Yemen's Displaced Children Face an Education Crisis as Fighting Intensifies in Taiz

Twelve-year-old Ahmed spends his days in a displacement camp in the Wadi Bani Khawlan area of Yemen's Taiz governorate, sleeping under a tent and passing the hours with other children or lying idle inside. His routine has barely changed in the two weeks since he fled his home village of al-Ashroh, west of Taiz city. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ahmed described life in the camp as boring and said he misses his home, his village, and above all the daily walk to school with his bag on his shoulder.

"I left my school bag in the house as we fled the clashes, and I do not know if I will carry it again and go back to my classroom and meet my teachers and classmates," Ahmed said.

There is no school in the displacement camp where Ahmed now lives, and even if he returned to his village, his school there has closed its doors. His situation reflects a widening emergency across conflict-affected parts of Yemen, where hundreds of schools have suspended classes. According to UNICEF, more than 137,000 students have lost access to education because of the renewed fighting, deepening a crisis that has already crippled the country's schooling system.

The United Nations children's agency also reported that more than 57,000 children were displaced during the first two weeks of September alone as a result of the fighting. That figure is expected to rise as clashes continue. The UN said on October 2 that more than 150,000 people in total had been uprooted by the renewed conflict, adding to the more than five million Yemenis already displaced since the war began with the Houthi takeover of Sanaa in 2014.

After four years of relative calm, armed clashes between pro-government forces and the Houthis intensified sharply in August and September, dealing a fresh blow to Yemeni schools and students. For families arriving at displacement camps, survival has taken precedence over education. Ahmed said that before the war reached his home, his family cared about whether he finished his homework. Now, he said, no one in the camp prioritises schooling, and families focus instead on tents, food and water.

Mohammed Radman, a displacement coordinator with the Executive Unit for IDP Camp Management in Jabal Habashi district, told Al Jazeera that thousands of students are displaced and that many have been forced to abandon their education under what he described as horrific circumstances. He explained that schools in conflict-affected areas fall into three categories: buildings used to shelter displaced families, overcrowded schools still operating, and schools located on or near the front lines.

"These students do not have options," Radman said. "All schools near the front lines are closed. And even if these students wanted to travel several kilometres every day to reach functioning schools, those schools are already crowded. So, the displaced students cannot be accommodated." He warned that the situation poses a real challenge for society, the Yemeni government and international organisations alike.

The scale of the problem predates the latest escalation. UNICEF says 3.2 million children were already out of school in Yemen before the most recent wave of displacement. Tawfiq al-Humaidi, president of the SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties, said the new and ongoing displacement will only worsen the ordeal facing Yemeni children. He warned that the war leaves them vulnerable to homelessness, begging and potential forced recruitment, and that the alternatives available to children outside the classroom are not safe.

Al-Humaidi added that although families hope their stay in the camps will be temporary, the disruption to education could last far longer. Prolonged stays in displacement camps, he said, can pull children into a different daily routine and make returning to school more difficult. The consequences extend beyond lost lessons, he noted, to the loss of the social and psychological protection that schools provide. When schools close, children become more exposed to violence, exploitation, recruitment and child labour.

Abdulkarim, a teacher in Taiz who asked that his full name not be used, told Al Jazeera that delivering education in a war zone is extraordinarily difficult. "When students hear explosions, fear bullets and stay in shaky tents, education cannot happen," he said. "I saw how little children cry when they hear the sounds of heavy gunfire." He stressed that providing students with a safe environment must come first, and that only then can functioning schools absorb displaced students or alternative learning centres be created.

Afrah al-Humaiqani, a sociologist based in Aden, warned that the recent hostilities risk denying thousands of students access to education and could contribute to creating what she called a new illiterate generation in Yemen. She nonetheless suggested that the impact could be reduced if the Yemeni government and international organisations cooperate and coordinate their efforts, pointing to the possibility of lessening the damage through joint action.