The impact of armed violence on students' educational attainment and the role of parents in resilience schooling and the education process

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) armed violence on the attainment of students' education and the role of parents' involvement in the resiliency of schooling and the education process. In doing so, a convergent mixed-method research design was used. Accordingly, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously, and the analysis was drawn upon both strands in search of patterns. Numbers of the study sample were n = 436 and the selection was bounded into three categories of subjects such as school principals (n = 22) for an interview, primary school teachers (n = 384) for a questionnaire and parents (n = 30) for focus group discussion selected through comprehensive, simple random and purposive sampling strategies respectively. Bothe thematic analysis and descriptive analysis (frequency and percentage) were used as data analysis strategies. As a result, the following findings were obtained: Destruction of school infrastructures generate substantial impediments to the supply of schooling. As a result, students' educational enrolment was lowered and students' dropout rate, out-of-school students' rate and related educational wastage increased. Therefore, it can be concluded that sound school administration and active participation of parents and the local community are urgently needed to continue the schooling and education process. Parents and the local community participated to reorganize school activities when the war affected areas were free from the war battle field. However, currently when this study is being investigated, they are looking back due to threats that the war will reawaken and devastate their efforts again.

Educational attainment; Education wastage; Parents and community involvement; Resilience education; TPLF armed violence.

1. Introduction

Many people believe that investing in their education increases their future earning potential, which is one of the primary reasons they go to school. Emerging armed conflicts, however, affect educational benefits including economic, social, and cultural growth (Jones and Naylor, 2014). The questions about both armed conflicts and education emerged in the 20th century, in part because they were so closely related and would have an impact on one another (Omoeva et al., 2018). Undoubtedly, the conflict has severely negative effects on a variety of life outcomes for those involved, at least initially (Hoenig, 2018). From the literature, it has been found that armed conflict and education have their impact on each other in different parts of the globe. For instance, Sub-Saharan Africa has historically been the region of the globe most impacted by armed conflict and is one of the major war regions that have a significant impact on education globally (Agbor and Etta, 2022). Additionally, the shutting or demolition of schools, as well as the uprooting of the populace and the teachers, all result in the loss of education for kids and teenagers (Manuchehr, 2011).

News stories from throughout the world, including recent tragedies occured in Woldia town and Gubalafto areas found in the North Wollo zone of East Amhara region, Ethiopia shown the immediate and direct effects of armed conflict on children’s access to education. Most youngsters were required to stay at home during the recent violent struggle between the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF, hereinafter) and the centeral government. According to the report released by the Amhara Region Universities Forum (2022), all pupils in North Wollo and the neighbouring areas endured school closure during the war. More tragically, the invasion of the TPLF prevented seventy-five primary schools and five high schools in the Guba Lafto district, as well as nine primary schools and four high schools in Woldia town. Furthermore, the Forum’s report, Guba Lafto District Education Office (2022) shown that a total of 27, 876 (M, 13,950 and F, 13,926) students and 1286 (M, 736 and F, 549) teachers from primary schools in both mentioned conflict-affected areas of the zone were negatively impacted by the war. During the wartime, parents, schools, and teachers had no choice but to oversee educational activities it was a challenge using remote teaching methods like the internet, radio, television, smartphones, and home-schooling materials (Utsumi, 2022; Jaiswal, 2017). Without any prior experience, planning, or training on how to manage education during the crisis time, schools and instructors had to abruptly adapt to any new types of instruction (Jones and Naylor, 2014; Omoeva et al., 2018). The additional duties for parents, though, were possibly even more difficult. Many people experienced financial hardship, which proved to be an almost insurmountable barrier when trying to juggle child care, home-schooling, and working from home (Driessen, 2021).

Although the TPLF battle has had a terrible impact, parents' and concerned stakeholders' roles are very important in mediating rerouting student attendance at school, resilience schooling services and raising students' level of academic achievement. That is why previous literature revealed involvement of school communities, local communities, and parents who had high hopes for their child’s education had the greatest impact on students' success (Driessen, 2021). As a result, comprehensive cooperation initiatives must be reinstated to address education following the destruction of schools caused by the TPLF armed war (Epstein et al., 2002; Jaiswal, 2017).

Although it appears that the effects of war on education have been studied, there still needs to be more concern about students' educational attainment including academic achievement and what constitutes effective parental involvement in the process of resilience to the education of students after challenges like that of war (Đurišić and Bunijevac, 2017). Therefore, this study’s primary concern is to examine how the TPLF armed violence affect students' educational achievement as well as how parents might help children in war-torn communities build resilience and refocus the educational process. In light of this, the following guiding research questions are proposed to determine the study’s focus and course. These are (a) How has the TPLF armed conflict affected students' educational attainment? (b) How do parents and the community get involved in school activities to restart education, refocus student attendance, and improve the school standards for the instruction following the TPLF armed conflict? It is so wide to examine how war affects all areas of schooling and education. As a result, it is impossible to perform all tasks simultaneously. Therfore, due to the researchers' cost constraints, the primary focus of the study was limited to scrutinising the impact of the TPLF armed conflict on public education viewpoints of students' educational attainment, as well as the role of parents and community involvement in government-owned primary schools.

