Houthi Militia Threatens Sanaa School Closures to Enforce Military Mobilization

The Houthi militia has threatened dozens of private schools in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, with fines and closure unless they comply with orders to remove students and teachers from classrooms for rallies promoting the group’s military escalation and glorifying its leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

School sources report that Houthi officials have mandated at least three student marches and rallies per week, both on school grounds and in nearby streets, disrupting classroom hours and transforming schools into platforms for political propaganda and military mobilization.

Since seizing control of Sanaa, the authorities have revised school curricula and introduced sectarian and mobilization activities, drawing warnings from human rights groups and the United Nations over the ideological indoctrination and military recruitment of children.

Administrators in the Safiya, Sabeen, Azal, Wehda, and Tahrir districts have resisted these orders, facing pressure from parents threatening to withdraw their children due to disrupted lessons and activities unrelated to education.

The education ministry in the Houthi-run government has responded by threatening a range of penalties against non-compliant schools.

These threats coincide with a stepped-up military escalation across several provinces and accusations that the militia is seeking to recruit more fighters from among the student population.

Annual school license renewals have been repurposed as a pressure tactic to force administrators into implementing mobilization programs, sparking widespread anger among educators and communities who view the measures as a blatant violation of children’s right to education and a direct threat to their future.

Education professionals have expressed growing alarm at mobilization events imposed on schools, with students forced to participate daily.

One anonymous parent in Sanaa reported that after being told their children must attend mobilization rallies, they voiced concern: “We can barely afford tuition and transportation, and now they want to turn our children into tools for their activities. We fear this could eventually go beyond marches and lead to our children being sent to the frontlines.”

A teacher in the Azal district stated that the rallies are eating into school schedules and taking time away from core subjects, adding that teachers who refuse to mobilize students or make them chant Houthi slogans face threats of disciplinary action and penalties.

Private schools in Sanaa have seen enrollment rise during years of war as families fled deteriorating public education and teacher strikes, but these schools now face Houthi financial levies and ideological scrutiny.

A private school principal in the Tahrir district of central Sanaa condemned the use of license renewals to pressure administrators into implementing mobilization programs, warning that schools are caught between Houthi threats of closure and parents threatening to withdraw their children over disrupted lessons, putting the education of hundreds of students at risk.

The mounting pressure threatens to deepen an unprecedented collapse in education across Houthi-controlled areas, where tens of thousands of teachers have gone unpaid for years and face worsening living conditions.

The Houthis have refused to pay salaries to approximately 170,000 teachers and education employees in areas under their control since 2016, despite collecting billions of Yemeni rials in taxes and annual fees imposed on educational institutions.

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