By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2025-10-27

Education in Houthi-controlled areas is on the brink of total collapse due to a range of ongoing violations. These include the arrest of teachers, withholding salaries for over nine years, converting schools into military headquarters, and using them as tools for sectarian indoctrination, analysts told Al-Fassel.

The practices have exacerbated poverty and deprived thousands of Yemeni children of education, threatening their future and severely undermining national development, they added.

The Yemeni Teachers' Syndicate (YTS) reported a tragic situation: more than 350 teachers remain detained in Houthi prisons, and tens of thousands of teachers have been without salaries for over nine years.

In a statement marking World Teachers' Day on October 5, the syndicate reported that the suspension of salaries has caused teachers to suffer from severe economic and psychological distress.

Serving the Houthi project

"The Houthi militias have worked to control state and educational institutions since taking power, allowing them to manipulate the education process for their own project. This involved changing curricula and replacing disloyal teachers with group affiliates," political analyst Waddah Al-Jalil told Al-Fassel,

"The group has used schools to indoctrinate students with sectarian lessons in an attempt to direct future generations according to its ideological project, and to control society," he added.

Al-Jalil said the Houthis "targeted teachers to weaken education, compelling many to seek other income or abandon the teaching profession altogether."

Meanwhile, the suspension of salaries has caused market stagnation and reduced the population's purchasing power.

"This situation has exacerbated poverty and the spread of illegal activities, leading to social problems that threaten peace and stability," he said.

A systematic crime against education

"The treatment of teachers is a systematic crime against the Yemeni people and education. The salary suspension policy has caused a social catastrophe and drastically increased poverty and destitution among educators' families," political analyst Mahmoud al-Taher told Al-Fassel.

He cautioned that the arrest of over 350 teachers "demonstrates the militia's ongoing policy of repression targeting any segment of society that opposes its ideology or the recruitment of its youth."

"Turning schools into military facilities and centers for sectarian indoctrination instills ideas of hatred and violence in children, thereby threatening the future of Yemen for generations to come," al-Taher said.

The teachers' loss of their primary income has pushed many "to work in menial professions just to meet their families' needs, leading to widespread frustration, depression, and a loss of professional dignity," economic analyst Abdul Aziz Thabet told Al-Fassel.

The lack of financial incentives has degraded educational quality and caused high teacher absenteeism.

"Furthermore, the reliance on volunteer or Houthi-loyal teachers has politicized education, enabling the group to spread its ideology through the curricula and activities," Thabet said.