From Gaza to Manipur, Valiant Teachers Continue Education in Conflict Zones
These teachers deserve great appreciation for their inspiring commitment to their work today when we celebrate the Teachers' Day.
[Palestinian students doing homeworks among the ruins after the lessons at their tent school, at which their teacher Alaa Abu Mustafa, whose house was destroyed in the Israeli army's attacks, gives them education in Khan Yunis, Gaza. (Anadolu Agency Images)]
While most attention in conflict and war zones is understandably concentrated on the loss of human life, a silent crisis that accumulates over one or more years relates to the disruption of education. This can seriously harm and disrupt the future progress of children and the options open to them.
While this has always been a serious issue, the damage likely to be done at present is particularly high because school education hasn’t yet recovered from the earlier disruption caused by the pandemic and its lockdowns.
Teaching in conflict zones
At present there are about 56 conflicts at world level, the highest ever since World War 2. In addition, there are likely to be several other minor ones which too can be disruptive for school education at the local level.
Hence clearly there is need for taking special steps for minimizing the disruption of school education. While ensuring the safety of children must always get the highest importance, whatever steps that can be taken to ensure some continuity of education should not be missed.
The role of teachers is of course of the highest importance in any such efforts. With their deep commitment to education, some of them have managed to keep educational classes going on in some form or the other even in several conflict zones.
On September 5, a leading Hindi newspaper of India, Dainik Bhaskar, has published several reports on the valiant effort of teachers to continue teaching in several conflict zones. Some of these reports have been published in cooperation with the New York Times, while some have been published by Bhaskar on its own.
Gaza, Palestine
One report is from a teacher in Gaza. She has been displaced six times in recent months. Yet she and her brother, also a teacher, have continued their work in some way or the other. She says that just now I am teaching 13 children in a shelter of displaced persons.
Suddenly, there is a huge explosion in some place and the children are very afraid. So I hug them and stay close to them, the teacher says. However as soon as the crisis passes the lesson starts again!
About half a million Palestinian children are today deprived of proper schooling, she adds.
❝İşgalcilere inat bu çadır okulu kurduk❞
— Akşam Gazetesi (@Aksam) September 4, 2024
İsrail saldırısında evi yıkılan Gazzeli öğretmen Alaa Abu Mustafa, kurduğu çadır okulda öğrencilere ders veriyor pic.twitter.com/LIww5dJRkJ
This obviously has to become a secondary priority when children have to face hunger and violence on daily basis. The teacher says that my own family faces these problems as much as anyone else in Gaza, but somehow I have been able to find the strength to continue my work.
"My work now is not just to teach children, but also to keep alive a sense of hope in them, and, the teacher adds, I think that despite all the problems I have succeeded in this to a significant extent", she says.
Manipur, India
In the conflict zone of Manipur in India some schools were burnt down in recent times. A large number of students are still staying in shelter camps. In this situation, several teachers took a decision to start going to shelter camps to continue education there, despite the longer distance and other problems.
One teacher was so moved by the difficulties faced by three students that she took them to her home, took care of them and also taught them regularly.
These children have done very well in their exams despite all the problems they faced. This teacher says that education apart, one of her main challenges was to bring these children out of the mental trauma they faced.
Afghanistan
A teacher in Afghanistan says that he had seen the disruption in education caused by conflict first as a student, and in recent times, he has experienced this as a teacher.
He says he starts for the school very early so that he is not delayed despite any of the problems that may crop up.
He says that his biggest challenge is how to teach girl students but despite all the restrictions placed on this he and like-minded teachers find a way out by using online education and other means so that education reaches girls too.
Ukraine
In Ukraine some former teachers have also come out of their retirement to make their contribution to continuing school education in the middle of all the recent disruptions.
One teacher says that she has conducted her classes even in bomb shelters.
These teachers deserve great appreciation for their inspiring commitment to their work today when we celebrate the Teachers' Day.
However, there is one other profession which deserves perhaps even greater appreciation.
Our reference here is to the doctors, nurses and all other health workers, who have continued to provide medical care in the most difficult situations of conflict zones.
Our salute to all these educational and health personnel of conflict zones.
[The writer, Bharat Dogra, is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril and A Day in 2071.]
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