Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to attacks on schools, as he marked the International Day to Protect Education from Attack.
“The global community needs to speak with one voice: attacks on schools must stop. Schools must be places of learning, safety and peace,” he told a high-level event on Thursday this International Day, which falls on Sep 9. Nevertheless, he added, “year after year, this fundamental right comes under attack”.
The top UN official encouraged the participants to imagine being a child in a classroom eager to learn, or a teacher dedicated to shaping the minds of the next generation. “Now imagine the horrors inflicted by conflict on learning”, he said, painting a picture of schools being targeted, destroyed or used for military purposes and of children facing violence, exploitation, even being recruited to fight, simply because they want to study.
The Secretary-General cited the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack in revealing that between 2015 and 2020, over 13,000 reports of strikes on education, or the military use of educational facilities, had been recorded around the world.
