Education has Power
“I would have joined the Tigray Defence Force (TDF) like my two older brothers, if not for EAA/EAC and imagine1day school reopening. This education opportunity is a rebirth for me and my classmates as it has rescued us from being child soldiers,” says 15-year-old Nigus, a class 6 student l in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
In November 2020, Nigus’s school was closed indefinitely, due to an eruption of armed conflict. In the blink of any eye, he had become an out of school child. Nigus, was at the time, a class 6 student and is just now resuming his education.
At the height of the conflict, it is estimated by the regional bureau of education that a jaw-dropping 2.4 million children across Tigray were forced out of school. Although Nigus’s school technically reopened the following year in December 2021, he was not able to return immediately. Understandably, the personal security and safety of many children were paramount in the ordering of concerns; however, one should keep in mind that at this moment the world was also in the grips of another crisis, COVID-19. Ethiopia was not spared on this front either. All told, young Nigus and countless other children in the country were robbed of roughly three years of their education.
Reflecting on this period, Nigus readily characterises it as the “saddest” and most “miserable in [his] entire life,” while acknowledging that he witnessed the harsh realities of what brutal armed conflict leaves in its wake… To avoid that calamity, he, his mother, two siblings and some neighbours went into hiding, off and on, for weeks on end in a mountainous cave about 7 kilometres from their village. Nigus recalls going days without food or water and admits that at times he “doubted” whether or not he would survive at all.
Yet, amid the turmoil in Tigray, all was not lost. Throughout this tumultuous ordeal, Education Above All’s Educate A Child (EAC) programme and imagine1day led sustained efforts to support education access for the most vulnerable children vis-à-vis the joint, “Leaders, Educators and Parents (LEAP): A Project for Education through Community Mobilisation.” To that end, the LEAP project focussed on introducing a condensed education curriculum to help OOSC catch up on the lost years of schooling.
Libabie Gebaw, imagine1day’s programme manager for Tigray, explains the project’s strategic rationale, “In situations like Tigray where masses of children are out of school, introducing a condensed curriculum is not only about age appropriateness, but rather, it is about filling in the gaps for a generation…. during post-conflict neither the community, nor the government have enough resources…” This is where organisation’s like EAA/EAC can and its partners play a decisive role in restarting education when disaster strikes.
Without another moment to waste, Nigus is capitalising on this second chance at education. He loves being back at school, his favourite subject is Physics, and he aspires to travel the world as an airplane pilot someday. Perhaps having had his right to education denied for so long has garnered within him a deep appreciation for it as he believes it to be only way to change his life and that of his parents for good.
The boy’s father, Gebru, a farmer who was only able to reach class 3 before having to leave education himself is thrilled that his son is back in school, says, “Seeing Nigus at school is not only about him getting the usual academics, which is a basic human right, rather it confirms that God loves human beings and supports them to [realise] their dreams.” He dreams, too, of the day when Nigus will graduate from a piloting academy.
When asked what restarting education means for children like Nigus who, through no fault of their own, are ensnared in the mesh of armed conflict, Hagos Hayelom, a teacher at Atsemba Primary asserts, “School resumption after conflict brings the entire society towards comprehensive healing. Education has the power that will transform the community from simple survival to development, particularly for adolescent boys and girls [so they] can be inspired to think of their future...”
As for Nigus, he hardly has the words to express his delight, but in light of his experience, offers a salient exhortation, “Not supporting education is directly promoting conflict like what has happened in Tigray. Education prevents all destructive agendas in the world. So, the world should think this over and support us in preventing what has happened in the last few years.”
