World must do more to protect students and teachers from attacks

Under the radar of the world's press, Education International, a federation of unions representing 30 million teachers in schools and universities in 172 countries, agreed an important declaration last week.

It called for the international community, governments and armed groups fighting in conflicts to reaffirm the right to education in safety and respect schools and universities as safe sanctuaries and zones of peace.

Much more global media attention was given to the decision of US President Barack Obama to make fighting extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan his foreign policy priority in place of Iraq.

The US president may not realise it yet but the two decisions are closely related. As his generals now agree, to win the war in Afghanistan they cannot simply focus on eliminating Taleban fighters: they have to restore confidence among Afghans that it is safe to go about their daily business, whether it is taking their children to school or, for teachers, turning up to take classes.

In the past few years there has been an alarming rise in the number of military attacks worldwide on schools and universities, and students, teachers and education staff, as combatants choose them as soft, poorly defended targets.

There have been 31,500 such attacks in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, including the assassination of nearly 300 academics, although the rate has slowed significantly in the past year.