that it is the duty of states to provide protection and ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels for all learners, even in conflict situations, it is currently not seeing uptake in implementation, and perpetrators are rarely held to account. Data forms a key part of this story.
More widely, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey had high reported numbers of people harmed as a result of attacks on education.
In Nigeria, high numbers of students, including girls, were abducted, while the other countries saw hundreds or thousands of educators or students arrested for protesting education policy.
Military use of schools and universities more than doubled. Driving this increase was a spike in the military use of education facilities in Myanmar, where nearly 40% of all such cases occurred.
Reports that armed forces, law enforcement, or non-state armed groups committed sexual violence at, or on the way to or from, school or university were recorded in seven countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Turkey.
The highest use of explosive weapons occurred in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.
Attacks on education can take various forms. In some cases, attackers damage or destroy school or university facilities. In other cases, students and/or educational professionals are targeted by violence, including sexual abuse. Armed forces, state security entities and non-state armed groups also use schools and universities for military purposes, sometimes while students and teachers continue to attend schools, or school routes, to recruit children to their groups.
From a broader African perspective, declaration commitments have been translated into binding African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) decisions on attacks on school, an important milestone which reflects the growing consensus within the African continent on the importance of protecting schools.
CAR, DRC, Somalia, South Sudan have seen the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD) which has apparently reduced the military use of schools.
114 states have endorsed the SSD which has a number of commitments, including restricting military use, prosecuting perpetrators, providing support to victims and strengthening data on attacks on education to better inform prevention and response to attacks on education. And real progress is being made in implementing these commitments.
Burkina Faso has recently made prosecutions for attacks on education and the investigation and prosecution of attacks on education being a key priority for the International Criminal Court.
The International Day to Protect Education from Attack was established in 2020, and is increasingly important as students, teachers and schools continue to suffer an increased number of attacks globally. This year, the day is being held in-person for the first time in two years, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris and will provide a forum to discuss issues relating to attacks on education.
EAA’s appeal to the global community comes as part of its three-year #UniteToProtect global campaign to end attacks on education through the collection of data on attacks as a basis for evidence generation, accountability, grassroots advocacy and sustainable peace-building.
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
Education