SANAA, Yemen — Due to the lack of teachers and regular classes in his rural school in the Otomah district of Dhamar governorate, Mohammed Qaid decided in 2019 to disrupt his education and travel nearly 100 miles to work in the capital, Sanaa. Since then, the 16-year-old Yemeni has been selling blankets on the sidewalk at al-Hasaba flea market.

“I quit school in the sixth grade to work as a blanket seller,” Qaid told Al-Monitor. “Most of the teaching staff were [often] absent. Those who attended were not good. I was leaving the class as I attended it — without any new information.”

Qaid is one of "over 2 million" school-age children that UNICEF said in early July "are now out of school as poverty, conflict and lack of opportunities disrupt their education." UNICEF added in its report, "For six years on, Yemeni children's education has become one of the greatest casualties of Yemen's devastating and ongoing conflict."

Qaid says his father insists that he study in Sanaa, but he feels "embarrassed to return to study in the sixth grade as a 16-year-old. If I could study in eighth or ninth grade, I can return to school," Qaid added, saying he couldn't study with young boys now that he has become a teenager.