The images are as arresting as they are incongruous: the pool of fresh blood in the corner of a playground; the shrapnel-scarred blackboard inside a rubble-strewn classroom; the heavily-armed gunmen striding between the rows of empty desks.
From Syria to Sudan, from Libya to Yemen, as conflict and political violence surge across the Middle East, schools -- and the children and teachers that use them -- are finding themselves in the line of fire.
A region which -- until just a few short years ago – had the goal of universal education well within reach, today faces a disastrous situation: More than 13 million children are not attending school in countries being affected - either directly or indirectly - by armed conflict*.
The impact is felt in different ways, all of them painful.
It is estimated that there are more than 8,850 schools in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya that can no longer be used because they have been damaged, destroyed, are sheltering displaced families or are occupied by parties to the conflicts.
In the Gaza Strip, children use school buildings as shelters because their homes have been destroyed. In Iraq, schools accommodate some of the three million people forced to flee conflict. Across Syria, much of Libya, Sudan and Yemen, parents are not sending their children to school for fear of what might happen to them along the way - or at school itself.
This report looks at the impact of conflict on the education of children in nine countries, most notably those where, since 2011, instability and conflict have forced millions of people to flee their homes.
The conflict in Syria has displaced 7.6 million people inside the country , and driven more than four million refugees abroad, mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
Families from Syria and Iraq have featured strongly among the desperate migrants arriving in Europe in recent months - and among those who perished in the attempt.
In the State of Palestine, hostilities in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014 caused massive destruction to infrastructure including schools, and left deep scars in the psyche of children and their caregivers.
In Yemen, the intensification of violence since last March is bringing an already fragile country to the verge of collapse. As of August 2015, thousands of schools were closed and at least 1.8 million children were without an education4 . This is in addition to more than 1.6 million who were out of school before the conflict escalated.
Ongoing violence has caused immense damage to civilian infrastructure and disrupted access to basic services. Acute shortages of food and fuel have left more than 80% of the population in need of assistance and forced around 1.5 million people to move internally, with some taking refuge in neighbouring countries.
In Libya, the escalation of violence since May 2014 has led to civilian casualties, considerable displacement, destruction of public infrastructure and the disruption of basic services including education. It is estimated that two million people, almost one-third of the total population, have been affected by the conflict. More than 434,000 people are internally displaced.
Less noticed but just as devastating for children has been the long-running conflict in Sudan. Currently, some 2.9 million people are estimated to have been displaced by the conflict.
Conflicts wipe out years of investment and achievements in education and can cripple the development of education systems. The effect of violence and insecurity in Iraq and Yemen is clear, as educational achievements for children have fallen steadily. In countries like Syria, the conflict has reversed more than two decades of expansion of access to education.