About 65 per cent of schools surveyed were looted, occupied or damaged by bullets or shells, the agency said in a news release about the survey, which was carried out in August in 11 of the country’s 17 prefectures.

“A school is meant to be a safe space for teaching and learning, but in some areas there is nothing left,” said UNICEF Representative in CAR Souleymane Diabaté. “Without teachers, desks, textbooks – how can a child learn?”

Four out of five people said that fear of violence is the main reason students are reluctant to return to school. Almost half of the schools remain closed and students have lost an average of six months of schooling.

“Both the access and quality of primary education in the Central African Republic have severely deteriorated since the beginning of the crisis,” said Diabaté. “And if we do not act now, more children will lose the entire school year and are at risk of dropping out.”

UNICEF called on the CAR authorities to take concrete measures to support the permanent and safe return of all teachers and students to school.

Plagued by decades of instability and fighting, the CAR witnessed a resumption of violence last December when the Séléka rebel coalition launched a series of attacks. A peace agreement was reached in January, but the rebels again seized the capital, Bangui, in March, forcing President François Bozizé to flee.

There is now a transitional government, headed by Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye, entrusted with restoring law and order and paving the way for democratic elections. But armed clashes in the north-east have increased since the beginning of August, and the country is facing a dire humanitarian situation that affects the entire population of some 4.6 million.

UNICEF said almost 25,000 children affected by conflict are now in ‘catch-up classes’ to prepare for this year’s final exams, with an additional 40,000 children scheduled to re-start learning in the upcoming weeks.

Almost 20,000 students have received school supplies and schools have been received furniture which has already helped to re-open schools. UNICEF plans to support an additional 105,000 children to get back to their classrooms by the end of the year.

UNICEF’s 2013 emergency appeal of $11.5 million, issued before the crisis, has since tripled to $32 million. The agency has only received one third of the funding requested, and $21 million is urgently needed to provide education and emergency assistance to conflict-affected children and women in CAR.

The crisis that began last December has displaced more than 394,000 people within the country and sent another 64,000 people to neighbouring countries in search of refuge. Persistent insecurity, the absence of the rule of law and attacks against humanitarian personnel and assets continue to prevent life-saving assistance from reaching people in need, said Laerke.

However, UN humanitarian staff have been redeployed to five locations outside Bangui and mobile humanitarian teams are also on the ground and providing aid in Bossangoa, where there had been a recent flare-up in fighting between various armed groups.

Humanitarian partners have reached nearly 180,000 people with food assistance and nutrition programmes; 573,000 people have benefited from water and sanitation programmes; and more than 200,000 have received health support.

UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado told reporters in Geneva the agency and its partners have already delivered learning materials for over 90,000 students, and during the coming school year, 9,000 teachers will receive training and temporary learning spaces will be set up, while schools are refurbished or repaired.

Since January 2012, a rebellion of ethnic Tuareg groups followed by an insurgency of Islamist extremists displaced hundreds of thousands in Mali and prompted the Government to request assistance from France to halt the southward march of the extremists.

The conflict caused a dire humanitarian crisis affecting many areas in the north, including Gao and Bourem, where the rate of global acute malnutrition stands at 13.5 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, making it a “serious” nutrition situation according to UN classification.

The conflict also destroyed or damaged around 200 schools. Many reopened earlier this year, and classrooms in Gao and Timbuktu were packed with students, who in many cases, sat on the floor because there was no furniture. In the south, already overcrowded classrooms saw an influx of about 75,000 displaced students.

Ms. Mercado added that while the agency plans to scale up its operations, funding is still a constraint, with just 27 per cent of the $12 million sought for emergency education received so far this year.

A new paper launched today by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows that half of the 57 million children out of school live in conflict-affected countries and that urgent action is required on several key fronts to address their needs.

Globally, the number of children out of school has fallen from 60 million in 2008 to 57 million in 2011. However, the report underscores that the benefits of this slow progress have not reached children in conflict-affected countries; they now make up 50 per cent of children who are denied an education, up from 42 per cent in 2008. More than half of those struggling to get an education in conflict-affected countries are women and girls.

The paper is being released in partnership with Save the Children to mark the 16th birthday of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl and education rights activist shot by the Taliban in October 2012. The day has is being commemorated as “Malada Day,” and, in her first major public appearance since the incident, Ms. Yousafzai is set to address the UN General Assembly in New York as keynote speaker of the world body’s Youth Assembly.

The paper, Children battling to go to school, shows that 44 per cent of the of the 28.5 million children affected live in sub-Saharan Africa, 19 per cent in South and West Asia and 14 per cent in the Arab States. The vast majority – 95 per cent – live in low and lower-middle income countries. Girls, who make up 55 per cent of the total, are the worst affected, as they are often victims of rape and other sexual violence that accompanies armed conflicts.

“Education seldom figures in assessments of the damage inflicted by conflict,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. “International attention and the media invariably focus on the most immediate images of humanitarian suffering, not on the hidden costs and lasting legacies of violence. Yet nowhere are these costs more evident than in education.”