2. Literature review

The students' capacity to coordinate between their mental abilities on the one hand and numerous skills on the other hand concerning the level of educational attainment that they can reach is conceived as educational attainment (Hibi and Assadi, 2021). Success is based on education. Education has always been valued and pursued as such throughout all nations and civilizations. Everyone will say that education is important if questioned, however, everyone has a different amount and degree of education. More progress and success are made by certain people than by others. This implies that there are some things that either encourage or discourage people who want to pursue higher education from achieving more than others (Martina and Anthony, 2020). Raising pupils' educational achievement is one of the main goals of teaching in the education process since only the aforementioned criterion is used to gauge a student’s educational advancement and the likelihood of enrolling in educational institutions (Hibi and Assadi, 2021). The body of literature has suggested that raising children’s academic achievement is a top objective for educators, researchers, teachers, and parents at all times (Hussain et al., 2021). However, growing up in an armed situation is not always simple. Millions of youngsters are impacted by armed wars, having their daily lives disrupted by atrocities that will haunt them in the future (Cervantes-Duarte, 2016).

Even if there are no major disruptions to education during the crisis, learning may nevertheless suffer. Conflict can result in inadequate learning environments, a lack of educational resources, and psychological trauma that interferes with children’s ability to learn (Jones and Naylor, 2014). Numerous schools may have been burned down, while others turned into places where kidnappers can demand ransom payments, and some are just unavailable due to the war’s uncertainties and high levels of insecurity (Agbor and Etta, 2022). As a result, there will be fewer kids enrolled and attending school, which increases educational waste including boost of absenteeism, dropout rates, and student repetition rates.

Dropout and repetition have a lasting impact on attendance, and overage students outlive sometimes rather than a rapid recovery of enrolment rates by a significant margin. In their study, Jones and Naylor (2014) noted that even after the issues of armed conflict have been resolved, poor system alignment to the needs of a country’s educational development continues to undermine the quality of learning. These factors include inappropriate curricula implementation, teachers who are not adequately prepared, teachers' training resources collapsed, lack of educational support and supervision services emerged. As a result, low quality of the educational system brought on by the conflict may result in a high students' dropout and repetition rate. Therefore, it is seen vital to criticize anything that could hurt or possibly eliminate this right (Cervantes-Duarte, 2016). Long-term conflict alters the career prospects and incomes that school leavers can anticipate, affecting the returns to education on the labour market. It also affects the private returns to education, often known as the actual and perceived value of education relative to its expenses to families. This in turn affects parents' choice over whether to enrol their kids in school. A sluggish economy and infrastructure destruction may result in less demand for skilled labour. This would raise the risk that kids will withdraw from school, frequently with a gender component (Jones and Naylor, 2014).

The local community’s and parents' involvement in education is a benefit that cannot be purchased with money. All parents can take basic actions to support the resumption of the educational process and resilience from war crises, regardless of their socioeconomic situation, race, or native language (Chen, 2021). Additionally, despite the wide variety of definitions of parental involvement, some more general and others more specific, research findings about the beneficial effects of parental and community involvement on students academic achievement and schooling service improvement, respectively, are in agreement (Lara and Saracostti, 2019). Parental participation in students education starts at home, where parents offer a secure and healthy atmosphere, suitable learning opportunities, encouragement, and a good outlook on school (Đurišić and Bunijevac, 2017). Parental involvement techniques have been demonstrated to influence children’s academic achievement regardless of other practices used at home or school and play a vital part in fostering their children’s educational development (Chen, 2021; Jaiswal, 2017; Lara and Saracostti, 2019). Additionally, effective school, family, and community partnerships are welcomed by good schools' qualified and talented teachers and administrators, who want to support students' learning and foster an environment where all students, teachers, and families can feel safe, cared for, stimulated, and happy after difficult situations like that of the TPLF's armed war (Epstein et al., 2002).

Furthermore, Epstein et al. (2002) developed a framework of six types of parental involvement that guides schools in establishing full and productive programs of school-family-community partnerships to redirect education. The six types are 1) Parenting, which is conducted to help families strengthen parenting skills, understand child and adolescent development, and set home conditions to support learning at each school level. This also enables families to provide information to schools so that educators understand the backgrounds, cultures, and goals of families for their children. 2) Communicating, which increases school-to-home and home-to-school communications about school programs and students' progress through notices, memos, and conferences to parents and gurdians. 3) Volunteering, which is designed to improve recruitment, training, and schedules to involve parents and others such as volunteers and audiences at the school to support students and school programs. 4) Learning at home, involves families with their children in academic learning activities at home that are coordinated with students' classwork and contribute to student success in school. These include interactive homework, goal setting for academic subjects, and other activities linked to the curriculum and decisions about courses and programs. 5) Decision making, this activity includes family participation in the design, review, and improvement of school policies that affect children and families. 6) Collaborating with the community, it draws upon and coordinates the work and resources of community businesses with all concerned bodies to strengthen school programs, family practices, and student learning and development.

To create new and different activities to relate one another as per the unique educational setting, families and schools are the primary actors in the building of their roles and forms of involvement to restore educational practice after the war (Lara and Saracostti, 2019). Parental involvement in children’s education goes beyond the walls of the classroom due to the growing pressures on families (Đurišić and Bunijevac, 2017). Numerous studies have demonstrated that when parents are involved in their education, students perform better in school and fastly recovered from war traumas (Chen, 2021). Therefore, schools must have a strong relationship with parents to boost parental involvement in school resilience from war-caused traumas.

3. Methods and materials

3.1. Design of the study

The purpose of the study was to investigate how the TPLF armed conflict affected the public education systems located in the Gubalafto district and Woldia town found in North Wollo, East Amhara region, Ethiopia, from the viewpoints of students' educational attainment and the role of parents and the local community played to resilience schooling and the educational process. The study was started on January 2022 and completed after the middle of May 2022. A convergent mixed-method research design was applied in this process. As a result, both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered at the same time (Cohen et al., 2007; Creswell, 2018), and both strands of the research were used to look for trends in educational attainment, educational waste, and parental participation.

3.2. The study setting, sample and sampling

The study population has been bounded into three categories of subjects. These are a) primary school principals, b) teachers, and c) parents. The researchers have believed that the above-mentioned bodies who have an active role in school activities can provide an appropriate information for the study. Therefore, the target population of the study are all these three groups. The sample size was determined considering Yemane’s sample size determination formula, which is n = $\frac{N}{{1+N(e)}^2}$ where n = sample size, N = population size and e = precision rate. Hence, in doing so, (i), sample primary school teachers (n = 384 out of N = 1286), who is working in the study area, were randomly selected using a simple random sampling strategy to obtain their response through a questionnaire; (b), apart from this, selected school principals (n = 22 out of N = 22); and (c) parents (n = 30) were included through comprehensive sampling and purposive sampling strategies respectively. A total of n = 436 sample participants were involved in the study.

3.3. Instrumentation and procedures

Four data-gathering strategies such as questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis were used to elicit pertinent information from the sample respondents about the effects of the TPLF armed violence on educational systems.

Regarding the questionnaire, ten closed-ended item questions are constructed and organized into three parts and seven open-ended item questions make up the questionnaire. The questionnaire was initially written in the English language while taking into account various literature and previous studies. The items were then translated into the Amharic language, which is the mother tongue of the respondents, and were then reviewed by two language teachers to see if they had the same meaning. The questionnaire was, therefore, updated and made ready for distribution. The questionnaire’s objective and proper completion briefly explained to the respondents by the researchers before distribution. It was intended to disseminate and collect surveys from (n = 384) participants. Unfortunately, 21 respondents declined to respond and the answers of 7 surveys were rife with mistakes. As a result, both the unreturned and uncleared (n = 28 which represents 7%) questionnaires were eliminated from the study. The 93% return rate was sufficient to move further with the analysis.

Additionally, the researchers developed interviews as another sort of data-gathering instrument and administered them to primary school directors (n = 22). Nine-item semi-structured interview guiding questions were formed. All participants gave their complete consent before the interview session began, and they voluntarily agreed for the researchers to utilize a recorder while conducting the interview. The comments were also documented by speaking into a recorder and writing down what was said in person. Additionally, to improve the efficiency of gathering more detailed information, three FGD meetings (contaning, n = 10 participants in each FGD) with chosen 30 parents were conducted to assess their involvement and determine how they helped the educational system rebound from the TPLF violence battle. The FGD sessions were conducted through their native tongue (Amharic) language. Since discussions are forbidden from being recorded, the researchers chose and assigned one moderator (an aide of the researchers) to take notes during discussion with them.

Moreover, the use of documented evidence as a data collection instrument allowed for verification and validation of information gathered from respondents through questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews with the information included in the available documentations. The researchers used administrative files and records from the Gubalafto districts and Woldia town education offices. During considering document analysis as the strategy for obtaining data, the full effort has been given to measuring students' enrolment, school-level failure, dropout rates, as well as other relevant education wastage information, following the study’s objectives. The researchers did this by using student-related data records from the first semesters of the academic years which is before the TPLF armed conflict (2020/21 academic year) and the current academic year (2021/22 academic year). Therefore, documented data analysis was centred on the enrolment, drop-out, absence, and learners' readiness records that were recorded during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years located at the chosen primary schools from Gubalafto district and Woldiya town education offices regarded as key data. When analysing the already-existing documents, the researchers focused primarily on the documents' applicability and relevance to the topics under investigation. The researchers were able to use it only when the source was deemed trustworthy and appropriate to the study's focus.

