Education crisis persists in Yemen

An alarming study released by Save the Children on Monday revealed that two out of five children, totaling 4.5 million, are not attending school in Yemen in a country devastated by war for nearly a decade.

The poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggering one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN.

Although violence has significantly decreased since a ceasefire agreement negotiated by the UN in April 2022, the situation remains extremely precarious for Yemen's approximately 33 million inhabitants.

"Two out of five children, or 4.5 million children, are not attending school," the study indicates, adding that "one-third of the surveyed families have at least one child who dropped out of school in the past two years, despite the ceasefire."

Insecurity and the economic crisis have plunged two-thirds of Yemenis below the poverty line and led to the displacement of 4.5 million people, or 14% of the population, Save the Children notes, emphasizing that displaced children were "twice as likely to be out of school as others."

While 14% of surveyed families cited ongoing violence as the reason for dropping out of school, most cited economic reasons: over 44% emphasized the need for children to financially support their families, while 20% stated they could not afford school fees and textbooks.