Yemen’s Economic Crisis Forces Millions of Children Out of School

In the outskirts of Taiz city, 11-year-old Hasnaa Jaber spends her mornings collecting discarded plastic bottles rather than attending class. Living in an informal settlement with her impoverished family, she is part of a growing wave of Yemeni children forced to abandon their education to help make ends meet.

“My dream is to become a teacher. I studied up to the third grade, but then I dropped out of school along with my two older brothers to help my father,” Hasnaa told Al Jazeera. While the new academic year commenced in government-controlled areas on August 30, children from financially distressed households like hers remain absent from classrooms.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), an estimated 3.2 million children are out of school in Yemen this year. This represents a significant escalation from the 1.8 million children reported as out of school in 2015, the first year of the conflict that has plagued the nation for over a decade.

Hasnaa’s family has four children, but only one sibling currently attends school because she is too young for the manual labor her family undertakes, such as washing cars and gathering recyclables. Her father, Jaber Ali, expressed regret over the situation. Although he was happy his children wanted to return to school, he stated that securing basic food remains the primary struggle.

“He promised us that we will go back next year,” Hasnaa said. She noted that she feels closer to friends who are also out of school, describing a sense of alienation from peers who continue their education.

Jaber Ali, who fled his hometown near Taiz eight years ago due to fighting, earns very little from his daily labor. He explained that rising living costs and scarce work have made it impossible to cover educational expenses like books and stationery.

“I was left with two choices: either send my children to school and watch them starve, or ask them to help me earn a living,” Jaber said. “I had to choose the latter because food is the top priority right now, not education.” He assured his children that this is a temporary phase and encouraged them to keep their spirits up.

The scale of the issue is underscored by the Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The report indicates that nearly 6.6 million Yemeni children required education assistance in 2026, including those out of school and those enrolled but facing severe barriers due to poverty and collapsed services.

Ammar al-Sharjabi, an education expert who has worked with ministries in both Sanaa and Aden, described the dropout crisis as one of the most severe consequences of the war. He warned that losing access to education weakens future employment prospects and traps children in hard labor, leading to broader societal issues like illiteracy and unemployment.

An anonymous source at the Ministry of Education in Aden told Al Jazeera that economic pressures are difficult to address amid Yemen’s ongoing conflict, which has seen renewed escalation in recent weeks after years of relative calm. The source emphasized that the surge in dropouts is a direct byproduct of the war’s economic fallout, noting that children would return to school immediately if parents could secure stable incomes.

A recent assessment by Save the Children, covering approximately 2,000 households in southern and southwestern Yemen, found that 92 percent of families do not know where their next meal will come from. Furthermore, 84 percent could not afford basic educational costs, and nearly one in five dropout cases was linked to child labor.

Thirteen-year-old Ahmed Abdulelah is not displaced but left school two years ago after his father died of cancer. As the eldest of four siblings, Ahmed began working at a grocery store to support his mother and younger brothers and sisters.

“I work here so my siblings can finish their education,” Ahmed said. “They will make up for what I lost, and I am proud that our family doesn’t have to beg or rely on anyone else.” Unlike Hasnaa, Ahmed believes his opportunity to return to school has passed and now aims to become a shopkeeper.