3.4. Data analysis methods

As to the purpose of this study, the study’s data analysis and results presentation drew both quantitative and qualitative information. In doing so, as scholars such as Fetters et al. (2013) agreed, the researchers considered the presentation of occurred results through integration (mix) of both the quantitative and qualitative results by (i) explaining quantitative results with a qualitative approach, and (ii) merging quantitative and qualitative results as they happened rather than insist on equal distribution or balance of quantitative and qualitative results. Therefore, the researchers used their full effort to consider both quantitative and qualitative data integration at the analytic and interpretation level was done primarily by a joint display, that simultaneously arrays the quantitative and quantitative results beyond writing about the data wherein the separate results of quantitative and qualitative analysis are discussed. Thus, the integration of two data analysis techniques such as descriptive analysis (Kumar, 2011) and thematic analysis (Creswell, 2018) from the quantitative and qualitative sides respectively was employed. To simplify the analysis, a series of steps were followed. The initial step in analysing the qualitative data was to translate the data (Creswell, 2018) from Amharic into the English language. Data was transcribed, then arranged into portions that could be searched for later and sorted into themes that made sense. To help people grasp the concepts better, several of the key themes were divided into sub-themes. Additionally, descriptive statistical techniques, such as frequency and percentage, were used to analyse the quantitative data. Finally, the results were condensed into a more comprehensible explanation.

3.5. Ethical considerations

All expected ethical concerns and processes were followed while collecting and reporting the acquired data, including safeguarding the confidentiality of all respondents and changing their names to codes to protect their privacy. Hence, results obtained from especially, school principals through interviews and parents through FGD were presented using the pseudo-names represented as “P 1, 2, 3,….22” and “FGD1, 2…3” respectively. The researchers paid extra attention to properly obtaining the consent of the participants. A letter of reference from Woldia University Research and Development Office was presented to the participant to gain their confidence in advance. The researchers gave all of their effort to properly recognized and duly acknowledged all utilized literature materials and records.

4. Results

This section highlights the impact of the TPLF armed violence on education and the system as a whole in the north Wollo zone’s conflict-affected areas special emphasised on primary schools found in Gubalafto district and Woldia town. In terms of the study’s main focus, this section focused on assessing the extent to which students' educational attainment has been impacted by the TPLF violence and describing how parents and the local community are involved in school activities to improve students school attendance and education quality after the TPLF violence. Violence can lower educational attainment among children who do attend school, raise dropout and out-of-school rates, and lower educational survival rates due to displacement, difficult economic conditions, and other negative causes. Similar to this, we determined how the TPLF battle has affected pupils' educational outcomes, including school enrolment, attendance, and academic performance.

4.1. Students enrolment

The process of assuring school attendance and the act of signing up for a particular school’s co-curricular activities or classes is known as student enrolment. Once the kids have been accepted into a certain institution, the enrolment procedure is complete. The number of kids enrolled in primary education who are of official school age in a given year divided by the population for the same school age group in that year, and the result is multiplied by 100%, is the student enrolment rate. The community’s reputation and overall buzz, however, will have an impact on how many students enrol. The enrolment of students may be significantly impacted by factors including the local community’s demographics, the school’s location, and the tuition cost in some cases and other situations. Therefore, for this study, the researchers focused on the enrolment patterns of students who have been impacted by the TPLF violence. To illustrate this more understandably, Figure 1 shows the outcome that the enrolment figures for the academic years of 2020/21 and 2021/22, displayed below side by side for comparison.

Figure 1.

Enrolment rate.

Figure 1 shows that a total of 30,036 of the 35,457 anticipated students were enrolled in elementary school for the 2020/21 school year. This showed the students' enrolment rate of 84.7%. However, following the TPLF armed violence, the overall number of registered students falls to 27,876 from 36,921, or 75.5%, in the 2021/22 school year. This demonstrates the percentage of registered students this year declined by 9.2% more than the year before the TPLF armed violence. From this finding, it is clear that the TPLF battle is one of the primary causes of the steep fall in students enrolment to date following the violence.

4.2. Out-of-school students

When discussing the issues facing “out-of-school” children and teens, several issues can be brought up, including poor quality of life, a lack of social and life skills, and behavioural issues. Estimating the number of students who missed school due to conflict is difficult, and investigations into the situation frequently yield conflicting results. Conflict can force students, their parents and guardians into poverty, which forces students to perform poorly in school and hurts their behaviour, which can result in expulsion from the school. The relationship between conflict and education is highly context-dependent and can vary quickly when conflicts increase or are resolved, according to a wide range of evidence from schools and education administration offices. The below chart in Figure 2 displays this fact in detail.

Figure 2.

Out-of-school students rate.

As seen in the above Figure 2, up to 9045 (M, 4618 and F, 4427) students could constitute approximately one-fourth (24.5%) of the total number of enrolled students in the 2021/22 academic year are absent from school (also see Figure 1). This number is larger than that of its corresponding year, 2020/21, as 5421 (M, 3023, and F, 2398) students or 15.3% of the total 35,457 (M, 18,196, and F, 17,261) planned enrolment were not in school. This finding demonstrates an increase in out-of-school students in the 2021/22 school year after the TPLF violence than that of its counterpart 2020/21 academic season which is before the violence. As seen in above Figure 2, up to 9045 (M, 4618 and F, 4427) students could constitute approximately one-fourth (24.5%) of students who are absent from school in the 2021/22 academic year out of the total number of primary school-aged children identified and scheduled to be enrolled. This finding demonstrates an increase in out-of-school children due to the TPLF armed violence which have the 11.2% out-of-school students' disparity from those of two school years. This increment of 11.2% tells that although there are several reasons why students leave school, the violence had a direct or indirect impact on increasing the number of students who leave school. Additionally, an interview meeting with a respondent revealed that:

… in some cases, this war changed the distribution of family labour and family income. For example, the cereals on their land and home have been taken by the TPLF armed groups. Working parents have been either injured or died. In this circumstance how could children come to education? Who fulfils their basic educational needs? No one else. Due to this, some students have been obligated to withdraw from school to give their effort to the household (P9).

This pronouncetion implies that a significant number of people were injured, internally displaced and economically weakened. The majority of them were, therefore, predisposed to an economic shock. Some of them find themselves unable to cover the costs of their children’s education, including uniforms, various school fees, extracurricular guides, and other educational resources. This scenario makes students and their families unable to resume the education and schooling services.

4.3. Students' learning readiness

Physical, motor, socio-emotional, behavioural, and cognitive skills showing learning preparedness and ability to receive deliberate educational instruction from school and teachers are what we mean when we say that students in this study are ready to learn. Discussions with FGD2 and FGD3 exposed that after the TPLF violence some pupils were unable to interact with their teachers and refused to accept their work. Additionally, pupils are unable to effectively utilise their given time for studying and exams.

4.4. Students' drop-out

To determine students dropout rate, this study utilized the standard formula, which involves dividing the number of students who discontinue their education in a given year by the total number of students enrolled in that same year, multiplied by a hundred percent. The study tried to compare and contrast students' drop-out before and after the TPLF violence. As a result, the chart in Figure 3 below provides detailed information.

Figure 3.

Students' drop-out.

Children are far more likely to quit school when there is an armed violence as compared to other periods as per seen in Figure 3. Before the TPLF violence, only 385 children (M, 237 and F, 150), or 1.3%, dropped out of primary school in the 2020/21 school year. In 2021/22 after the violence, however, the number of drop-out students increased by 644 pupils (M, 377 and F, 267), or 2.3%. This finding brought attention to the detrimental causal effects of the TPLF violence exposure on how it affects the students long spend in school and how far they can advance in grades. Related evidence obtained from an interview revealed that:

Students exhibit a variety of health-related problem signs as a result of the conflict and their poor mental health. They start to lose hope, experience anxiety, have unsteady learning, and have a higher chance of dropping out. Their level of assurance has dropped. Furthermore, the lack of basic amenities such as food, water, and health care put the health of not only students but also the majority of the population at risk. This makes it worse for students to continue their education rather drop out of school (P 22).

This could make it more difficult for teachers to oversee classroom management and student attendance at learning centres thereby exacerbating the number of drop-out students. The long-term risks associated with the onset or resurgence of armed violence may be made worse by these effects, which have been shown to have a significant impact on the future life prospects of affected children, including their ability to access the labour market, their ability to earn an adult living, and their health outcomes.

4.5. Gender parity

A socioeconomic indicator called the Gender Parity Index (hereafter, GPI) is used in this study to assess the educational possibilities for boys and girls after the TPLF violence. This index comes from UNESCO. It is calculated as the ratio of the number of girls and boys enrolled in the same educational stage (primary, secondary, etc.). A GPI of one indicates equality between boys and girls in their education. When the GPI is less than one, gender parity benefits boys, and when the GPI is greater than one, gender parity benefits girls. Considering this, this study tried to see how the TPLF violence affects educational distribution and equity between boy and girl students. The following Figure 4 portrays the detail.

Figure 4.

Gender parity index.

Figure 4’s gender parity index illustrates that it was 0.98 before the conflict and 0.99 following it. The index shows that roughly 50% of each sex has access to education because when the gender parity index is between 0.97 and 1.03, it means neither gender is favoured in terms of access to education. Below 0.97 shows the availability of parity in favour of boys, and above 1.03 indicates a gap in favour of girls. As a result of this finding depicted in the above Figure 4, therefore, it is possible to state that the TPLF violence didn’t have any considerable impact on the distribution of education between boys and girls.

5. The role of parents in resilience education

To address the catastrophic effects of the TPLF violence on the schooling and the education system, this study employed three dimensions to explore parental and community involvement and their role in school activities, drawing inspiration from Barrera-Osorio et al.’s (2021) work on parental involvement in education. These are (a) whether or not parents actively participate in rearranging school activities, (b) whether or not parents meet with teachers to discuss their kids' academic progress, and (c) whether or not parents regularly attend parent association meetings and participate in school decision-making.

5.1. Parents' engagement in school activities

This study tried to examine how parents get involved in different school activities to redirect the devastating educational services affected by the TPLF armed violence. The following Table 1 demonstrates what it looks like.

Table 1.

Parental involvement in school activities.

