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By Mohammed Al-Kubaisi
Chief Executive Officer of Education Above All Foundation
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On September 9, the world marks the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, and it is particularly significant because for millions of children, this is not an abstract observance, but a description of their daily life.
It is the child in Gaza trying to study after their school has been damaged or destroyed. It is the teacher in Sudan who continues lessons amid displacement and insecurity. It is the student in Ukraine learning between air-raid sirens. I
It is the family in D.R. Congo, Colombia, Haiti, Myanmar, Yemen, or elsewhere asking whether education can survive another wave of violence.
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A school is never just a building. It is a place of safety, routine, protection, identity, and hope. When it is attacked, the consequences extend far beyond interrupted lessons. Children lose structure, teachers lose the space to teach, families lose confidence in the future, and communities lose one of the foundations of recovery.
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The latest Education Under Attack 2026 report by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack records at least 8,566 attacks on education and incidents of military use of schools and universities in 2024 and 2025.
That is more than a 40 percent increase compared with the previous reporting period. At least 10,600 students, teachers, professors, and education personnel were harmed.
These figures are a humanitarian warning, and a political test.
For too long, the global response to attacks on education has been framed mainly around protection after harm has occurred. Attacks are condemned, damage is assessed, appeals for humanitarian and education access are launched, and rebuilding occurs to the extent it can. All of this is necessary, but it is not enough.
The next phase of global action must be more ambitious, and education must be designed in a way that deters the objectives and utility of an attack. States have already signed up to this commitment through their endorsement of UNESO preventative action plans that are an outcome of a UNESCO-Qatar-EAA partnership at the third Observance of the International Day in Paris in 2022.
We must now treat education as a resilient social system that must continue before, during, and after crises. It means planning for the day when a school is closed, damaged, occupied, or unsafe. It means ensuring that teachers, families, communities, humanitarian actors, and governments know how learning will continue when the classroom is no longer available
Through our work we have seen that if education collapses during conflict, the effects can last for generations. Children who miss years of learning are more likely to fall into poverty, exploitation, early marriage, recruitment, or permanent exclusion. Societies emerging from war then face a second crisis, where a generation is deprived of the skills, stability, and confidence needed to rebuild.
That is why continuity of education must become a core part of the humanitarian response, national security planning, and development policy. This can be done in several stages.
First, governments must invest in preparedness before attacks occur. Early-warning systems, school safety protocols, safe routes to learning, contingency planning, and risk-sensitive education policies should not be optional. They should be built into national education systems, particularly in contexts exposed to conflict, instability, or displacement.
Second, we need an alternative learning infrastructure that can be activated quickly. Temporary learning spaces, community-based classrooms, self-learning materials, radio lessons, digital platforms, and hybrid models can keep education alive when traditional schools are inaccessible. Technology is not a substitute for teachers, but when used responsibly, it can help bridge the gap between interruption and recovery.
Third, mental health and psychosocial support must be treated as central to education resilience. A child who survives an attack on education does not only need a textbook. That child needs safety, trust, care, and the ability to learn again without fear. Teachers also need support. They are often among the first responders for children, yet they are themselves exposed to trauma, displacement, and insecurity.
Fourth, communities must be recognized as frontline defenders of education. Around the world, families, teachers, youth, and local leaders are already finding ways to keep learning alive in impossible conditions. They organize informal classes, share materials, protect learning spaces, and encourage children not to give up. International policy must listen to these communities, support them, and fund what works.
But resilience must never become an excuse for normalizing attacks, and neither should it provide impunity for attacks on education.
We should be very clear: designing education systems that can survive attack does not mean asking children and teachers to accept violence as inevitable. It means building stronger systems that can mitigate the effects of attacks, whilst also demanding stronger accountability for perpetrators.
Mohammed Al-Kubaisi is the Chief Executive Officer of the Education Above All Foundation.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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