fbpx

Fighting for good grades

Leaked document suggests children skip exams to fight for Houthis
[additional-authors]
September 17, 2015

This article originally appeared on The Media Line.

A recently leaked document written by the Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Council highlighted this phenomenon. According to the text, sent to The Media Line from a source within the Ministry of Education, exam boards have been ordered to give any student who misses exams while fighting for Houthi, a final grade of between 75% and 90%.

“I preferred to fight for the Houthi than to take my exams. This way I’m sure to pass,” Abdulsalam Al-Mawri, a student from the government controlled province of Dhamar, told The Media Line. The teenager expected to fail his exams after his studies suffered during the conflict and so decided that fighting was a better option. “Although I am not a Houthi… the orders to the education ministry convinced me to join them,” Al-Mawri said.

But not everyone agreed. “Taking the exams is better than dying in a fight that I have no stake in,” Hussam Ali Shabeg, a twelfth-grader, told The Media Line. “It is true that school was bad because of the fighting but for me taking the exams is the best choice even if I get a low grade,” Shabeg said.    

Ismail Zaidan, the information officer at the Ministry of Education, told The Media Line that the document was false. However a second, more senior, official within the ministry confirmed that the document had been published and it is titled “Classified: To Be Implemented.”

“The document is real, it has been approved, and the names were documented (in the ministry). It’s a Houthi announcement aiming to drag the rest of the students into the battlefields,” the official, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Media Line.

He estimated that up to 500 students, some age 15 and other age 18, had taken advantage of the deal and gone to fight for the Houthis, which took over the country after elected President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi fled the country in March, 2015.

It was not clear how the exact grade would be determined, as the document calls for a range. Seventy-five is the lowest score needed to get into a public university, which costs thousands of dollars less than a public university. Students need an 85 to get accepted to medicine, the most selective course of study.

Houthi representatives were quick to deny the information.

“The enemies of Ansar Allah (another name for the Houthis) are fabricating such propaganda,” Najib Al-Weshali, a leading figure within the group, told The Media Line. Al-Weshali would not comment on why there had been a recent surge in the number of students wishing to join the Houthi. 

For the majority of students who do not become fighters, taking exams during wartime is stressful.

“We are terrified – some of us pass out, others are fatigued,” Abir Mahdi Senan, a student told The Media Line. “Sometimes we cannot write the answer, we just cry throughout the entire exam, fearing we will be bombed.” 

The examination hall where 18-year-old Senan is taking her final end of school tests is in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, and currently the focus of the country’s civil war. The neighborhood of Hadda, where Senan studies, has been under continuous airstrikes since the beginning of operations by the Saudi Arabian led coalition – in part because a number of Houthi fighters live there.

“Our exams were supposed to be postponed, or a truce should have been called until the assessments are over,” Senan told The Media Line. “We have seen enough horror for a life time – we do not even know how to answer the questions because of the noises of raids and explosions (outside),” the pupil said. Many students are under extreme psychological pressure as a result of the conflict and do not receive enough sleep to make studying viable, Senan added.

Preparations for an attack on Sana’a by anti-Houthi forces have increased in recent weeks, including large numbers of airstrikes by the coalition of Sunni-Gulf states. As a result the Ministry of Education relocated over 30 examination halls away from areas near to Houthi positions targeted by coalition aircraft.

“Examinations are taking place under very difficult circumstances, numerous students have suffered from fits or extreme fatigue due to bombardments. This is especially true in Sana’a, which witnessed violent bombardment since the beginning of the month,” Ismail Zaidan, information officer at the Ministry of Education, told The Media Line.

In some areas examination halls have been relocated on a daily basis according to the intensity of airstrikes in each neighborhood, Zaidan said. Of the 23 provinces in Yemen 16 are holding exams – the remainder have had tests postponed until November or cancelled altogether in districts hardest hit.

Generally exams are held in schools, but some schools are being used to store weapons or food for fighters. This has led to a number of schools being destroyed during the conflict. In the coming days more than half a million students are expected to take their final papers. A further 300,000 are expected to miss their assessments due to the effects of the war. 

As previously reported by The Media Line an unknown number of children, possibly in the thousands, are taking part in the conflict in Yemen. Many are used as fighters by the Houthi, others as guards at checkpoints. The UN estimated that nearly one in three fighters in the war are under aged.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Print Issue: Got College? | Mar 29, 2024

With the alarming rise in antisemitism across many college campuses, choosing where to apply has become more complicated for Jewish high school seniors. Some are even looking at Israel.

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.