Nicolás García & Guillermo Garrido 3ºB

POSITION PAPER

COMITTE: UNICEF
TOPIC: Education in conflict countries and post conflict countries
COUNTRY: South Korea

All children and teenagers have the fundamental right to an education, which equips them with the
knowledge and skills they will need to develop into adults. But is education beneficial in nations
experiencing conflict or in areas that have recently experienced conflict? The answer is no; in these
kinds of conflict zones, educational institutions have been attacked, and lessons have been canceled
due to the threat of explosives detonating in the middle of a playground or kidnappings of children
to serve as troops or as leverage in negotiations.

South Korea believes that it is necessary to invest in the education of future generations, in order to
have a country that has the basic knowledge. Therefore South Korea is a country with a public
education system, so it is less affected than other nations with private education systems because all
children have the opportunity to attend school and have access to basic resources. One action of
korea is that the state and its citizens place a high investment in education (the korean republic it
provides around 10% of its PIB; in spain, it is approximately 5%).

Last year the UN donated 2.9 billion dollars for education in third world and post-conflict countries,
but this amount was not enough, since there are a large number of schools and with that it does not
reach them. They did not have money to buy materials such as tables and books and many of them
ended up closing, this led the students to start working or perhaps join gangs. In addition, during
2020 and 2021, 147 million children from areas that are poor, in conflict or that have recently gone
through a war, missed more than half of the classes. This is due to numerous factors such as: the
fear of being attacked, that they need to work because they don't have money to eat, or because they
live too far from their schools.

South Korea proposes to the UN to increase the money allocated to these areas, so that schools
wouldn’t close and everyone can receive the education they deserve by right, to help, South Korea
could provide technology and electronics to these schools at a lower cost, and also could donate
simple and cheap vehicles like bicycles so that children who live far from school will have an easier
going. This is due to the fact that vehicles and electronics are some of the main industries of the
country.

In conclusion, the UN should donate more money to third world countries, and post-conflict and
conflict countries. And South Korea will give resources such as vehicles and technology to those
countries. With all this, we could achieve goal 4 of the sustainable development agenda which is to
ensure quality education for all.

Websites used:
- https://news.un.org/es/story/2022/08/1513332
- https://oec.world/es/profile/country/kor