Sanaa, Yemen – Bashar Mohammed has enrolled in multiple English-language courses since he finished high school last year. The 19-year-old is intent on improving his language skills, hoping to land a scholarship to pursue undergraduate studies abroad. With a good command of English and a high school certificate, Mohammed believes he can one day secure an opportunity to study at a university overseas.
But because he completed high school in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which is under the control of the Houthi rebel group, Mohammed now worries that government authorities in Aden will not validate his academic credentials. Yemen has been divided between the internationally-recognised government and the Houthis since the country’s war started more than a decade ago. The Aden-based government Education Ministry issued a circular in late July suspending the authentication of some school certificates issued in Houthi-controlled areas.
The ministry said in early August that it could not access official records needed to verify some students’ documents, blaming the Houthis for the problem. Students have been left in the middle of the quagmire, uncertain of how it will be resolved. This is painful,” Mohammed told Al Jazeera.
It also means that, for now, the dream of studying abroad is over. Yemenis who want to leave the country to study must have their certificates authenticated by the government’s Foreign Ministry, but that won’t happen without a stamp from the Education Ministry confirming that the certificate is genuine. Ayman Ahmed, an 18-year-old who just graduated from high school in Houthi-controlled Raymah province, said it was students who were being punished, not the Houthis.
He said that the ministry has access to student records for some years, allowing it to verify and authenticate certificates issued during those periods. But Ahmed said that wasn’t the fault of the students now affected. The school year, for example, begins in June in areas controlled by the Houthis, while schools in areas under the control of the government reopen at the end of August.
The school curricula have also diverged, with the Houthis making numerous alterations to the previous textbooks. The recent uptick in fighting in Yemen, which has threatened to drag the country back into all-out war after a relatively quiet four years, is likely to cause further problems for students, Abdu said. He pointed out that violence would likely displace families and damage schools, like previous rounds of the war.
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