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• 1 2021-05-20T12:45:04-04:00 What Can The Ministry of Education Do? 17 Learn more about our advocacy messages and materials to the Ministry of Education plain 2021-05-21T04:27:13-04:00 Go straight to our policy brief
  
  As a result of the Tigray conflict, 1.4 million children within the region have lost access to education. Although other Ethiopian schools have since reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic, Tigrayian children have been forced to stay at home because 25% of their schools have been damaged by the conflict. Many other schools are in need of renovation, sanitizing, rehabilitation, etc. In addition to this, Tigray schools are also being used by parties to the conflict as military facilities. As long as armed parties remain in the schools, they remain unsafe for children to learn because the presence of armed parties expose children to the harmful effects of war and prevent them from learning comfortably.

  We call on you to treat Tigray education as a priority, urgently collaborate with key national stakeholders to sign the Safe Schools Declaration and implement a policy that explicitly prohibits the schools in Tigray from all forms of military use.

  In addition to this, funding available to the humanitarian organizations working on ground is inadequate 14. Although schools are closed, UNICEF Ethiopia has been delivering temporal learning packets (school-in-a-carton kits and early childhood development kits) to ensure that education continues in spite of the conflict. However, many children in the remote areas of the country cannot access these packets and a shortage of funding makes it difficult to continue the provision of these learning materials and train more teachers for this crucial role. Prior to March 2021, UNICEF Ethiopia requested approximately $10.9 million to fund an adequate response to this crisis, but it has received less than 20% of this amount 15.

  It is imperative that the Ministry of Education continue its demonstrated commitment to the continuation of Tigray education status by urging philanthropic new donors such as Sunshine Investment Group, Dangote Group, and Ethiopian Airlines to make significant financial commitments for the provision of temporary learning materials in the Tigray region.