April 29, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1428

UNITED NATIONS: Deliberate political or military violence targeting education systems, from the assassination or abduction of teachers and students to the bombings and burnings of schools and universities, has jumped dramatically in a number of countries around the world, according to a United Nations report released on Friday.

The report from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) found that the perpetrators of most attacks committed them with impunity and there was limited if any systematic monitoring of incidents against schools or people connected to them.

It recommended the introduction of urgent measures to deter further attacks, including by giving extra resources to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bring more education-related cases to trial.

The report “Education Under Attack” concluded that it was not clear yet whether the recent rise in targeted attacks on students, educational staff and institutions reflected a disturbing new trend or merely the fluctuating levels of conflict around the world.

The situation is worst in Iraq, where only 30 per cent of the country’s 3.5 million pupils attend classes now, down from 75 per cent a year ago. At least 3,000 academics have fled the country — partly in response to the killing of 280 of their colleagues since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 — and Baghdad’s universities say that attendance there has slumped by two thirds.

But violent attacks are also preventing pupils from attending school or university in other countries, especially Afghanistan, Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand.