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UN
Moves To Return Children to Classrooms in Conflict Zones in
Mexico
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Inter Press Service
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 MEXICO
CITY, Mar 24 (IPS World Desk) - A United Nations agency has
begun relief efforts to help children of the Republic of Congo
(Brazzaville) regain lost years of education. |
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will provide desks,
notebooks, pens, chalk and learning manuals for teachers and
students willing to return to schools in the war-ravaged African
nation.
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This
month, the UN agency revealed the perilous state to which
that country's school system had been reduced as a result
of the conflict. Education in the Congo (Brazzaville) is ''seriously
paralysed,'' stated UNICEF, resulting in more than 50 percent
of children being denied schooling.
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Due
to the prevailing spate of wars around the world millions
of children have had no schooling. The United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), for instance, estimates that
close to five million children could have no access to schools.
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This number, however, may rise when the millions of internally
displaced people (IDP) are accounted for. ''Around the world
20 million refugees and 30 million displaced persons live
in precarious circumstances, and at least 60 percent of this
number are children,'' says Sheena Hanley of Education International,
a Brussels-based non-governmental organisation (NGO).
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For
Hanley, this scenario reveals a shift in the manner in which
wars are being fought. While during the First World War only
five percent of the victims were civilians, the recent spate
of conflicts have affected civilians in significantly larger
numbers.
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Studies
done by her organisation have identified common patterns with
regard to the loss of education for children during times
of conflict. In the case of secondary-school students, for
instance, wars in their immediate vicinity have resulted in
a number of students ''not returning to education'' or such
levels of schooling not being available in refugee camps.
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In
addition, these children have also been abducted by rebel
groups in increasing numbers, particularly in Colombia, Sri
Lanka, Burma, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Turkey.
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For
primary-school children, on the other hand, their families
often choose not to send them to school ''because of fear
of attacks on the way to and from school.''
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Furthermore,
the World Bank states that other factors, too, have contributed
to the loss of opportunities for education: the destruction
of school buildings, the disruption of family life and the
need to work when adults have been killed or end-up as refugees.
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''Overall,
the loss of primary education is more severe in the sense
that it denies children and youth basic literacy and numeracy
skills,'' says Christopher Walsh, a Bank spokesman.
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When
he presented his annual report last year, Olara Otunnu, the
UN special representative for children and armed conflict,
made special reference to the number of children who have
had to endure ''interrupted education.''
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He
used that occasion to call on the international community
to take into consideration the issue when it drafts plans
to pursue programmes aimed at protecting and rehabilitating
children from ''the devastating effects of conflict.''
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''The
promotion and strengthening of local value systems, working
to rehabilitate medical and educational facilities and formally
integrating child protection into every aspect of United Nations
peace operations,'' should also be included in these programmes,
he said.
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For
Kacem Bensalah, the director of the UN Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organisation's (UNESCO) Emergency Educational
Assistance Unit, relief efforts will require a large programme.
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''Restoring
access to schooling, social integration of child soldiers,
restoring sychological needs and rehabilitation'' are some
aspects that require focus, Bensalah says. In addition, ''education
for peace and conflict prevention and vocational training''
need to be factored in, too.
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These
efforts have convinced Hanley that there is emerging consensus
about the need to place the loss of education for millions
of children in conflict zones as a priority area. ''It is
only now that it is being understood that schools bring a
degree of stability to ... children in unstable situations
and allows them to help rebuild their lives,'' she observes.
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Previously,
in her view, education was not considered as one of the ''priority
areas'' when refugees or IDPs had to be assisted. Water and
sanitation, medical care and food had been the major focus
of relief efforts.
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This month, UNICEF provided a report card that highlighted
its successful accomplishments in this regard -- getting children
back into school in war-ravaged Kosovo.
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The
massive humanitarian assistance during the past year has done
much to ''improve the immediate circumstances of the region's
children,'' it states.
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''A
UNICEF-led alliance of relief organisations, international
donors and local communities has succeeded in getting 97 percent
of primary school children back in class,'' it notes.
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Further,
this initiative has also resulted in the ''repair and opening
of 385 of Kosovo's damaged school buildings more than a third
of the total.''
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Nevertheless,
both Hanley and Bensala agree that such stop-gap measures
will not help resolve the impact of conflicts on children's
education in a satisfactory way. What is required is a ''new
strategy of education in situations of emergency and crisis,''
says Bensala.
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Adds
Hanley, those who violate this children's right should be
held accountable. ''Charges should be laid in the International
Criminal Court against any group that violates children's
rights and causes the kind of devastation of lives that we
have witnessed in the last few years.''
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This article
is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced provided
that Inter Press Service is credited. |
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