No.	Items	Responses
		f	%
1	Parents were involved in school commencement activities.	285	74%
2	Parents were involved in reorganizing school activities	284	74%
3	Parents were involved in schools' co-curricular activities	15	4%
4	Parents were involved in repairing and rebuilding damaged school buildings and infrastructure.	356	92.7%
Total number of respondents		384	100%

As Table 1 presents, parents' involvement in different school activities seems good especially after their area was recaptured from the TPLF. Around three-fourths (74%) of respondents revealed that parents are involved in school commencement and reorganizing of school activities. However, they have little involvement in the implementation of school co-curricular activities. Since schools found in this study area are owned and administered by the public, most of the parents and community members are involved in the process of repairing and rebuilding school buildings and infrastructure damaged by the TPLF (confirmed by 92.7% of respondents). Contrary to this result, summarized qualitative data gathered from FGD1, and FGD3 proved although they believed that they are actively involved in the process of rehabilitating destroyed schools while harbouring hatred from the TPLF armed group left the areas, the participation of parents and the local community in school activities is challenged by two main problems currently when this study was conducted. The first is that they continue to feel scared and insecure. However, due to the persistent rumour that the TPLF side would like to restart the conflict, they have decreased their involvement in school projects because they think that the violence will resume and destroy the school once more even if it is rebuilt today. The second is that “their economic situation hampered their ability to participate in formal education” (a participant in FGD2). The majority of parents do not actively participate to enhance their children’s academic performance, although they actively help repair school buildings that have been damaged or destroyed by the violence.

5.2. Parents' collaboration with teachers to discuss students' learning

The TPLF violence has had a severe impact on not only the educational system but also on parents' role in helping their kids learn in collaboration with school teachers. In these situations, teamwork between teachers and parents is crucial to comprehending the child’s background and improving academic performance. Parents are child’s first teachers, so it is beneficial for teachers to be familiar with them while asking kids about their past. Equally important for both parties is communication between parents and school-home teachers when they wish to know about their child’s or children’s academic achievement. Meeting with FGD2, a discussant pointed out that “parents are not well involved in their children’s education rather they hold a perspective that children receive a good education is solely the responsibility of teachers”. Moreover, the following Table 2 portrays about the extent of parents' collaboration with teachers for their children’s education.

Table 2.

Parents' role in the education of their children.

No.	Items	Responses
		f	%
1	Parents establish collaboration with teachers.	23	6%
2	Parents are continuously communicating with teachers about children’s education	79	20.6%
3	Parents are involved in evaluating children learning at home	101	26.3%
Total number of respondents		384	100%

As observed from Table 2, it has been supported by only 6%, 20.6% and 26.3% of respondents indicated that parents are established collaboration with teachers; continuously communicate with teachers about their children’s education, and are involved in evaluating children's learning at home respectively. In addition, information acquired through interview demonstrated that:

the majority of parents do not fulfil their responsibility to monitor how their children are learning, how students and teachers interact, and what the enrolment of students looks like. Many parents are not actively involved in reviewing students' work, school fundings, school policy, and the creation of guidelines (P12).

The outcome suggests that due to the TPLF violence severe economic toll on parents, they are prioritizing their economic pursuits over ensuring that their children are receiving a quality education. In this situation, parents have no reason to visit the school or interact with teachers because they are unsure of any potential contribution they could make to their children’s education.

5.3. Parents' participation in school decision making

The other role of parents in the education system and the schooling process is their active participation of in school decision-making. Below Table 3 presents their level of participation.

Table 3.

Parents' participation in school decision making.

No.	Items	Response
		f	%
1	Parents meet regularly with school administrators to discuss schooling.	101	26.3
2	Parents are actively participating in the Parents and Teachers Association	63	16.4
3	Parent are playing their role in school decision meetings as needed	49	12.8
Total number of respondents		384	100%

Parent associations were encouraged by the informational intervention to participate more in school activities, events, and schedule frequent meetings with teachers to go over student progress and any of the school decisions. However, as Table 3 shown their participation was found at a sub-standard level. For instance, 26.3%, 16.4% and 12.8% of respondents remarked that parents meet regularly with school administrators to discuss about schooling; parents are actively participating in parents' and teachers' associations, and parent are playing their role in school decision meetings as needed respectively. Additionally, evidence from interviews about parental involvement in schools indicated that relatively higher participation among parents who were already members of parent associations was the primary cause of a rise in parental involvement in schools (P3, P5, P6, P17). The parent association’s members reportedly keep an eye on the educational system, according to survey respondents. To address the myriad societal challenges caused by the TPLF violence, they are attempting to collaborate with the school administration and the local community at large. However, interviewers revealed that new parents still have a low level of involvement in and/or with parent associations (P15,16 and P22). P4 also stated that “parents who were not members of the parent association did not engage in school activities due to their work schedules”. This suggests that little parental involvement made events challenging particularly at school that call for family participation.

6. Discussion

Examining the impact of the TPLF violence on students' educational attainment was the key area of attention to this study. It uncovered the TPLF violence that affected kids' scholastic achievement, including school enrolment, attendance, and other related educational losses. The results of the study shown the violence brought by TPLF has had a significant impact on pupils' educational attainment. The year before the TPLF violence was 30,036 (84.7%) of the total student population enrolled in primary school in the 2020/21 school year. However, following the violence, the overall number of students enrolled in primary school fell to 27,876 or 75.5% in this school year (2021/22). In contrast to 2020/21, the percentage of students who are out-of-school rises to 24.5% in 2021/22. A similar study conducted by Utsumi (2022) discovered a similar result: enrolment rates for kids who lived in conflict affected zones were on average 11% lower than those for kids who resided elsewhere.

