Houthi militias have intensified campaigns to recruit students from private schools in Sanaa. Educational institutions are being exploited to supply battlefronts with new fighters and offset human losses.
The group is forcing students to attend military training courses. School administrations face threats of closure, fines, and other penalties.
Educational sources in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group’s Jihadist Department launched a campaign targeting more than 550 private schools in Sanaa and its outskirts. The move operates in coordination with the Ministry of Education in the group’s unrecognized government.
Houthi supervisors conducted field visits to schools in ten districts across Sanaa on recent days. They ordered each school administration to select five students to enrol in military training courses.
Institutions refusing to comply face closure, punitive measures, and financial penalties. The campaign caused widespread anger and concern among teachers, students, and parents.
Parents reported that children were taken from classrooms without family knowledge and transported to undisclosed locations. There, children faced ideological indoctrination and military training.
The activities raised fears of students being sent to front lines. Some families stopped sending their children to targeted schools.
Private schools reported declining attendance amid Houthi pressure and raids. Abdullah, a father of four from the Maeen district in central Sanaa, said he kept two middle and high school children at home.
He lost trust in school administrations to protect students from Houthi pressure. He faced a choice between depriving children of education or risking military indoctrination.
“We sent our children to school to learn and build their future, not to be pushed into military courses and battlefronts,” Abdullah said.
A teacher at a private school in the Al-Sabeen district south of Sanaa, speaking anonymously, said private school administrations face mounting pressure from cultural supervisors. The education system in Houthi-controlled areas suffers from deterioration, with tens of thousands of teachers unpaid for years.
