By Samuel Owino
The current war between Israel and Palestine has history that dates back to 1967. Israel, during that war in 1967, captured the West Bank, Gaza and east of Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all of the three territories for their future state. There have been no peace talks in over a decade and this brings us to today in which they have gotten the world’s attention. Wars always have severe consequences and one of the consequences is that disruption of education is often ignored.
War-tone areas affects children’s education in so many ways. For example, the school infrastructure is destroyed during the times of war. When the war is done, the students don’t have a school to go back to. This puts the children in distress while the nation faces financial problems as they have to build back the country. Most political organizations or governments do not care for the welfare of their children and their education. This therefore results in major number of school drop outs as they don’t even have a physical place to learn.
Sometimes the school infrastructure remains standing or the children can use what they have left. The other problem could be the access to school materials. In most cases, civilians and business people shun away from visiting a place that has recently experienced war. These areas therefore are starved from the resources that they depend on for a comeback or resources from developed and major cities or countries. Even when they are willing to provide goods and services, they have to invest in security that most of the time is vulnerable to exploitation. Roads too are also affected as war usually leaves a place impossible to navigate. The people that would pass by means of foot or any motor find it a major challenge.
Girls are also affected during the war and after the war. The girls and women are the most vulnerable during times of war. Girls are likely to get married off at an early age, sometimes to cater for the financial needs of the family. The mature women are also at a risk as they are vulnerable to rape or trafficking along with the younger girls. These activities disrupt the education of the women and the girl child. The boy child is not safe too. The boys are mostly forced to join rebel groups and revolutionary movements. They are likely not to go back to school after joining these armies.
We are all humans who have emotions and are always affected and shaped by the events we go through. War can be traumatic to residents of a war tone area. When a war ends, the residents are usually scarred or traumatized that normal, day to day activities requires more effort and support. In war, there are no counselors or the counselors available could be traumatized too. This makes it very hard even for those that go back to school unable to concentrate in class. Students and teachers tend to be more cautious to incoming danger than what they are being taught or teaching.
This is therefore a call to peace between Israel and Palestine and any other warring countries. The solution is provision for better educational facilities that can raise our boys and girls to be policy makers, lawyers, diplomats and negotiators that avoid war or handle war in the future in more responsible way.