Education Under Fire: When Learning Becomes a Frontline
Education Cannot Wait’s Education Under Fire shows that attacks on schools are not isolated tragedies, but part of a growing global pattern. Between 2022 and 2023, the UN recorded around 6,000 attacks on students, teachers, and educational institutions, while the military use of schools rose by 20%. More than 10,000 students and educators were killed, abducted, arrested, or otherwise harmed.
What makes this issue especially urgent is that education is being attacked at the exact moment children need it most. In conflict, schools are not only places of learning; they provide safety, routine, mental health support, food, and a sense of future. When schools are bombed, occupied, or turned into military spaces, the damage extends far beyond destroyed classrooms.
The article also connects this crisis to broader child rights violations. In 2024, the UN verified 41,370 grave violations against children in armed conflict, the highest number since the mandate began nearly 30 years ago.
This forces a deeper question: if education is one of the foundations of peace, what does it mean when war begins by destroying the places where children learn to imagine peace?
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