The Forgotten Frontline
How war steals the future of a generation
Tempo di lettura: 5 min
🖊️Francesca Suriano
Jan 2024
The sound of artillery fire replaces the school bell; the rubble of what was once a classroom lies silent, a grim monument to the disruption of childhood dreams. In the theater of war, education is often an unacknowledged victim, its absence quietly eroding the foundations of societies for decades to come. Across the world, from Gaza to South Sudan, from Afghanistan to Ukraine, children are being robbed of their right to learn.
But this theft is not merely an individual tragedy—it is a collective wound, a fissure that leaves entire nations struggling to rebuild.

Amid the debris of a destroyed classroom, children stand as silent witnesses to the devastating toll of war on education. In conflict zones across the globe, the struggle to keep learning alive is not just a fight for knowledge, but a fight for humanity itself.
The classroom as collateral damage
Education during times of conflict is not just a tool for personal development; it is a bulwark against chaos. Yet, wars inevitably target schools, either directly as part of military campaigns or indirectly through the collateral damage of displacement, poverty, and fear. In Gaza, recent escalations have left nearly 600,000 students without access to education, as over 140 schools have been damaged or repurposed into emergency shelters.
In Afghanistan, where over four decades of conflict have decimated the education system, the situation for girls is especially dire. Following the Taliban’s 2021 return to power, secondary education for girls has been systematically dismantled, with an estimated 1.2 million girls barred from classrooms—a move condemned by UNESCO as a “crisis of generational proportions.”
South Sudan presents a different but equally harrowing picture. Here, schools are often directly targeted, with over 400 educational facilities destroyed during the civil war. Children abducted by militias frequently return to communities that lack even the most basic infrastructure for education, compounding their trauma and limiting their futures.

A girl stands alone in the wreckage of a defaced classroom, a haunting testament to the way conflict turns spaces of learning into casualties of war.
Learning against all odds
Faced with such daunting challenges, governments and international organizations have tried to intervene, often under extreme conditions. Temporary learning spaces, often little more than tents in refugee camps, have become lifelines for displaced children. In Uganda, which hosts over 1.5 million refugees, makeshift schools provide education for thousands fleeing violence in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While the conditions are far from ideal—classrooms are overcrowded, and resources are sparse—they offer a semblance of normalcy in an otherwise chaotic environment.
Digital solutions have also gained traction in recent years. Programs like Can’t Wait to Learn, which delivers interactive lessons via solar-powered tablets, have transformed education for children in Chad and Sudan. These initiatives bypass traditional barriers by allowing children in remote or unsafe areas to access curriculum-aligned content tailored to their needs. However, such innovations often struggle to reach the poorest and most isolated regions due to limited internet access and infrastructural constraints.
Meanwhile, some governments have taken bold steps to integrate education into humanitarian aid. Lebanon, grappling with an influx of Syrian refugees, has implemented a double-shift schooling system, where local children attend classes in the morning, and refugee children use the same facilities in the afternoon. While far from perfect, this model illustrates how creative policies can bridge gaps in access, even in resource-strapped settings.

Young students concentrate in a makeshift classroom, a fragile lifeline in the face of conflict. Amid chaos and displacement, education offers a rare glimmer of hope for a better tomorrow.
Shielding minds from extremism
The disruption of education during war has consequences far beyond the classroom. When children are denied access to learning, they lose not only knowledge but also structure, hope, and protection from exploitation. In the absence of formal education, extremist groups often step in, offering ideological indoctrination in place of critical thinking.
Studies conducted in northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram has systematically targeted schools, reveal a direct correlation between educational deprivation and susceptibility to radicalization. Similarly, in Syria, ISIS actively targeted marginalized youth, exploiting the vacuum created by a decimated education system to recruit child soldiers and indoctrinate them into their ideology.
The United Nations has repeatedly highlighted education as a critical tool in countering violent extremism. A 2017 study found that every additional year of schooling reduces the likelihood of a young person joining an armed group by up to 20%. Education fosters critical thinking, tolerance, and civic engagement—qualities essential for breaking cycles of violence and fostering stability.

A young boy wielding a weapon in a shattered cityscape embodies the grim reality of war, where the absence of education leaves children vulnerable to exploitation and indoctrination by extremist groups.
The cost of a lost generation
The stakes are not merely humanitarian; they are profoundly economic, social, and political. Nations that fail to educate their children during times of war risk creating “lost generations,” individuals who lack the skills necessary to rebuild their communities. The economic cost is staggering. A report by the World Bank estimates that every year of education lost to conflict reduces a country’s GDP growth by 2%.
Socially, the absence of education exacerbates inequality, as marginalized groups—such as girls, refugees, and ethnic minorities—bear the brunt of disruption. Politically, the erosion of education weakens democratic institutions and social cohesion, leaving post-conflict societies vulnerable to further instability.

Children stand amidst the ruins of their community, a poignant symbol of a ‘lost generation’—deprived of education, equality, and the chance to rebuild what war has taken away.
Healing nations one classrooms at a time
Education, however, is not merely a victim of war; it is also a tool for peace. Research consistently shows that access to education reduces the likelihood of violent conflict. Post-genocide Rwanda offers a powerful example of this dynamic: by investing heavily in education, the country has achieved remarkable progress in reconciliation and development, demonstrating how learning can heal societal wounds.
To prioritize education during conflicts, the international community must adopt a mindset that treats it as an essential service, on par with food, water, and healthcare. Initiatives like the Education Cannot Wait fund—a global movement dedicated to ensuring learning continuity in crises—must be expanded and fully funded. Moreover, governments and aid agencies must work together to protect schools as zones of peace, in accordance with the Safe Schools Declaration, an intergovernmental commitment endorsed by over 100 countries.

Children in a refugee camp share a moment of joy, a testament to the resilience fostered by education, which offers not just knowledge but hope for healing and a peaceful future.
Protecting the right to learn
When we fail to educate children in war zones, we do not merely steal their futures; we endanger our own. Education is the foundation of resilience, prosperity, and peace. To leave classrooms in ruins is to abandon the potential of entire generations. But to rebuild them is to invest in a future where hope endures, even in the darkest times.
The choice is ours: we can either stand by as war erodes the very fabric of humanity, or we can act decisively to ensure that even amidst the chaos, the right to learn is upheld. For in the minds of children lie not just answers to today’s conflicts but the seeds of a more just and peaceful world.