The impact of armed conflict on school education

Abstract

Armed conflict has a damaging effect on the lives of children and young people and affects their school education and future possibilities. This creates a serious challenge to the exercise of the human right for education and the achievement of a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – notably SDG 4, education for all, and SDG 5, gender equality. This paper examines the effects of armed conflict by discussing school closures, or partial closures, internal and external displacement, child soldiers, the six grave violations and the education of girls during armed conflict. The paper concludes with a discussion that argues that the policy of protection promoted by the United Nations is one that should be supported but there are other dimensions that also have to be considered: a more nuanced conceptualisation of childhood and a greater awareness and understanding of the child’s lived experience and agency, the protection of children to be ensured in ceasefire and peace agreements and implementation of strategies to protect children from the effects of war and the enforcement of legal measures and political sanctions that can be used to hold to account the perpetrators of the abuse of children in armed conflict.