Hundreds of thousands of children in Syria have stopped attending school as a result of ongoing conflict in the war-torn country, a new assessment from UNICEF finds.

Conducted in December 2012, the assessment found that the problem was greatest in areas in which fighting has been particularly severe, including Idlib, Aleppo, and Deraa. Since the civil war began in 2011, at least 2,400 schools have been damaged or destroyed, including 772 in Idlib (50 percent of the schools there), 300 in Aleppo, and another 300 in Deraa. Over the same period, more than 110 teachers and school staff have been killed and many others are no longer reporting for work, while more than 1,500 schools are sheltering displaced persons or are being used by armed forces and groups involved in the conflict.

To help address the learning needs of Syrian children, UNICEF has created more than a hundred and seventy school clubs in Homs, Deraa, greater Damascus, Tartous, Lattakia, Hama, and Quneitra, enabling some forty thousand children to receive remedial education and take part in recreational activities. In addition to rehabilitating damaged schools, the UN agency also is providing teaching and learning supplies.

More funding is needed, however, to keep the clubs open through May and to support other efforts aimed at assisting the country's battered education system. "The education system in Syria is reeling from the impact of violence," said UNICEF Syria Representative Youssouf Abdel-Jelil. "Syria once prided itself on the quality of its schools. Now it's seeing the gains it made over the years rapidly reversed."