Attack on the Global Educational sector.

Brutal attacks” on teachers and pupils are being used as a tactic of terror and political violence, says an international report.

A report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization warns of a”significant increase” in attacks on education.

These include assassinations and bomb attacks on staff and pupils in 31 countries around the world.

The report warns of the”degradation” of communities facing such atrocities.

”Education under Attack 2010”, a report from the United Nations agency published on Wednesday, reveals a pattern of systematic attacks on teachers, pupils, schools and universities.

Warning of a rise in attacks in the past three years, the report highlights teachers being murdered in Thailand, the destruction of schools in Afghanistan, sexual attacks on schoolgirls in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ”narco-guerrillas” trying to control schools in Brazil.

It identifies new trends, including ”the direct killing and mass poisoning of pupils in Afghanistan and the mass abduction of pupils for recruitment as suicide bombers in Pakistan”.

The report begins with a case study - describing the attack on a group of schoolgirls and their teachers in southern Afghanistan in 2008, in which assailants, opposed to the education of women, poured battery acid on the pupils‘faces.

Report author, Brendan O‘Malley, says attacks on staff and pupils are much more widespread than had been previously recognized.

”The sheer volume of attacks on education documented demonstrates that the demolition of schools and assassination of pupils and teachers is by no means limited to supporters of the Taliban fighting in the hills of Afghanistan.”

Attacks intensified dramatically in Pakistan, India, Thailand and Afghanistan, says the report.

And it identifies several different strands behind the increase in attacks on education.

Attacks on schools can be used by rebels as way of attacking the state - such as Maoist insurgents in India.

They can also have specific goals - such as in Afghanistan - where attacks oppose the education of women.

Schools and teachers can be attacked as symbolic targets in ethnic, religious or ideological conflicts, such as assaults by Islamist separatists in Thailand, the report says.

And the intimidation of academics can be a way of silencing political opponents and restricting human rights campaigns.

Schools can also be destroyed in military action - with widespread damage caused to education by conflicts in Georgia, Pakistan and Gaza.

There are”grave concerns” in the report over the abuse of teacher trade unionists in Colombia - where 90 teachers were murdered between 2006 and 2008.

From http://www.nigeriadailynews.com/