The impact of armed violence on educational institutions, students’ educational attainment and the role of actors in governance of the education process

The main purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) armed violence on educational institutions, students’ educational attainments, and the role of actors playing in school governance and redirecting the education process. This study was positioned to yield preliminary evidence which can serve as input for concerned bodies when designing intervention programs in the study area that aims to give a response to the spoiled education system brought by the violence. In doing so, a convergent mixed-method research design was used. The study sample was bounded to n = 398 participants. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously, and the analysis was drawn upon both strands in search of patterns. As a result, the following findings were obtained. The TPLF armed violence instigated the destruction of school infrastructures and generated substantial impediments to the supply of schooling. As a result, students’ educational attainment and learning outcomes were significantly lowered as compared to before the violence. As well, students’ dropout rate, out-of-school students’ rate, and related educational wastage have been amplified. This, in turn, requires sound school governance and the active participation of all actors including parents and the local community at large be part of the solutions for those educational issues hampered by the TPLF violence. In the end, possible conclusions and suggestions were made. © 2023 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.