Destruction of school buildings and entire education systems in Gaza, Ukraine and other war-torn countries have created a perilous situation for students trying to receive the instruction they need to build their nations a better future.
In 2022 and 2023, there were 6,000 physical attacks on education, according to a report this year from the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, a 20 percent increase from the previous two years.
Classrooms have been destroyed or taken over as shelters even as calls for education ring loudly since it can be the most important way to ensure the path both to peace for the country in question and keeping children from dangerous situations in adulthood.
“It’s really, really, really very important for countries and society in general to make sure that the children remain in school, even if the school is bombed or destroyed,” said Laura Frigenti, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education.
The Palestinian Education Ministry says 90 percent of schools in the Gaza area have been destroyed or damaged, and more than 600,000 children have been out of school since the start of the war last October.
Ukrainian officials said last year that 3,790 educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Frigenti said Ukraine has the infrastructure so her group could help “promote education access” and was able to give students tablets when they need to go remote, either due to the war or COVID-19.
“In many other places … I think about too many of the countries that are affected by working with infrastructure” that creates difficulties for instruction, she said.
“Everything needs to be adapted to what is the specific situation in the country and the specific context. But I would say that the common theme, the common answer, is we need to keep the children” in school, Frigenti added, “whether you bring them at the center of the village, under a tree, and you provide them classes there, whatever you can do to establish” a classroom.
And even when there is a suitable location for educating children, it can be a difficult task to focus with the conflict around them.
Anav Silverman Peretz, an English teacher who works at Zin Elementary School in southern Israel, told The Hill that thousands of people flocked to the area after Oct. 7, including many new children in classrooms.
“Among those students were war evacuees, and we’re talking about students whose families experienced untold horrors where they were in the shelters as Hamas was attacking — some new people who, you know, friends or family members who were murdered. Others had friends who — their school-age friends — who were kidnapped into Gaza. It made teaching last year a challenge,” Peretz said.
She added that in her 16 years teaching there, she “can honestly say that last year was one of the most difficult years teaching because the kids who came into our school, you know, went through really, really traumatizing events,” she added.
At the beginning of the current school year, the students had to do multiple bomb shelter drills due to the close fighting in the region.
“The students themselves, it’s an opportunity to get out of math class, whatever class, you know, go hang out with their friends. Our shelter kind of serves as a shelter for the seventh and eighth graders and the sixth graders, so a lot of students in this one space,” Peretz said. “I also feel like, in general, it depends what the news is, but […] we utilize humor with my students when it comes to these drills, you know, to just make it a lighter experience.”
Zin Elementary hired extra mental health professionals, and teachers were working overtime figuring out ways to help students both with academics and their own feelings.
“I feel that was really the biggest challenge as a teacher last year, you know, was not breaking down when you got the really bad news,” Peretz said.
Experts say that the death and destruction inherent in armed conflict are deeply scarring, but it’s also important not to overlook the damage done by the day-in, day-out grind of war.
Even as the bombs are falling, advocates say it’s crucial for teachers to keep teaching, as a good education offers the best way forward for both the individual and their society.
Frigenti highlighted some of the long-term consequences of a student not receiving an education, such as a cycle of poverty and ending up in low-paying jobs.
For girls, the result can be a “a destiny of early marriage,” potentially including pregnancy at a young age and health complications.
“You can only imagine what the impact of having all these unskilled, you know, children that will grow up and become young adults is going to have on the economy of their country and globally, because these people, what do they do? They will try to go out and look for better opportunities elsewhere,” Frigenti said.
—Updated at 12:28 p.m.