Regime School Attacks Killed 33 Children, Teachers in Two Years: KNU

A school building destroyed by a regime airstrike in KNU-administered Bilin Township, Mon State, in March 2024./CJ

Regime strikes on schools in Karen National Union (KNU)-administered areas have killed 33 children and teachers and injured another 70 over the past two years, the KNU’s educational arm reported Wednesday.

The Karen Education and Cultural Department (KECD) said 34 schools across the KNU’s seven administrative areas — spanning Karen and Mon states, and Bago and Tanintharyi regions — came under regime attack over the two-year period.

Several of them were repeatedly targeted with “persistent airstrikes and shelling,” it added.

“Airstrikes and shelling present the greatest danger for us,” a schoolteacher in Karen State’s Dooplaya District told The Irrawaddy. Her school is located close to the frontline and within range of regime artillery and drone attacks.

“Each time they hear the sound of an aircraft, our children panic and run.”

She explained that every single one of her students has been displaced by fighting and many are carrying trauma from the heavy bombardment of their communities.

In 2024 September, the KNU instituted a Safe School Declaration to safeguard educational environments from military attack.

The regime instead responded with violence, “intentionally targeting learning spaces,” the group said.

The military’s attacks on civilian communities stand in stark contrast to the peace push that Naypyitaw presents to the international community, it added.

In the three months up to June 2026, the military carried out 1,408 attacks in KNU administrative areas, killing 60 civilians, injuring 156, and damaging 401 buildings, including schools and hospitals, according to the Karen Peace Support Network.

It said repeated targeting of civilian infrastructure appears intended to weaken community resilience, undermine KNU governance and public administration, and demonstrate that KNU-controlled areas cannot provide security or essential services.

The civilian National Unity Government’s Human Rights Ministry has documented junta airstrikes on 537 schools across the country since the 2021 coup.