UNICEF documented in 2024 that over 1,600 schools had closed nationwide due to gang violence and occupation of educational facilities by armed groups, affecting 243,000 students and 7,500 teachers. The school closures represented both a direct humanitarian impact on children’s education and development and a long-term investment in the social conditions — poverty, lack of opportunity, desperation — that gang networks exploited for recruitment.
The pattern of school closures was not evenly distributed but concentrated in areas of gang activity where schools had been occupied as gang bases, sheltered displaced populations, or simply become too dangerous for children and teachers to access safely. In these neighborhoods, children who should have been in class were instead confined to homes or displacement sites, with their educational development effectively on hold for months or years.
Gang recruitment of children was directly connected to the school closure crisis. Children who were not in school, who had no structured daily activities, and who lived in environments where gang members represented the most visible models of power and economic success were more vulnerable to recruitment offers. UNICEF documented that child recruitment had continued to increase in 2024, with the structural conditions — closed schools, displaced families, extreme poverty — providing fertile ground for gang recruiters.
Education organizations called for specific measures to maintain learning continuity for children affected by school closures, including mobile learning programs, radio-based instruction, and safe learning spaces in displacement sites. They argued that maintaining children’s education was not just a development goal but an urgent protection measure that reduced vulnerability to gang recruitment and the long-term human capital consequences of lost schooling.