Scholasticide, often used interchangeably with the terms educide and epistemicide,[1][2][3] refers to the intended mass destruction of education in a specific place.
[4] Educide has been used to describe the mass destruction in the Iraq War (2003–2011) and the Gaza Genocide (2023 – present).
[5] The terms are used interchangeably, covering various forms of the deliberate mass destruction of educational infrastructure.
[10] Characteristics that are often mentioned as elements of educide include, but are not necessarily limited to; Scholasticide has been linked to genocide.
Genocide is the intentional killing and destruction of a group, based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion.
Soft power is getting results not by coercion but by attraction, for example via payments, good affiliation, or education.
[13] Education plays a crucial role, as it reproduces ideas such as norms, and values of a society; identities and nationalism; and it determines how history is taught.
This can happen via hard power by coercing change and destroying the existing educational infrastructure, which leads to educide.
In this process, the actor could perceive the educational infrastructure as a danger, since this is where knowledge is developed that serves this group of people.
Nevertheless, other elements in international humanitarian law (IHL) try to prevent the crimes committed during educide.
[20] Between 2003 and 2007, school attendance dropped by almost 70%, at least 280 academics were killed, and 30% of the total number of professors, doctors, and engineers left Iraq.
Due to the war against Daesh (also known as "IS", "ISIS", or "ISIL"), the Iraqi government reduced assistance to 5.2 million children.
The change of curriculum resulted in parents taking their children out of school to prevent indoctrination.
[23] The educide in Iraq, although throughout different circumstances, was intending to change the status quo by replacing the existing educational infrastructure with a new one.