The TPLF violence had a direct or indirect impact on the reduction in student enrolment and the rise in out-of-school students even though there are other reasons why they leave school. The results are consistent with earlier research that has been done. For instance, Mayai (2022) and Utsumi (2022) discussed how conflict can negatively affect educational attainment for kids who do attend school, increase the number of dropouts and students who are not enrolled in school, and lower educational survival rates due to displacement, difficult economic conditions are among other factors. The economy declined, the state’s capacity to deliver essential education services was severely damaged, and primary school enrolment fell precipitously. It demonstrates that primary schools exposed to the violence had a significant drop in enrolment. More horrifyingly, this study findings indicated that students' level of readiness for learning is limited, as evidenced by their inability to interact with teachers, their refusal to accept their work, and their inability to make effective use of the time allotted for learning and tests. Similar findings are found in a prior study, which identifies six crucial perceived indicators, including attendance, content delivery, safety, classroom discipline, professional development, and classroom assessment, that are significantly hindered in the continuation of education during the ongoing armed conflict (Agbor and Etta, 2022).

Another education wastage brought by the TPLF armed violence is the increasing number of students dropping out of school. The study finding unveils that out of the total number of enrolled students 644 children (M, 377 and F, 267), or 2.3%, dropped out of their primary school this year, 2021/22. This is greater than that of 385 students (M, 237 and F, 150), or 1.3% of drop out rate in 2020/21, before the violence. This demonstrated the detrimental causal effect of conflict exposure in terms of reducing the number of school years spent by students and limiting their ability to advance through the grades. Armed violence can undermine the educational process in numerous ways, which may be the cause of this in some cases (Mayai, 2022). First, schools in conflict affected zones are more likely to be destroyed or shuttered due to the danger of violence. Second, whether or not the new location includes a school, parents are likely to withdraw their kids from a school in a dangerous neighbourhood and relocate them. Third, those who are moved lose their income, which has a detrimental impact on their ability to afford the educational facilities for their kids. That is, considering the high rate of forced displacement, a significant drop in enrolment is anticipated during armed conflict.

The body of literature communicated by Agbor and Etta (2022) remarks learning is inadequate because teaching is inadequate and it is not feasible to continue schooling under armed violence conditions. There is much to be done to guarantee that circumstances are better and schools fulfil the function for which they are authorized to operate. The only long-term answer to this issue is to resolve the conflict, although the consequences can continue for a long time. Therefore, it would be wise to involve regional organizations established in areas where common activities are carried out. Partnerships should, in any case, be long-lasting. For instance, forming a permanent committee and actively involving key community members' contributions together with school representatives and stakeholders is crucial. Local level school administrators frequently communicate with the zone and regional education offices to decide on issues like school improvement plans during the crisis, re-establishing school infrastructure with the help of the local community, maintaining damaged school infrastructures and resources, providing assistance to helpless students because their parents or guardians died in battle, etc. As a result, the number of students dropout could be reduced if this were done.

Depending on how their contributions are interpreted, parents and the community’s participation in school initiatives that foster resilience may have different meanings (Utsumi, 2022). Parental involvement is influenced by their role at home (monitoring their children’s learning), as well as by their involvement in school-sponsored events like parent-teacher conferences, volunteer work, various forms of parental activism, workshops, and seminars for parents (Urii and Bunijevac, 2017). This study’s findings indicate that parents are unable to consistently participate in school activities and their children’s education due to three major factors, including (a) low finances caused by the TPLF violence, (b) rigid school working schedules, and (c) some parents' opinions that school doesn’t need their input. This viewpoint led to the argument in a previous study that the estimation results should be interpreted to mean that student/s parents' and community members' contributions serve to prevent a decline in the enrolment rate of students after the conflict, not necessarily because of the additional funding provided for education but rather due to individual community members' determination to unite as they seek to maintain their children’s education (Assefa et al., 2022; Utsumi, 2022). Additionally, parents are frequently assumed to know how to communicate with teachers and school administrators in schools. This presumption may result in the systematic denial of low-income, culturally and linguistically diverse parents' access to resources for schools and the ability to advocate for the needs of their children (Barrera-Osorio et al., 2021).

There are various ways that parental involvement can support kids' and teens' academic success. Helping their children with their schoolwork at home is one method parents may make a beneficial impact on their education (Đurišić and Bunijevac, 2017). According to earlier research findings, the bond between parents and their children is a reliable predictor of rising academic success (Hussain et al., 2021). Hasnat (2016), Hibi and Assadi (2021) noted that for education to be a continuous process and to materialize into behaviour, parents' active involvement should be present as a cornerstone for the encouragement of their children’s academic success and the establishment of the value system. According to the study’s findings, due to the TPLF violence severe economic toll on parents although they are prioritizing their economic pursuits over ensuring that their children are receiving a quality education. In this situation, parents have no reason to visit the school or interact with teachers because they are unsure of any potential contributions they could make to their children’s education. However, parental participation programs strive to promote school-home relations to improve educational achievements so that parents may overcome the variety of difficulties they encounter (Barrera-Osorio et al., 2021). This is because children will benefit academically more from their parents' attendance at parent-teacher conferences, acceptance of phone calls from the school, and reading and signing of school messages than children whose parents don’t do any of the aforementioned (Đurišić and Bunijevac, 2017).

