TOPSHOT-SYRIA-CONFLICT-EDUCATION

TOPSHOT - Displaced children arrive for class at a makeshift school, set-up in camp for internally displaced Syrians, in the village of Haranabush, in the country's rebel-held northwestern Idlib province on May 11, 2024. Since 2011, Syria has endured a bloody conflict that has claimed over half a million lives, displaced several million people and plunged the country into a suffocating economic crisis. The war's widespread destruction of infrastructure has particularly impacted education facilities, with many schools destroyed and other turned into shelters. A third of all school-age children, nearly 2.4 million, did not attend school and another 1.6 million children were at risk of dropping out, according to a recent report from the UN children's agency. Many have been forced to leave school to work and support their families who have struggled to meet their basic needs due to the drastic reduction in their purchasing power over the years of war and Western-imposed sanctions. (Photo by AAREF WATAD / AFP) (Photo by AAREF WATAD/AFP via Getty Images)