Across 83 countries, the places where children gather to learn have become targets of deliberate violence at a scale not seen in generations. Between 2024 and 2025, more than 8,500 attacks struck schools and educational facilities worldwide — a 40 percent rise in just two years — harming over 10,600 students, teachers, and staff, with Ukraine, Palestine, and Haiti bearing the heaviest wounds. What the numbers reveal is troubling enough; what they conceal, in the silence of conflict zones where no one is counting, may be more troubling still. Humanity has long understood that to attack a school
Human Rights Watch
· Jun 15, 2026
· security
· 2 min read
High
Sourcing: Verified
Global attacks on education surge 40% to 8,500 cases, harming over 10,600 in 2024-2025
Over 10,600 students, teachers, and education personnel harmed across 83 countries; girls and women face heightened risks of violence, sexual assault, and exclusion from education.
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War & Conflict
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Bias & Framing
⚖
Human Rights Watch report documents education attacks with factual statistics, though framing emphasizes severity and underreporting while lacking counternarrative perspectives on conflict contexts.
Bias Direction
center-left
Confidence
HIGH
Crisis amplification through statistical escalation, expert authority, and emphasis on underreporting to suggest problem severity exceeds documented data. Selective geographic focus on specific conflict zones.
surge in attacks
shrinking humanitarian access
widespread information blackouts
assault on girls' education
heightened risks
sustaining their assault
Government/military explanations for school occupations or closures
Context-specific security rationales cited by armed actors
Comparative data on education access improvements in conflict zones
Perspectives from education officials in affected countries
Analysis of attacks on education by non-state armed groups vs. state actors
Geopolitical Impact
🌎
Global attacks on education surged 40% to 8,500 cases in 2024-2025, destabilizing 83 countries and signaling weaponization of civilian infrastructure as conflict tactics intensify worldwide.
Escalation Risk
critical
Confidence
HIGH
Ukraine
Palestine/Gaza
Haiti
Colombia
Democratic Republic of Congo
Ethiopia
Myanmar
Nigeria
Yemen
Cameroon
Afghanistan
Central African Republic
Non-state actors and military forces increasingly target education infrastructure as strategic leverage, undermining state capacity and international humanitarian norms. Conflict actors weaponize civilian institutions to control populations and prevent knowledge transmission, particularly targeting girls' education. Weakened humanitarian access and information blackouts reduce accountability, emboldening further violations.
Mirrors WWII-era targeting of civilian institutions and recent parallels to ISIS's systematic destruction of educational infrastructure in Iraq/Syria (2014-2017), indicating normalization of education as a warfare target.
Economic Lens
📈
40% surge in global education attacks to 8,500 cases threatens human capital development, disrupting workforce pipeline and long-term economic productivity across 83 countries.
Market Signal
bearish
Confidence
HIGH
Education and Training
Human Capital Development
International Development
Humanitarian Services
Defense and Security
Labor Markets
Technology (EdTech solutions)
Households face reduced educational access, lower skill acquisition for children, diminished future earning potential, increased migration pressures, and higher costs for private/alternative education. Families in conflict zones experience economic displacement and lost income from school closures.
Governments likely to increase defense/security spending in affected regions, international donors may redirect aid toward education protection, UNESCO and multilateral institutions may expand emergency education programs, potential sanctions against nations targeting schools, increased investment in remote/resilient education infrastructure, and humanitarian funding appeals.