The challenges of schooling during war | Children and Youth Studies

posted by Kristen Cheney

The threats to children?s safety in war go well beyond physical safety and mental health. UNICEF issued a press release this week detailing the alarming situation in Syrian schools. Not only has the ongoing civil war destroyed some 2400 schools, but an additional 1500 have been converted to housing and shelter for people displaced by the fighting.? This comprises 1/6 of all Syria?s schools.

In situations of war, schools are often made targets of enemy attacks, or can be taken over by troops for use as camps or bases of operation. Teachers are also sometimes targeted by opposition troops. Over half of Syria?s teachers have stopped reporting to work, many having fled the fighting.

Even where schools have not been destroyed or taken over ? or where teachers have not been killed or displaced ? parents will keep their children out of school, fearing for their safety. UNICEF reports that in Aleppo, student attendance rates have plummeted to around 6 percent.

While it may indeed seem sensible to stop going to school during a time of war, it means children are deprived of yet another important element of their development. Syrian children who have already missed out on one or two years of schooling due to the fighting are missing far more than an education. Education specialist, Michael Kelly (2005), writing about orphans, has pointed out that schooling can provide a sense of routine and normality in an otherwise chaotic situation and help children cope with upsetting events around them. It also keeps them in contact with peers. ?Thus,? writes Kelly, ?schooling helps the child develop a renewed sense of efficacy in relation to life and its circumstances, restores some lost confidence, and offers hope that life can move forward? (p. 71).

Realizing this, some Syrian parents try to arrange alternative education for their children in the midst of social upheaval and incredible violence. In a radio interview with PRI?s The World, a UNICEF representative details how displaced families living together in a cave conduct lessons for the children there. Children themselves have also started their own classes in shelters, inviting other children to join them. Some schools that remain open are running several different shifts per day to accommodate more children whose schools have been sacrificed to war.

Continuing education under adversity may thus prevent children from falling too far behind their peers, as it also provides hope to parents and children of a future beyond war.

Reference:

KELLY, M. J. (2005) The Response of the Educational System to the Needs of Orphans and Children Affected by HIV/AIDS. IN FOSTER, G., LEVINE, C. & WILLIAMSON, J. (Eds.) A Generation at Risk: The Global Impact of HIV/AIDS on Orphans and Vulnerable Children. New York, Cambridge University Press.

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Source: http://blog.eur.nl/iss/cys/2013/03/08/the-challenges-of-schooling-during-war/

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