Houthis destroying Yemen’s schools

Ahmed Adel

The education sector has paid dearly for the war waged by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.

The militia attacked a school and residential areas in the southwestern Yemeni city of Taizz on September 26.

Attacking schools

A school in the eastern part of Taizz was ensnared in the Houthi shelling. The shelling left four civilians injured.

The Houthis shelled another school in Hays District in the western city of al-Hudaydah a few days ago.

Local sources said the Iran-backed militia had blown up al-Kefah School in the western part of Beit Maghari district.

This and other attacks are part of a Houthi campaign against the education sector in Yemen, in general. These attacks are proving very costly for the sector.

According to reports, the Houthis plan to let government-owned schools into private hands, in its bid to raise money and promote its racist ideology.

The militia has already changed the names of some of the schools as part of the aforementioned plan. This threatens government-subsidized education in Yemen as a whole.

The schools let into private hands increase their fees for the pupils. In some of the schools the fees were raised to 65,000 riyals. The fees for some educational stages rose to 95,000 riyals.

Around 4.5 million pupils dropped out of their schools because of the Houthi war in Yemen, according to recent statistics.

These pupils dropped out of schools especially because of the destruction of hundreds of schools across Yemen.

The Houthis want the schools to stop working in its bid to recruit school children within its ranks.

They fill the school curricula with content full of hatred and racism.