What happens in a classroom? There is learning, teaching, the odd tantrum, fun and games. Well, at least, this is what should happen in a classroom. In Syria, however, after more than five long years of conflict, terrifying things have happened, and continue to happen, in classrooms.
Today, all too often, the sounds of laughter and learning have been replaced with the sounds of war, teachers have been arrested, displaced families have taken refuge in abandoned classrooms and makeshift hospitals have been set up in them to treat the wounded.
The numbers hint at the horror – one in four schools in Syria has been damaged, destroyed or used to shelter displaced people, one-fifth of teachers have fled the country, over two million children are out of school and the estimated cost to the Syrian economy in lost growth opportunities, as a revealed in a new World Vision report ([ Ссылка ]), is US$275 billion. This money is lost forever. It will never be spent on education or futures for Syrian children.
