In decades to come, when historians reflect and write of this current time across the Middle East, they may very well fill weighty tomes about a lost generation of children — lost not in the physical sense from fighting or violence, disease and death, but lost as in the boundless potential that the young have. That potential is nurtured by schooling, the joy of learning, excitement of discovery and tapping into the skills and expertise that are fostered and grow in later years.
Sadly, the events in these places and times now mean that there are 21 million children in the Middle East and North Africa who are without schooling or are at risk of dropping out, according to the United Nations. And ironically, these 21 million exist at a time when there has never been better access to education and learning. In Syria and Iraq, where fighting rages, Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) disrupts and refugees run for havens wherever the desperate and despairing can find safety and security; three million children are without school and devoid of formal learning. And all too sadly, the lesson they are learning outside their classrooms is that violence begets violence, there is little humanity in human kind and that few are willing to offer a helping hand.
In Yemen, where an international coalition of Arab nations, with the support of the UN Security Council, is trying to turn back the tide of Al Houthi militants against the rightful and legitimate government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, only six children out of every hundred are in primary schools. And unless the situation is stabilised and returned to government control, that stunning figure will likely mean that even those six will not be in school next year.
In Lebanon, where millions of Syrians have sought formal and informal haven, the young are left to help families make ends meet, selling tissues and matches on the side of the street instead of learning the ways of the world from inside classrooms. And those historians of the future will rightly ask why we did not do more.
