Escalating conflict disrupts education for over 100 million children in Arab states: UNESCO

Beirut, May 4 A UNESCO report on Monday warned that escalating regional conflict has severely disrupted education across Arab states, affecting more than 100 million children and pushing fragile systems toward collapse.

The crisis has affected education in at least 15 countries, disrupting learning for 52 million school-age children through school closures, reduced access or shifts to remote learning, the report said. Nearly 30 million children in the region were already out of school before the escalation.

In the Gaza Strip, the report described a near-total collapse of the education system, with 97.5 percent of schools damaged or destroyed and more than 637,000 children out of school, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Lebanon has also been heavily affected, with more than 1,100 public schools used as shelters and at least 570 schools closed or located in conflict zones, disrupting learning for over 240,000 students.

Across the region, education has shifted to emergency and hybrid models, often marked by unequal access and quality. UNESCO also reported rising psychological distress among students and growing risks of long-term learning loss and dropout.

In Syria, the crisis is compounded by an influx of returnees from Lebanon, straining an already fragile system. Many returnees have urgent education needs, but schools are overcrowded or being used as shelters, leaving students with lost academic time and limited options for re-enrollment.

The impact extends beyond frontline areas. In Iraq, about 7,500 schools serving two million learners have moved to online learning, while Gulf countries have implemented temporary closures and remote education as precautionary measures.

UNESCO warned that without urgent intervention, the region could face irreversible human capital loss and a "lost generation" of learners.

The agency is scaling up its emergency response with temporary learning spaces, digital platforms and psychosocial support, while calling for sustained international aid to ensure learning continuity and help rebuild resilient education systems across the region.

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