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EDUCATION UNDER ATTACK 2014well as bombings and shootings at examinationcentres. The incidents were reported in Sana’a 1756 andthe Ta’izz, 1757 Hodeida and Hajja governorates, 1758 aswell as in Lani province. 1759ZIMBABWeHundreds of university students were unlawfullyarrested or unlawfully detained during 2009-2012, andpolice and state security forces violently repressedseveral protests at universities. School teachers facedintimidation and death threats, and some schools wereused as militia bases. 1760ContextZimbabwe experienced ongoing political violenceafter the emergence in 1999 of the political party theMovement for Democratic Change (MDC) to challengeRobert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union –Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) for power. 1761 This violencewas particularly intense during election periods. 1762According to a study by the Progressive TeachersUnion of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), one in two teacherssurveyed had directly experienced political violencebetween 2000 and 2012. 1763 Most reported that thisviolence took place during the school day. 1764 TheStudent Solidarity Trust (SST) reported 211 cases ofabduction and torture of university students from2006 to 2010. 1765In the build-up to the 2008 presidential elections andduring their aftermath, attacks on teachers andteacher trade unionists, including killings, arrests,incarcerations, destruction of homes, torture andthreats of violence, were reported. 1766 Many schoolsbecame sites for enforced political rallies in whichteachers and head teachers were repeatedly andpublicly threatened with death. 1767The political situation changed in 2008, when MorganTsvangirai, of the MDC, and President Mugabe came toa power-sharing agreement that lasted until electionsin July 2013, which Mugabe won by a landslide. 1768During 2009-2012, there were incidents of politicalpressure on students and teachers and political use ofschools, mostly implicating Zanu-PF supporters, but inone reported incident the MDC was involved. 1769For example, pupils and teachers were ordered toattend a Zanu-PF rally held at Mount Carmel School inMay 2011, forcing several schools in Manicalandprovince to shut on a weekday. 1770 In another incident,the MDC organized a rally at Pagwashi Primary Schoolin the Cashel Valley of Chimanimani East that wasallegedly disrupted by Zanu-PF supporters, creating asituation that police warned was volatile. 1771Schools were reportedly used in the Zanu-PFcampaign against international sanctions, despite agovernment directive prohibiting it. 1772 On oneoccasion, a senior education official in Chikombadistrict, Mashonaland East province, ordered that allschools be employed for signing an anti-sanctionspetition and that head teachers act as unpaid pollingofficers to oversee the exercise. 1773There are no recent figures for primary or secondaryenrolment. In 2011, gross tertiary enrolment was 6 percent and the adult literacy rate was 84 per cent. 1774Attacks on school students, teachers and othereducation personnelA compilation of media and human rights reportssuggests numerous teachers faced harassment,expulsion, threats of political violence and deathbecause Zanu-PF supporters accused them ofsupporting the MDC.In 2009, local militia and tribal leaders allegedlyforced schools to provide them with offices andappointed ‘youth coordinators’ and school prefectswithout permission from education authorities. Inthese positions, they allegedly intimidated teachers inschool, leading them to fear for their security, and keptthe youth militia informed of activities within theschools. 1775In November 2010, PTUZ said Zanu-PF supporters ledby war veterans were trying to ‘cleanse’ Mashonalandprovince of teachers after President Mugabeannounced that elections might be held the followingyear. PTUZ cited the case of six teachers who wereforcibly transferred to other schools in Zanu-PF strongholdsand feared for their lives. There was a history ofwar veterans and Zanu-PF supporters accusingteachers of supporting the MDC and targeting themwith political violence. 1776205