As the world acknowledges the first International Day to Protection Education from Attack, this date is incredibly important in Syria.

This year Idlib has become the global capital of attacks on schools and greater processes and regulations need to be put in place to ensure schools are protected from attacks and those who attack schools face justice.

Syria Relief operates 306 schools within Syria, 5 of which were hit during the Idlib military campaign which started in 2019 and is still ongoing, dozens of children were killed.

Earlier this year we marked the 9th anniversary of the conflict by releasing 9 Years Of Schools On The Front Line: The Impact of Airstrikes on Syria’s Schools

In it we found that

-Children are the biggest victims of 9 years of conflict-The threat of an ‘Illiterate generation’ of Syrian Children in Idlib is rising and peaceful political settlement is becoming impossible, as schools are on front line and have been throughout-Throughout Syria, 40% of schools have been damaged or destroyed-25% of the civilians killed in the Syrian civil war have been children-Girls and children with disabilities are put at a greater disadvantage, due to the tendency of regressive attitudes to prevail when children are out of education-Teachers and children are attending school less, due to fear that the classroom is no longer safe due to the bombing campaign-NGO resources are being spent on trying to address the huge need for psychosocial support for the thousands of children suffering from mental trauma that comes from growing up in a war zone, to tackle the increasing likelihood that children will fall out of school and struggle to learn at the same pace as other children, due to severe trauma

Syria Relief demands:

-For all military actors in the conflict to stop targeting schools with air raids and to go to greater efforts to avoid bombing schools-That external governments who ally themselves with the actors in the conflict to pressure the belligerents into avoiding the targeting of schools-For all actors claiming to be legitimate governments of Syria, or parts of Syria, to pass legislation which brings them in line with the 2015 Safe Schools Declaration, as well as International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law-For host countries to provide an education that will provide their Syrian refugee communities with an education which will allow them to gain skilled jobs and enter the workforce on their eventual return to Syria-For more funding from both the international community and the general public for education projects within Syria, to combat the growing potential of a ‘lost generation’.