{"id":2604,"date":"2026-08-28T08:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/?p=2604"},"modified":"2026-08-28T08:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:56:45","slug":"amhara-region-aims-to-return-7-6-million-children-to-school-after-three-year-conflict-hiatus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/amhara-region-aims-to-return-7-6-million-children-to-school-after-three-year-conflict-hiatus\/","title":{"rendered":"Amhara region aims to return 7.6 million children to school after three-year conflict hiatus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">Addis Ababa (AMECO)- <strong>Education authorities in Ethiopia&#8217;s Amhara region plan to register more than 7.6 million students for the upcoming academic year starting on 15 September, following three years of conflict that has left millions of young people out of school.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">However, for students in the North Gojjam zone, returning to the classroom depends heavily on whether regional authorities can guarantee lasting security in areas long disrupted by fighting.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Across the region, three years of instability have forced schools to close, leaving blackboards covered in dust, infrastructure damaged, and classrooms abandoned. Education experts warn that prolonged closures have effectively stolen years of development from a generation of prospective doctors, engineers, and teachers.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">In North Mecha district, students like Habtamu Aschalew are facing the severe personal toll of delayed schooling. Now preparing for Grade 8 when he should be entering Grade 11, Aschalew says his time and aspirations have been eroded by the conflict.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\"><strong>&#8220;If there is peace this year, I am ready to learn,&#8221;<\/strong> Habtam said.<strong> &#8220;I miss school\u2014and not just school, I miss my school friends. I have all my materials ready; I still have the notebooks bought for me three years ago<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\">Another local student, Mulugeta Abebe, described the pervasive psychological harm inflicted on children by years of artillery and gunfire. Mulugeta noted that prolonged school closures have left young people increasingly vulnerable to addiction, child labour, early marriage, and severe mental distress.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">Despite the disruption, Mulugeta maintains his ambition to study health sciences and serve his community. <strong>&#8220;We have gathered our educational materials and prepared ourselves psychologically,&#8221;<\/strong> he said. <strong>&#8220;All we need now is for the schools to open.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">While regional education officials are pushing to meet the September enrolment target, local community members emphasize that turning classrooms into safe zones remains a vital national and moral obligation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Addis Ababa (AMECO)- Education authorities in Ethiopia&#8217;s Amhara region plan to register more than 7.6 million students for the upcoming academic year starting on 15 September, following three years of conflict that has left millions of young people out of school. However, for students in the North Gojjam zone, returning to the classroom depends heavily [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[731,687,174,364,51,89],"class_list":["post-2604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604\/revisions\/2607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2604"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}