Geneva, Jan 6 (IANS) The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) Tuesday expressed concern over the disrupted education of hundreds of thousands of Syrian children amid the continuing conflict in the West Asian country.
Unicef said the recent closure of certain schools in parts of Syria during the ongoing unrest was believed to have interrupted the education of 670,000 children of primary and early secondary school age.
Hanaa Singer, Unicef’s Syrian representative, noted in a statement that barriers to school access, as well as school attacks, were further horrific reminders of the terrible price Syria’s children were paying in the drawn-out crisis.
“Access to education is a right that should be sustained for all children, no matter where they live or how difficult the circumstances in which they live. Schools are the only means of stability, structure and routine that Syrian children need more than ever in times of this horrific conflict,” Xinhua quoted Singer as saying in the statement.
According to data made available to Unicef, in 2014 there were at least 68 attacks on schools across Syria, and these attacks reportedly killed and wounded hundreds of children.
Unicef reiterated its appeal to all parties to the conflict to uphold their responsibility to protect children, schools, and other civilian infrastructure from the conflict in the year ahead.