The UNESCO chief said that across many of the world’s poorest countries, armed conflict continues to destroy not just school infrastructure, but also “the hopes and ambitions of a whole generation of children.”

While the 2011 Global Monitoring Report exposed the hidden crisis of education in war zones, two years later, the new paper declares: “The crisis of education in conflict is no longer hidden: there is no excuse for not helping to bring it to an end.”

The 2013 paper also shows that the share of humanitarian aid for education has declined from 2 per cent in 2009 to just 1.4 per cent in 2011. Not only does it receive a small share overall, but it also receives the smallest proportion of the amount requested from humanitarian aid of any sector: in 2010, of the modest amount requested for education in humanitarian crises, just over a quarter was actually received, leaving a funding gap of around $220 million.

“The decline in humanitarian aid for education is especially bad news because funds are needed more than ever,” said Pauline Rose, Director of the Education For All Global Monitoring Report.

“There are more refugees now than there have been since 1994; children make up half of those who have been forcibly displaced. Nowhere is this more painfully visible than in Syria today,” she said, adding that those girls and boys “face a disruption of their learning process at a critical time – and the risk of a lifetime of disadvantage as a result.”

The UNESCO panel compiled testimonies from a few young boys and girls to vividly illustrate this point, including a 16-year-old Syrian refugee living in Lebanon who has been unable to graduate because of the war raging in his home country. Aware that schools are being targeted and children are being killed on their way home from their classes, he says in the report: “Now students do not go to school because when they did, there were shells… this war stopped me from graduating and now my future is destroyed.”

- Only one in four 9-year-olds studies at a ‘highly digitally-equipped school’ – with recent equipment, fast broadband (10mbps plus) and high ‘connectivity’ (website, email for students and teachers, local area network, virtual learning environment).

- Only half of 16-year-olds are in such ‘highly digitally-equipped schools’.

- 20% of secondary students have never or almost never used a computer in their school lessons.

- Students’ frequency of ICT-based learning activities in the classroom increases when schools have specific formal policies to use ICTs.

- There are marked country differences. Scandinavian and Nordic countries have the best equipment (Sweden, Finland, Denmark); while students in Poland, Romania, Italy, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia are most likely to lack the right equipment.

- Laptops, tablets and netbooks are replacing desktop computers in many schools.

- Lack of equipment does not mean lack of interest: some countries with the highest use of computer equipment are the ones with the lowest scores on equipment provisions (e.g. Bulgaria, Slovakia, Cyprus and Hungary).

- It is essential for students to have access to ICTs at both home and school.

- Most teachers believe there is need for radical policy change.

- Teachers are generally confident and positive about the use of ICTs for learning. This confidence is key: skilled and confident teachers are more important than the latest equipment to delivering digital skills and knowledge.

- However, teacher training in ICTs is rarely compulsory and therefore most teachers devote spare time to private study of these skills.

- Teachers use computers to prepare lessons more often than they use them in lessons.

“The education system in Syria is reeling from the impact of violence,” said UNICEF’s Syria Representative, Youssouf Abdel-Jelil. “Syria once prided itself on the quality of its schools. Now it’s seeing the gains it made over the years rapidly reversed.”

According to the assessment, one-fifth of the country’s schools have suffered direct physical damage or are being used to shelter internally displaced persons (IDPs).

In cities where the conflict is most intense, such as Idlib, Aleppo and Deraa, children often fail to turn up for class, sometimes attending only twice a week. In areas with high numbers of IDPs however, classes are overcrowded, sometimes hosting up to 100 students.

The assessment, conducted in December, also found that more than 110 teachers and other staff have been killed and many others are no longer reporting for work. In Idlib, teacher attendance is no more than 55 per cent.

Some schools have also been used by armed forces and groups involved in the conflict, making parents reluctant to send their children to school.

“Being in school makes children feel safe and protected and leaves parents hopeful about their children’s future,” said Mr. Abdel-Jelil. “That’s why so many parents we talk to single out education as their top priority.”

UNICEF is currently supporting more than 170 school clubs in Homs, Deraa, Rural Damascus, Tartous, Lattakia, Hama and Quneitra. The clubs allow some 40,000 children to receive remedial education and take part in recreational activities.

The agency is also providing teaching and learning supplies and is rehabilitating damaged schools, but it requires an additional $1 million to keep the clubs open until the end of May.

Funding shortfalls are also preventing the provision of urgently-needed pre-fabricated classrooms, repairs and rehabilitation of learning spaces, and the provision of teaching and learning materials. Overall, UNICEF needs $20 million for its education programmes in Syria during the first six months of the current year, of which it has received no more than $3 million.

Lack of funding for humanitarian activities remains a major constraint. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that of the $519 million requested to respond to the crisis in Syria, only 21 per cent has been received and the $1 billion Refugee Response Plan is 19 per cent funded.

