In some conflict-affected countries, education itself can become a target of attack for a variety of ideological, political, religious, ethnic, and economic reasons in the context of the larger conflict. Attacks on students, education personnel, and education institutions put the lives of civilians, including children, at risk and may violate international humanitarian and human rights law, including undermining the right to education. In response, government ministries of education, civil society organizations, UN agencies, and local, national, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have developed a range of programmatic measures to protect education from attack during situations of armed conflict and insecurity. These measures aim to protect civilian lives, limit damage to school buildings, limit disruption to education services, prevent future attacks of this nature, and protect the right to education for all.
This study attempts to create a knowledge base of programmatic measures to protect education from attack.
Attacks on education are defined here as attacks on students, educators and other education personnel at education institutions, including abductions, recruitment into armed groups, forced labor, sexual violence, targeted killings, threats and harassment. Destruction, looting and occupation of education facilities, and damage and destruction of learning materials and administrative records are also included. In addition, attacks on students and educators outside of education facilities when targeted specifically because of their status, and attacks on pro-education activists including teacher unions or any teaching group because of their activism are also part of this definition.1 The information in the study was compiled through an extensive document review, as well as from presentations by and personal communication with field practitioners, program managers, government officials, and others involved in the education, human rights, and child protection sectors.
The study begins with a discussion of different types of programmatic measures to protect education from attack, and presents a few brief country-specific examples. The programmatic measures range from local initiatives for protecting education to governmental or systemic interventions and reforms intended to prevent conflict. It is important to note that no one programmatic measure is meant as a panacea, but should be part of a comprehensive approach to protecting education.
The country-specific examples that follow illustrate how that particular type of programmatic measure is being implemented in the field and provide practitioners with a range of current programmatic measures to use as a reference for future program planning. The inclusion of certain programs is not meant to be evaluative, and what may be good practice in one situation is not necessarily the case in another. Therefore a discussion of considerations for program implementation follows the examples and practitioners must assess their own context carefully when making decisions about programming. One thing the study does show is that there are gaps in the evidence about what makes programs effective and a need for more evaluation and research to assess the effectiveness of interventions in order to increase our knowledge base and promote evidencebased programmatic responses.
Finally, the study ends with an Annex of twenty country profiles that provide the reader with more information on the context of the attacks on education in that particular country and more details on the programmatic measures being implemented there.