Global education crisis hits children living in conflict countries hardest
This week in New York a group of decision makers from governments and international organizations met on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly and agreed on one key message: ‘Education Cannot Wait’. This could be the most important event of the week for almost 30 million children who are robbed of their right to a decent education because they are driven out of their homes by conflict or natural disasters.
It is a shocking fact that education receives less than 1.4% of humanitarian aid. Astonishingly, some major donors still do not consider education to be a valid part of emergency responses because, they believe, it is not ‘life saving’. Tell that to the parents of children fleeing the war in Syria who demand that their children’s lives should not be further blighted by denying them education. Education changes lives. In times of conflict and disaster it is even more important. It gives children a chance of some semblance of normality when their world has been turned upside down.
Helping Children in Syria
Save the Children – along with many of our partners – is now responding to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Syria. At the last count more than 3,900 schools had been destroyed, occupied or used for purposes other than education. An estimated 22% of the country’s 22,000 schools have been rendered unusable for education purposes. There are at least 1 million child refugees as a result of the conflict. Many of these children don’t have any chance of continuing their education. These are the children and young people who will need to rebuild Syria after this horrific war is over.
We should be teaching Syria’s children now the skills, knowledge and values they will need to make a better future for their children. Instead we deliver empty promises. This must end.
The international community knows what can be done. Tomorrow, Save the Children will launch an update on our ‘Getting to Zero’ report to set out how we can get to zero children living in poverty, zero children dying needlessly, and zero children out of school or not learning. We will not meet these goals if we continue to fail children in conflict situations and emergencies by denying their right to a decent education.
New commitments for education in conflict countries
The participants at the meeting in New York made specific commitments to put this right. Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) highlighted $ 440 million in education grants approved by GPE for 9 fragile and conflict-affected states . Heikki Holmas, Minister of International Development from Norway committed $25 million additional funding for education in the next budget. The United Kingdom Department for International Development has committed to increase its support for education, protection and psycho-social support in Syria. Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court promised a strategy from her office to protect education and children from attack. Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education agreed to follow up with all the partners to secure these commitments and to track progress.
These commitments must be delivered. The children of the world will be watching. Education cannot and must not wait.
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