The Quantitative Impact of Armed Conflict on Education

This study builds on PEIC’s goal of protecting and promoting education in situations of insecurity and conflict, including through its concrete support for the preparation and publication of Education under Attack 2010 (UNESCO) and Education under Attack 2014 (GCPEA). The study helps us to position attacks on education within the larger picture of the harm that education suffers in times of conflict. The focus on targeted attacks on education serves a valuable purpose by highlighting how students, teachers and education institutions and facilities are in the front line in many situations. This study, however, shows that such attacks are the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when the full extent of armed conflict’s adverse impact on education is taken into account, not least when measured in terms of the millions of children out of school for various reasons in times of insecurity and violence. By asking critical questions of the available data, the research team has shed fresh light on estimations of the numbers of affected children in sub-national areas where conflict has taken place. Likewise, the team has estimated the impact of conflict and insecurity on education in terms of direct and indirect costs, concluding that economic growth is negatively affected in significant ways. PEIC is grateful for this pioneering effort to frame these complex and essentially tragic issues through an approach that is both carefully argued and empirically rich.