Inside Yemen’s tent schools: how war is stealing a generation’s education

Résumé détaillé

Hesham Al-Shabili reports from Marib, where displacement and overcrowding is driving pupils out of education

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It is another school day at Al-Mil camp, north of the city of Marib in central Yemen. On the road outside, a school bus carries uniformed pupils towards the city centre. Their families have the financial means to afford private school fees, having given up hope of securing an adequate education within the camps.

On the way here, our vehicle was stopped at a security checkpoint where a soldier inspected travel permits. This routine has become part and parcel of the daily work of journalists and humanitarian teams operating in the area.

A few yards beyond the checkpoint, two secondary-school girls stopped us and asked for a lift to their school, wearing hats to shield themselves from the scorching sun.

When we returned at midday, we engaged them in discussion about the hurdles they were facing in their educational journeys. Their foremost grievance was the sheer overcrowding of classrooms, closely followed by an inadequate supply of textbooks, the exhausting journeys required to commute between home and school, and a deficiency of qualified teachers across specific specialist science subjects.

In Al-Mil camp, it is not only the teachers and students that are displaced but the school itself. Al-Raql School, formerly located in a district of Marib bordering Nihm, east of Sana’a, was forced to relocate seven years ago amid successive waves of conflict.

To ensure children did not lose access to education while the Ministry of Education delayed formal recognition of new camp facilities, teaching staff resumed lessons under the school’s original name. The arrangement was intended as a stopgap until families could return home.

Today, Al-Raql serves around 1,500 displaced boys and girls from northern and western Marib, including Madghal, Majzar and Sirwah, as well as neighbouring Al-Jawf governorate.

During the morning assembly, Ali Yahya, an Arabic teacher…

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