UNICEF calls for providing teachers’ salaries, stopping attacks on educational facilities in Yemen

SANAA, Sept. 25 (YPA) – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for work to provide salaries to all teachers and education staff in Yemen so that children can continue their education.

In a statement it issued on Wednesday, the organization urged the international community, donors and development partners to support cash incentives for teachers, while seeking long-term solutions to the salary crisis in Yemen.

The statement revealed that two million children are out of school, including nearly half a million who have dropped out of school since the conflict escalated in March 2015.

“The education of other 3.7 million children is at stake as teachers’ salaries have not been paid for more than two years,” the statement added.

“Conflict, delayed development and poverty have deprived millions of children in Yemen of their right to education and their hope for a better future,” said UNICEF Representative in Yemen Sara Beysolow Nyanti.

“Violence, displacement and attacks on schools also prevent many children from attending school,” she added. “With teachers’ salaries still not being paid for more than two years, the quality of education is also at stake.”

Thirty years after the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it was unacceptable that education and other fundamental rights of the child were out of reach for children in Yemen because of man-made factors, Nyanti referred.

The statement called for an end to attacks on educational facilities to protect children and teachers, affirming that these attacks constitute a grave violation against children and violate international humanitarian law.

UNICEF stressed the need to protect schools as safe learning spaces.

YPA