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This report is a follow-up to Education
under Attack (2007). Its remit is to track the extent, nature and impact
of incidents from January 2007 to July 2009, as well as the measures that
have been taken to increase protection for students and education personnel
and to reduce impunity for perpetrators.
Its findings are disturbing. The sheer
volume of attacks on education documented demonstrates that the demolition
of schools and assassination of students and teachers is by no means limited
to supporters of the Taliban fighting in the hills of Afghanistan. Education
has been attacked in at least 31 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and
Latin America over the past three years.
Sinister new tactics have emerged -
from abducting children from schools for training and use as suicide bombers
to mass poisoning of classes. Some incidents have resulted from new trends
such as the blurring of the line between military and aid operations in
Western military campaigns, others from age-old strategies of wearing down
the enemy by destroying their infrastructure.
There are two interesting findings:
first, that it is possible to negotiate with rebels, even rebels who seem
ideologically opposed to education, to end attacks and reopen schools closed
by threats; and second, that giving local communities a sense of ownership
of the education process, and of the defence of schools in particular,
may reduce the risk of attack.