Conflict Is Keeping More than 20 Million Kids Around the World Out of School

More than half of the school-age children living in South Sudan are not enrolled in classes, as the civil war gripping the country drags into its third year. But the kids of the northeastern African country are just a small fraction of should-be students around the world who are kept out of the classroom because of conflict.

There are more than 24 million children out of school across 22 conflict-stricken countries, according to a report from UNICEF released on Tuesday. According to the UN agency, this figure means that nearly one out of every four school-age kids around the globe is not getting an education.

"Children living in countries affected by conflict have lost their homes, family members, friends, safety, and routine," UNICEF's Chief of Education Jo Bourne said in a statement. "Now, unable to learn even the basic reading and writing skills, they are at risk of losing their futures and missing out on the opportunity to contribute to their economies and societies when they reach adulthood."

Because ofd the difficulty in gathering statistics in conflict zones, the agency said the actual numbers could be much higher.

In South Sudan specifically, 51 percent of primary and lower secondary school age children are not in class, making it the country with the largest portion of kids out of school. Niger, Sudan, and Afghanistan have the next worst rates, all with 40 percent or more not attending school.

As UNICEF education specialist Lisa Bender explained, in the last year alone 100 schools in South Sudan were reported to the agency as either occupied, closed, or destroyed as a result of the conflict. Furthermore, in addition to the impact on the local population, the country also hosts refugees from neighboring countries who are also in need of education services.

"[There are] more and more children who are not starting on time, children who will never enroll in school," Bender said, speaking generally of the lasting toll conflict can have on a country's education system, particularly in protracted crisis seen in countries like South Sudan. "This creates a risk to the children in the community that they won't return to school, that their teachers will look elsewhere for jobs."

In many cases, children affected by conflict are already living in some of the most vulnerable countries in the world. For example, South Sudan — which declared independence from Sudan in 2011 — has some of the lowest rankings among human development indicators. Meanwhile years of war have contributed to economic stress, food insecurity, and other issues. Over the weekend, the UN reported that hunger and violence had pushed 23,000 people out of their homes in the last month alone. While several thousand had managed to cross into nearby countries, others were hiding out from violence in the state of Western Equatoria.

Clashes initially sparked in the country on December 15, 2013 when violence broke out between rival factions of the presidential guard in the capital city of Juba. President Salva Kiir claimed his former vice president Riek Machar had plotted a coup against him, an accusation Machar denied. Within days the violence devolved into a wider civil war.

Nearly two years and 50,000 deaths later, Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal in August 2015, which was aimed at bringing the war to a close. Both sides of the conflict, however, have continued to engage in minor fighting.

Since the fighting began, every part of an average South Sudanese family's life has been put on hold, according to International Rescue Committee's global communications officer Juliette Delay. As she explained, parents and their children are often displaced living in internal sites or refugee camps in neighboring countries.

Delay explained that mothers are often unable to provide food for their children, and families live in constant fear of being attacked. While in South Sudan, Delay said mothers expressed concern about the lack of opportunities for future generations.

"The entire population is stuck in limbo, but in the meantime children are growing up and missing out on fundamental education during their most formative years," Delay said.

According to UNICEF, when a student's education is interrupted they are much less likely to continue or resume his or her studies in the future as a result. But as Bender explained, this early education is crucial, with studies even finding that a country's investment in education can have an impact on its GDP.

Some of the solutions to meeting educational gaps in conflict zones include setting up temporary facilities or training teachers and parents onhow to work with children whose lives have been affected by war. Having warehouses ready to go with the supplies to quickly respond and put up a makeshift school when necessary is also an essential option.

"What we see in protracted crisis like South Sudan, is a lot of movement," Bender explained. "So we have to come up with nimble solutions to adapt to wherever children are."

Despite the importance of education during a conflict, there is a critical gap in funding, Bender said. In the context of the general humanitarian funding in crisis zones, less than 2 percent is typically allocated towards education — largely because education isn't seen as a core intervention tool in an emergency.

Children "don't just have the right to survive, they have the right to thrive and grow up in a healthy environment," Bender said. "We're really losing any kind of progress and their right to education, which is the biggest and best hope for making their lives better and addressing the challenges they face."