Saleh-Houthi militias dealt disastrous blow to education: report

[22/08/2017 08:38]

TAIZ-SABA

The Saleh-Houthi militias coup d'état and diehard insurgency for more than two years has dealt a disastrous blow to education in Yemen, a report from the Taiz-based Education Media and Studies Center showed.

"More than 1400 schools had to close as a result of the war that the Saleh-Houthi militias have been waging since early 2015," said the report.

The report found that "78% of the closed schools are damaged, partially or fully, 22% others are either militarily occupied or used by IDPs as residences."

"This led to the decline in school enrollments by three percent compared to the year 2016, in increase in the number of children out of school," said the report.

The report said that the children who have left school ever since the beginning of the war number 1.400 million. The number of children reported to be out of school from pre-war times is 1.700 million.

Thirty two war-related attacks have hit different Yemeni schools while classes are going from the beginning of the war to now.

"Sixteen children have so far been killed while on their way to school by the criminal Houthi militias."

"The internal displacement of 19% of Yemen's six million school children stands as one of the most significant threats of discontinued schooling."

The non-payment of salaries of 70% of government employed teachers for the 10th month now had a severe direct impact on the education process and school children within the militia-controlled regions received far less classroom hours than their peers in government-controlled regions.

The non-payment of salaries not only affected the education process, but hit the living and economic conditions hard.

The Yemeni government maintains that the Saleh-Houthi coup militias are using the economy under their control, including the revenues of the main Red Seaport of Hodeidah , for financing their armed insurgency.

It insists that the militias send those revenues to so it can meet its financial obligations and pay the overdue salaries of tens of thousands of civil servicemen.