UNITED NATIONS, New York - While the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq fares better than other parts of the country, the UN has found that more than 127,000 children do not see the inside of a classroom there in a region-wide study.
According to Wednesday’s report by the UN’s agencies for children and education, some 127,115 youngsters do not go to school in Iraqi Kurdistan and 104,682 more are at risk of dropping out, often facing pressure from war, poverty and sex discrimination.
Refugees poured into the Kurdish region as militants advanced across western Iraq last year. They sought refuge in churches, mosques, parks and schools – with as many as four families sharing a classroom that could no longer be used for lessons.
UN researchers note positive developments in Iraq’s autonomous northern region. “A basic obligatory educational system has reduced the number of children missing out on lower secondary school in the Kurdistan region,” researchers said.
While women and girls in other parts of Iraq are being kept out of school by marriage, this is less true for Kurds, the UN added. “Rates of early marriage have declined in the Kurdistan region but worsened in other parts of Iraq,” it said.
Some 57,126 boys miss school in Kurdish areas, but that figure is higher for girls – 69,989.
Across the Middle East and North Africa, the two UN agencies – Unicef and Unesco – said that 21 million children and young adolescents are out of school, even though the region has recorded a 40 per cent drop in the number of out-of-school children this past decade.
“At a time of such change and turmoil, this region simply cannot afford to let 21 million children fall by the wayside,” said Maria Calivis, regional Unicef director. “These children must be given the opportunity to acquire the skills they need through education in order to play their part in the region’s transformation.”
Across the region, early marriages, as well as a lack of women teachers and engrained attitudes that favor boys are drastically reducing girls’ chances of seeing the inside of a classroom and getting the education needed for launching a career.
The report, which is part of the two agencies' Middle East and North Africa Out-of-School Children Initiative, urged policymakers to boost efforts and devise new policies to tackle drop-outs and sex discrimination in schools, among other things.
“We need targeted interventions to reach the families displaced by conflict, the girls forced to stay home and the children obliged to work,” said Silvia Montoya, director of Unesco’s statistics institute.
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