Education Under Attack

This report covers the five-year period from January 2013 to December 2017. The previous edition included profiles of 30 countries that had experienced at least five incidents of attacks on education in which students or education personnel were harmed, including at least one direct attack or one person killed, between 2009 and mid-2013.

This study examines how organizations supporting education programs have engaged communities to protect schools, students, and teachers in countries experiencing attacks on education.

The paper addresses the scope and nature of attacks on education personnel and the range of measures put in place to protect them. Many of the measures have not been formally evaluated. Additional research is needed to understand the dynamics of attacks on teachers and how to most effectively protect teachers.

This Menu of Actions is intended as a resource to empower personnel of ministries responsible for education to better prevent attacks on education or protect schools from military use, mitigate the impact of attacks when they do occur, and respond to attacks.

The paper describes what is actually being done in the field at the school-level to protect education from attack, identifying the risks and challenges involved, and drawing out lessons learned from these measures as well as other literature on the topic

The 106-page report is based on interviews with 119 victims and eyewitnesses of attacks on schools and education, including survivors of the three largest school abductions in Nigeria: Chibok (April 2014), Damasak (November 2014), and Dapchi (February 2018)

The following is a set of recommendations for states to consider when seeking to implement each commitment within the Safe Schools Declaration in a way that will better protect women and girls.