Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

010CHAPTER 32Education for All Global Monitoring Report‘Students areoften absentbecause theyspend hourslining up forrations andwater.’Abdul,Philippinesagain illustrates the scale of the problem.With 2.5 million people displaced from the NorthWest Frontier Province in 2008 by fighting betweenthe government and Taliban militants, schools inother parts of the country came under pressure(Winthrop, 2009b). In the Philippines, hostilitiesin 2008 and 2009 between government forcesand armed groups led to the displacement of750,000 people, severely disrupting children’sschooling (Amnesty International, 2009) (Box 3.11).Violent conflict can touch the lives of childrenin many ways, including enforced recruitmentas soldiers. At the end of 2007, child soldierswere directly involved in armed confrontationsBox 3.11: The human face of conflict in the PhilippinesMuhammed’s new home is a tent on the grounds of a school,yet he has little time to attend class. For him and many otherchildren in an evacuation camp, helping his parents supplementmeagre food rations is now his priority. ‘I can only go to classesin the morning because I have to look for vegetables andfirewood outside the camp and return before dark,’ he said.Muhammed, 13, is the eldest of five children who are takingrefuge with their parents and grandparents in a camp set upin the Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School in Maguindanao.Heavy clashes between the military and separatist rebels inthe Mindanao region of the Philippines have left hundreds ofthousands of civilians stranded in evacuation camps, often setup in schools such as this one. The Datu Gumbay Piang centrehas reportedly become home to the highest number of internallydisplaced persons since the outbreak of the fighting.For the moment Muhammed and his family consider themselveslucky to have a tent to live in. ‘Some of the refugees have nochoice but to make their homes inside the classrooms or takeshelter under the school buildings when it rains,’ said BernieAbdul, an evacuee working in the school.Most of the children come to class to escape the dismal livingconditions in their tents. But there is no immediate escape fromthe destruction and violence they have witnessed. ‘When thechildren are in class, they are either lethargic or very nervousbecause we often hear howitzers being fired not far from us.’Muhammed is not the only child in the camp who is unable toattend school regularly. Abdul explained: ‘Students are oftenabsent because they spend hours lining up for rations and waterat the pump or because they’re sick. Living in an unhealthyenvironment without running water and sanitary facilities hasaffected the children physically and emotionally as well.’Interviews conducted by Ross Harper Alonso for this Reportin seventeen countries, including Afghanistan,Chad, Somalia and the Sudan (Coalition to Stopthe Use of Child Soldiers, 2008). In Somalia, theTransitional Federal Government has reportedlyrecruited over 1,000 children into its armed forces,most of them directly from schools (UN GeneralAssembly Security Council, 2009).Apart from missing out on education, childsoldiers often suffer psychological trauma,hampering prospects for a return to education.During the civil war in Sierra Leone that startedin 1991, over 15,000 children are estimated tohave been forced to serve in military groups.After the end of the conflict in 2002, schoolingwas seen as a way for the former soldiers torecover some of their lost childhood. However,schools were ill-equipped to provide thepsychosocial support necessary to enable themto readjust to normal life (Betancourt et al., 2008).Other children experience trauma as a resultof being part of a civilian population caught inviolent conflict. The process of reconstructingeducation in Gaza will require not only repairingphysical infrastructure but also measures tosupport traumatized children (Box 3.12).In some cases, education is targeted as asymbol of government authority, with schoolssubject to armed attack, and pupils and teachersthreatened with murder, injury, abduction andrape. In Afghanistan, 670 schools were closed inearly 2009 because of security threats, depriving170,000 children of education. In the threesouthernmost provinces of Thailand, separatistgroups hostile to Buddhist values and Thailanguageteaching have attacked schools. Inthe past five years, 99 teachers have beenreported killed and 296 schools have beenfirebombed (O’Malley, 2009).Groups within the Taliban in Afghanistan andPakistan have targeted girls’ schools, both tochallenge government authority and to assertvalues hostile to equal opportunity in education.In the Swat district of Pakistan, the Talibandestroyed 108 girls’ schools and damaged 64 otherschools between 2007 and May 2009. During 2008,local Taliban leaders ordered a ban on womenteachers and girls’ education. In response,900 schools closed or stopped admitting girls andfear created by the decree led to the withdrawalof 120,000 girls from school (O’Malley, 2009).180