Up to 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 and more than 900,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries. In addition, 2 million have been internally displaced and over 4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

“We support the calls of the Secretary-General for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and his demand that both sides should do everything to avoid further escalation and must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians at all times,” the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) added in a news release.

In addition to calling for an immediate de-escalation earlier this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned attacks by Palestinian militants targeting Israel and called on Israel to exercise maximum restraint.

The new wave of violence in Gaza and southern Israel has resulted in several people being killed or wounded on both sides.

UNRWA has over one million beneficiaries in Gaza, where, earlier Thursday, one of its staff members was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the north.

The relief agency said that reports indicate that Marwan Abu El Qumsan – an Arabic teacher in his fifties at UNRWA’s Preparatory Boys School in the city of Jabalia, in northern Gaza – was in a car near the scene of an air strike at the time of his death; his brother, who was with him in the car, was severely injured. UNRWA also expressed its condolences over El Qumsum’s death.

Separately, an UNWRA spokesperson in Gaza, Adnan Abu Hasna, said that the agency had closed its schools temporarily due to the violence.

“There will be no schools as long as the situation remains dangerous and the air strikes continue. The students will be in danger, that’s why UNRWA has decided to suspend the work in its educational institutions until further notice,” Mr. Hasna told UN Radio.

He added that the agency’s international staff members continue with their work, noting that staff had entered Gaza today to help with emergency operations.

Also today, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) highlighted that the continuous waves of airstrikes and indiscriminate rocket fire have triggered widespread fear among the civilian population in Gaza and southern Israel, especially amongst children.

In particular, OCHA added, the humanitarian situation remains precarious, with widespread panic amongst the population in Gaza, stockpiling of food and fuel, low levels of drug and medical supplies and the closure of crossings for humanitarian goods. In southern Israel, all schools within a 40 kilometre radius of the border with Gaza are closed and movement is limited.

OCHA said that all parties must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law to spare civilians from the effects of hostilities, in accordance with the principles of distinction and proportionality.

On Wednesday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy about the situation in Gaza and southern Israel.

He expressed his concern to Netanyahu about the deteriorating situation, which in addition to the increase of indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, includes the targeted killing by Israel of a Hamas military operative in Gaza.

Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari, the head of the military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas which controls Gaza, was killed when his car was reportedly targeted during Israeli air strikes on the territory, following a wave of rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza.

In the telephone call, the UN chief also noted his expectation that Israeli reactions are measured so as not to provoke a new cycle of bloodshed that could cause additional civilian casualties and have dangerous spillover effects in the region. He also called for the parties to exercise the utmost restraint and to respect international humanitarian law.

In his call with President Morsy, the Secretary-General stated the need to prevent any further deterioration of the situation, and expressed strong support for the leadership being exercised by Egypt to restore calm in the region.

The Security Council also met on the issue on Wednesday night behind closed doors.

Addressing a media briefing in Geneva, a UNICEF spokesperson, Marixie Mercado, reported that according to Syrian Government estimates some 2,072 schools – out of 22,000 across the country – have been damaged or destroyed, and over 600 are occupied by displaced persons.

She also noted that UNICEF had completed repairs in 64 schools in Deraa, Rural Damascus and Lattakia, while another 100 schools would be rehabilitated within the coming days and weeks.

The Syrian Government was also moving internally displaced persons (IDPs) out of some schools and into alternative sites, such as unused public buildings, in order to prepare for the school year which is set to commence on 16 September, Ms. Mercado said, adding that it was “extremely important” that children returned to school as a way of providing stability and respite from the conflict.

More than 18,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 18 months ago. Amidst reports of an escalation in violence in recent weeks in many towns and villages, as well as the country’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, UN agencies now estimate that some 2.5 million Syrians are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Syria’s neighbouring countries have also been affected by the crisis, as hundreds of thousands of refugees have spilled over the borders and into refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

Pointing to the situation in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, where half of the estimated 28,000 refugees are children, Ms. Mercado said that UNICEF was busy registering those of school age while working to build an educational facility that could accommodate up to 5,000 pupils. In the interim, she continued, students were being taught in temporary learning spaces, including tents, as the school year in Jordan had already begun last week.

In Lebanon, schools will accept an estimated 32,000 Syrian refugee children in the country’s public school system when classes begin on 24 September, though absorption capacity remains a concern. UNICEF will be providing those children with education kits, remedial education, recreational and psychosocial activities. At the same time, the UN agency was undertaking the construction of 10 temporary schools in the country’s Al Qaim refugee camp where 1,250 children are already being sheltered.

Against that backdrop, a spokesperson for the new Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on the Syrian crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi, confirmed today that the UN-Arab League official met separately in the Syrian capital of Damascus with the Ambassador of Russia and the Charge d’Affaires of China, while Brahimi met with the Iranian Ambassador on Thursday. The spokesperson further noted that Brahimi was scheduled to meet with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday morning.