Hussain et al. (2021) made the following observation about parents' roles in children’s education: parents can play a vital role in their children’s social and emotional development. The development of abilities and knowledge in academic and extracurricular activities depends on the presence or absence of secure and wholesome socioemotional conditions in the home. Parents' feelings of love, affection, and appreciation for their children, as well as other family characteristics like parental education, parenting relationships, parent-child interactions, parental acceptance and rejection, and proper parental supervision. These elements also aid in reducing the number of kids dropping out of school. These elements help the state and parents conserve resources and energy. However, it can be considered that these elements hurt children’s academic performance and school adjustment if they somehow fail to determine a harmonious family relationship in their lives. Children profit more from their education when their parents are actively involved than when they are merely passive.

In conjunction with the Parent and Teachers Association and Kebele Education and Training Board, the school principals are responsible for managing and administering each school. The school’s overall operations are managed by the principal, who also serves as the institution’s legal representative. The principal has an independent authority over the administration, coordination, and use of resources, and he or she promotes actions meant to guarantee the standard of working out dealings. The results of this study, however, revealed that encouraging parents and members of the community to participate in school decision-making and to attend parent association meetings was found to be at an inadequate level. Đurišić and Bunijevac (2017) noted several factors that can discourage parents from contacting schools, including time poverty, lack of access, a lack of financial resources, ignorance, feelings of inadequacy, a lack of school experience, or being preoccupied with essentials.

Even though the Parent and Teachers Association and Kebele Education and Training Board have expressed the value of parental involvement in school matters in many educational directives and guidelines, little has been done to provide parents with opportunities to actively participate in discussions about how schools should be run after crisis caused by the TPLF violence. Various parents have different ideas about what involvement with their kids' school entails. Assefa et al. (2022), Đurišić and Bunijevac (2017) suggested schools must form a partnership with parents and develop mutual responsibility for the achievement of students in the educational system, according to the system of integrated support for their pupils. In this approach, parents' efforts to help schools are encouraged, parental involvement is increased, and they have a direct positive impact on a successful educational system. Children’s learning and health are supported by this partnership between parents and schools in a variety of contexts, including at home, at school, in after-school activities, and in the community (Driessen, 2021).

7. Conclusion

This study highlighted the impact of the TPLF armed violence on education and the schooling system as a whole in the north Wollo zone’s conflict-affected areas special emphasis on primary schools found in Gubalafto district and Woldiya town. In terms of the study’s main focus, students' educational attainment has been severly impacted by the TPLF armed violence, and although parents and the local community are involved in school activities to improve student-school attendance and education quality after the TPLF violence, the practical result was found at a sub-standard level. The TPLF violence had a direct or indirect impact on the reduction in students' enrolment and the rise in out-of-school children, although there are other reasons why kids leave school. To counter the destructive consequences of the TPLF violence on education and schooling, parental and local community involvement and their role played in school activities can be summed up in three dimensions. 1) After the area was retaken from the TPLF, parents and members of the local community helped restructure school activities. But at the moment right now, they are moving backwards because of the danger that the violence would flare up again and ruin their accomplishments. 2) Parents and teachers infrequently have conversations about the education and academic development of their kids. They hold that ensuring kids receive a solid education is solely the responsibility of teachers. In this situation, parents have no reason to visit the school or interact with teachers because they are unsure of any potential contribution they could make to their children’s education. 3) The small number of parents who attend parent association meetings and participate in school decision-making sessions. Only a small number of parents who belong to the member of Parents and Teachers Association are making an effort to collaborate with the school administration to solve the myriad social and academic problems caused by the TPLF armed violence.

7.1. Limitations and further study suggested

It is so wide to examine how armed violence affects all areas of the educational process and schooling services. As a result, it is impossible to perform these simultaneously. Due to the researchers' cost constraints, the primary focus of the study was limited to scrutinising the impact of the TPLF armed violence on public education viewpoints from students' educational attainment, as well as the role of parents and community involvement in government-owned primary schools. In doing so, the interplay between the TPLF's armed violence impact and students' enrolment, out-of-school students, students' learning readiness, students' drop-out, gender parity, parents' engagement in school activities, parents' collaboration with teachers to discuss student’s learning, and parents' participation in school decision making was considered. Geographically, the study was also limited to examining the impact of TPLF armed violence on students' educational attainment in the Guba Lafto district and Woldiya town conflict-affected areas. Other than the mentioned, nothing was included in this investigation and honestly, the researchers suggested research scholars and institutions explore furthermore how the TPLF armed violence affected students and their parents' health, school institutions and its implications for government to resume education.

Declarations

Author contribution statement

Yalalem Assefa; Bekalu Tadesse Moges: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.

Shouket Ahmad Tilwani; Mohd Asif Shah: Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.

Funding statement

This work was supported by Woldia University with Grant name WDU/RDO/6163/2022.

Data availability statement

Data included in article/supp. material/referenced in article.

Declaration of interest’s statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

No additional information is available for this paper.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

The following is the supplementary data related to this article: