Attacks on schools in Afghanistan tripled between 2017 and 2018, increasing from 68 to 192, UN reports. It was the first Afghanistan sees such dramatic increase in school attacks had increased since 2015.

“Education is under fire in Afghanistan,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “The senseless attacks on schools; the killing, injury and abduction of teachers and the threats against education are destroying the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of children.” 

The continuous violence and worsening security situation across the country caused more than 1,000 schools closed by the end of last year. Consequently, half a million lost their access to education

Using schools as voter registration and polling stations for the 2018 parliamentary election counts to one reason for increasing attacks in school.

According to the report, an estimated 3.7 million children between the ages of 7 and 17 – nearly half of all school-aged children in the country – are out of school in Afghanistan.

Worsening insecurity, high rates of poverty and persistent discrimination against girls caused the rate of out-of-school children to increase last year for the first time since 2002. Girls account for 60 per cent of children not in education