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Attacks on schools and universities rose more than 40%. Doctors want it treated as a health issue

Qurexa Editorial Team14 September 20267 min read 0 0
Attacks on schools and universities rose more than 40%. Doctors want it treated as a health issue

What happened

An editorial published in The BMJ on 10 September 2026 argues that deliberate attacks on education in wartime should be publicly condemned as a war crime, and that those responsible should be held to account. The editorial was written by Dr Rana Dajani at the Hashemite University in Jordan, with colleagues. They use a term that may be unfamiliar: scholasticide. It means the deliberate destruction of a society's education system during armed conflict, rather than damage that happens by accident. Their central argument is that this is a health issue as well as an education one. When schools and universities are destroyed, the authors argue, the consequences run directly into health and healthcare, because education is how a country produces its own doctors, nurses, pharmacists and public health workers, and because losing school disrupts children's mental health, nutrition, vaccination and safeguarding, all of which schools help deliver. The editorial refers to recent attacks affecting education in Palestine, Iran, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti and Ukraine. The scale comes from a separate report, Education Under Attack 2026, published by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. It recorded at least 8,566 attacks on education across 2024 and 2025. That is more than a 40 per cent increase compared with the previous reporting period. Separately, United Nations reporting in September 2026 put the number of children out of class worldwide at 93 million amid these conditions.

Why this matters

It would be easy for a UK reader to file this under "terrible things happening far away" and move on. There are a few reasons not to. The first is the health connection the editorial draws out. Health systems are not built from buildings and medicines alone. They are built from people who spent years in classrooms and lecture halls. Destroy a medical school and the effect on that country's health service is felt for a generation, long after any ceasefire. The second is that education is where a great deal of child health actually happens. School meals, vaccination catch-up, vision and hearing checks, mental health support, and the simple fact of an adult noticing that a child is not right: all of it runs through schools. When schools stop, those things stop too. The third is about the rules. The reason war has laws at all is that some things were judged too damaging to allow even in conflict. Schools and hospitals have long held protected status. The editorial's argument is that protection only means anything if breaking it has consequences, and that the sharp rise in recorded attacks suggests it currently does not. There is also a practical UK angle. Children arriving here from conflict zones may have had years of interrupted schooling, and they arrive in ordinary classrooms in ordinary towns. Understanding what they have missed, and why, is part of teaching them well.

What the evidence actually says

It is important to separate the two kinds of material here, because they carry different weight. The figure of at least 8,566 attacks across 2024 and 2025, and the more than 40 per cent rise, comes from the Education Under Attack 2026 report by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. That organisation is a long-established coalition of UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, and its reports are compiled from documented incidents. Its methodology is public, and its figures are widely used by researchers and by the UN. The word "recorded" matters. Numbers like this always undercount, because incidents in active conflict zones are hard to verify. They can also rise partly because monitoring has improved. The coalition itself is careful about this, describing what it has documented rather than claiming a complete count. A more than 40 per cent rise is significant, but some of it may reflect better recording rather than only more attacks. The BMJ piece is an editorial. That means it is an argument by named authors, not a research study. It is published in a peer-reviewed journal and carries the weight of expert opinion, but it is making a case rather than reporting an experiment. Readers are entitled to weigh that argument and disagree with parts of it. Where the individual conflicts named are concerned, the responsibility for specific incidents is often contested between the parties involved, and this article does not attempt to settle those disputes. What is not seriously disputed is the overall direction: documented attacks on education worldwide have risen sharply.

Practical advice

There is no medical action to take here, but there are a few things worth doing. **If you teach or work in a school, ask about prior learning rather than assuming.** A child who has missed three years of schooling is not the same as a child who is three years behind. They may be fluent in complex ideas and unable to write in English, or excellent at maths and unfamiliar with a school timetable. Schools with experience of this say a careful initial assessment saves months. **Watch for health needs that were missed, not just learning gaps.** Children who have been out of education for long periods often have incomplete vaccinations, undiagnosed vision or hearing problems, or dental issues. In the UK, registering with a GP practice and a dentist is free and does not require immigration documents or proof of address. **Be careful with figures on social media.** Numbers about conflicts circulate fast and are often wrong or stripped of context. If a figure matters to you, trace it back to its source. In this case that source is the Education Under Attack report, which is freely available. **If you want to help, choose established organisations.** Education in emergencies is an area with a small number of experienced agencies and a large number of appeals. Checking a charity's registration with the Charity Commission takes about a minute. **If a child you know is affected by news coverage of conflict,** the guidance from child mental health services is consistent: answer questions honestly at a level they can handle, limit repeated exposure to distressing footage, and keep routines steady.

What to know

An editorial in The BMJ has called for attacks on schools and universities in wartime to be publicly condemned as war crimes and for perpetrators to be held to account, arguing that destroying an education system damages a country's health for decades. It cites recent attacks affecting education across several countries. The supporting figures come from the Education Under Attack 2026 report, which documented at least 8,566 attacks on education in 2024 and 2025, more than 40 per cent up on the previous period. UN reporting in September 2026 put the number of children out of class at 93 million. It is an argued editorial rather than a research paper, and the underlying counts are of documented incidents rather than a complete tally. The trend it describes, however, is not in serious doubt. Sources: BMJ Group, "End impunity for targeted attacks on schools and universities, urge experts", 10 September 2026, https://bmjgroup.com/end-impunity-for-targeted-attacks-on-schools-and-universities-urge-experts/ ; Phys.org, "End impunity for targeted attacks on schools and universities, urge experts", 10 September 2026, https://phys.org/news/2026-09-impunity-schools-universities-urge-experts.html ; Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, "Education Under Attack 2026", 2026, https://protectingeducation.org/ This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional. If a child is distressed by news coverage, your GP practice or school can point you to local support.

#global education#children's rights#public health#conflict#The BMJ#schools

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