A national disaster.. The evasion of free basic education in the time of the Houthis
English - Saturday 28 August 2021 الساعة 08:27 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:
The Souad Al-Sabaa Educational Academy considered private school students topping the list of the first in the results of the basic education exams (ninth) in Sanaa and the neighboring governorates as a national disaster.
On Monday, August 24, the Houthi militia - the Iranian arm in Yemen - announced the results of the basic certificate exams for the 2020-2021 academic year, with a success rate that it said was 95.89 percent.
Private schools acquired the list of top students with 25 students, compared to 7 for government schools. The results showed that the students of the Capital Sana’a Municipality topped the list with 22 students, Sana’a Governorate 2, Dhamar 2, Taiz 2, Ibb 2, Amran 1, Hajjah 1, while 4 governorates (Al-Bayda, Al-Hodeidah, Raymah and Al-Mahwit) were left out of the list.
The professor of curricula and co-teaching methods at Sana'a University - College of Education Suad Al-Saba' considered the disappearance of government schools from the top list in the results of the basic certificate exams, as an indication that "the education that was free for the children of citizens in general no longer exists."
Through these indicators, she considered that the trend is moving towards privatizing public education, even basic education, considering that "the right to education for all" has become a mirage, and that compulsory and free primary education "has disappeared or vanished, and it is inconsolable to the children of the poor", in reference to the texts of the Constitution of the Republic of Yemen and its legislation, which It states that education is free and compulsory.
Al-Sabaa suggested revitalizing the idea of (a society without schools) to preserve children's minds from pollution, by teaching each family to its children "reading and writing at home and enabling them to develop their minds by reading books," asking on her Facebook page: "What is the benefit of schools that work on Ignoring the students with the principles of reading and writing?!! The student graduates from high school without knowing how to read and write!!”
Ministry of Education and Investment
Education sector workers believe that the function of the Ministry of Education, which is run by the Houthi militia in Sana'a, is now limited to selling books and certificates to private private schools.
In light of its systematic destruction of the education sector in Yemen and its efforts to ignore the youth, the Houthi militia has tended to invest in this sector by establishing hundreds of private and private schools, and raising tuition fees in them from year to year.
International bodies and organizations had warned that further delays in the payment of teachers’ salaries in Yemen would lead to the complete collapse of the education sector, after nearly 5 years since the Houthi militia stopped paying the salaries of public sector employees, including teachers, in its areas of control.
A joint statement issued by the "Education Cannot Wait" Fund, the Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO and UNICEF, said that further delays in the payment of teachers' salaries in Yemen may lead to the complete collapse of the education sector, affecting millions of children, especially the most marginalized groups.
In its article (54), the Constitution of the Republic of Yemen affirms that “education is a right for all citizens, guaranteed by the state in accordance with the law by establishing various schools and cultural and educational institutions,” and that “education in the basic stage is mandatory.” The Yemeni constitution obliges the state to work on eradicating illiteracy and paying attention to the expansion of education Technical and professional, and the state is particularly interested in caring for young people “and protects them from deviation, provides them with religious, mental and physical education, and creates suitable conditions for them to develop their talents in all fields.”
