Yemen – This Is How the Houthis Have Ruined the Education Sector

Houthi militias and their leaders are waging a systematic war on government and private educational and academic institutions with the aim of forcing students to attend the universities and institutes established by the group, in order to indoctrinate generations with extremist and misguided ideas borrowed from the Iranian ideology.

According to the Yemen News website, the “Sayed’s Institute,” specialized in teaching English language, was the latest victim of the Houthi war on the education sector. Armed Houthi elements stormed the institute’s building and attacked the administration before completely shutting it down.

Student sources at the institute reported that Houthi militias have been tightening their grip on employees and students in recent periods. This started by segregating male and female students, prohibiting co-education, and allocating separate study days for each gender. Despite the institute’s compliance with Houthi regulations, the militias have been searching for any excuses to close it, similar to other private institutes that were closed in Sanaa.

In a related context, the Houthi militias, Iran’s proxy in Yemen, replaced around 36,000 of their sectarian members instead of teachers who fled their control areas due to oppression or went to work in other professions after their salaries were cut off for the past seven years.

The Middle East newspaper quoted sources described as “documented” stating that the militias are in the process of replacing around 20,000 more individuals instead of public employees, most of whom are teachers. This is being done before reaching an agreement with the legitimate government on a mechanism to pay the employees’ salaries.

The sources explained that the so-called “Educational Office” in the Houthi leadership has been responsible for appointing two batches of their sectarian members, totaling 36,000, during the past two years. They were sent to public schools under the pretext of covering the shortage in the educational staff, as thousands of teachers fled the group’s controlled areas to avoid oppression and to reject the “indoctrination of educational curricula.” Additionally, tens of thousands of teachers resorted to other professions to provide for themselves and their families after their salaries were cut.

According to the sources, the office, overseen by Houthi militia commander Qasem al-Himran, is currently trying to appoint a new batch of around 30,000 individuals they call “volunteers,” instead of another batch of teachers who stipulated the payment of their salaries in return for returning to work.

This move coincides with the second consecutive month of strikes by male and female teachers, protesting the non-payment of their salaries, and the seizure of their monthly incentives by the militias, which are distributed through UNICEF.