Education amid war

There is a growing fracture in the global order, and peace itself is increasingly at risk. Among the gravest casualties of this instability is education. It is not only infrastructure that is being destroyed, but also the essential spaces of human development, such as hospitals and energy power plants.

The crisis emerges amid intensifying geopolitical tensions involving nuclear-armed powers such as the US and Israel, and a country like Iran, which does not possess nuclear weapons. As these tensions escalate, children's education suffers the most, and the metaphorical coffin of learning is carried closer to the grave.

Before the ceasefire was declared, the US and Israel were engaged in a relentless pursuit of unfair strategic dominance - a dangerous geopolitical chess game, frequently at the expense of humanitarian values. The confrontation with Iran is not merely a geopolitical rivalry but also a serious escalation aimed at toppling the Islamic regime.

Sadly, its stated objectives remain unfulfilled. Instead, it leaves behind a trail of destruction through targeted assassinations and high civilian casualties. The US-Israel alliance has not only targeted military officials but also scientists, professors and learned intellectuals.

Even more shocking is the rising tide of violence against children and schools. Take the horrific attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school Minab at Iran, where 168 students, along with teachers and staff, were killed - a tragedy that shattered families and humiliated the conscience of humanity. Children, whose only crime is being children of a rival country, are being treated as collateral in conflicts they neither understand nor can influence their killers.

A similar pattern is in Gaza, where educational institutions have repeatedly been struck, claiming the lives of students, teachers and staff. Education - the very means through which humanity can rise above conflict - is being reduced to dust, standing among the greatest casualties of war.

Sudan is facing one of the worst education crises in the world following the outbreak of conflict in 2023, with most schools forced to close. More than three quarters of its 17 million school-age children are now out of school. In Yemen, over a decade of conflict has left 3.2 million children - almost one in three - out of school, while thousands of schools have been damaged or repurposed as shelters.

The psychological trauma inflicted on students, who begin to see schools as targets rather than safe spaces, has long-term consequences that extend far beyond the battlefield.

International humanitarian law prohibits attacks against civilians under any circumstances. Under UNSC Resolution 2286 (2016), all parties to armed conflict are required to respect and protect medical personnel, hospitals and other medical facilities, and refrain from attacking them. The resolution reaffirms that attacks or threats against hospitals and medical facilities in situations of armed conflict violate international humanitarian law and strongly condemns such acts.?

History-literate scholars seem to have forgotten the lessons of past wars. The catastrophic impacts of World War I and World War II are examples that war brings no true victory - only immense human suffering, economic devastation and social disintegration. Millions of lives were lost, yet history appears to be repeating itself.

War, when stripped of moral constraints, leaves little room for successive negotiation. Iran, for its part, maintains that it has been targeted despite signals of diplomatic engagement and asserts its right to defend its sovereignty. However, when powerful nations bypass international law and humanitarian norms, they set a dangerous precedent.

The greatest loss in any war is not territorial; it is human. The destruction of educational infrastructure and the loss of scholars inflict damage that is irreparable. When classrooms fall silent and children live in fear, the future itself is placed in jeopardy.

War is a necessary evil. But when it targets the innocent, destroys institutions of learning and ravages humanity itself, it ceases to be justifiable in any form. The world must pause and think: is this the legacy we wish to leave behind?