Tigray Schools Face Slow Recovery After War
Recent Developments
01December 2024: UK government reporting cited UN human rights and UNICEF Education Cluster findings that 22% of assessed schools were occupied by Eritrean and Amhara forces and 4.2% by IDPs, with major access gaps persisting in western, southern, and north-western Tigray.
022024: Local reporting cited an education-sector loss estimate of USD 5.38 billion and said more than 1.2 million children remained out of school, with over 80% of schools nonfunctional.
032023-2024: The Tigray education response continued to rely on accelerated or remedial classes, but enrollment remained far below pre-war expectations and many schools still lacked teachers and materials.
Interventions
- Accelerated and remedial teaching programs were introduced after schools reopened, including crash courses and a six-day school week in some areas.
- Education Cluster and humanitarian actors have continued monitoring damaged, occupied, and inaccessible schools, alongside efforts to reopen facilities and clear explosive hazards around schools.
What Works
- Rapid rehabilitation of damaged classrooms and provision of learning materials can support re-entry when paired with reopening plans and catch-up instruction, as reflected in the post-2023 remedial measures in Tigray.
- Removing physical access barriers such as IDP occupation of school buildings and insecurity in affected zones is essential for restoring attendance; reporting shows these constraints remain a major cause of school nonfunctionality.
How to Help
- Support humanitarian and education organizations working in Tigray, especially those funding school rehabilitation, learning materials, and catch-up classes.
- Support programs that help displaced families return to stable housing so schools can be cleared of IDP use.
- Advocate for sustained donor funding for education recovery, teacher payment, and school reconstruction in Tigray.
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Verified Organizations
Organizations Helping(8)
TDA is directly working on education recovery in Tigray by reconstructing and restocking schools, running back-to-school campaigns for out-of-school children, and partnering with the Luminos Fund on an accelerated learning program. Its Second Chance Program helps out-of-school children catch up to grade level, reintegrate into school, and complete foundational learning faster.
UNICEF’s strategy is to combine direct service delivery with system strengthening, using child-focused interventions that can work at scale and in crises. Its public materials emphasize low-cost, high-impact, and sustainable solutions across health, nutrition, education, WASH, and protection, rather than isolated one-off projects.[6][2] A distinctive part of UNICEF’s approach is that it works through governments and local, national, and global partners to build or improve public systems while also reaching children immediately in emergencies. In education, for example, UNICEF both creates temporary learning centers for displaced children and helps strengthen formal education systems; in health, it pairs vaccine procurement and immunization support with disease prevention and primary care.[8][2] UNICEF also uses an equity-centered model, prioritizing children who are out of school, living in conflict zones, affected by poverty, or excluded because of gender or disability. Its programs are designed to protect children’s rights while delivering measurable outcomes such as improved survival, learning, sanitation, and protection in both stable and emergency settings.[8][6]
Initiative Africa is supporting the Accelerated Learning Program in Tigray, funded by the Malala Fund. Its work focuses on reviving education after conflict by expanding access for students affected by school disruption, with particular attention to the large numbers of out-of-school children and girls who have been left behind.
Meskot Education says it works to reconstruct and revitalize education in Tigray by providing Grade 1 to 8 video learning resources for children affected by war. It also emphasizes emotional healing and resilience, combining educational content with support for children’s psychosocial recovery.
