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LAHJ, Yemen: Crammed under a tattered tent on rough wooden benches, Yemeni children are learning Arabic grammar — lucky to receive an education at all in a country hammered by years of war.
The children, some without shoes or textbooks, were born into a divided state where fighting has destroyed nearly 3,000 schools. Those that remain are plagued by power cuts and a lack of running water. Al-Ribat Al-Gharbi school near Aden, in Yemen’s government-controlled south, is a typical case, with frequent power outages, no water supply, and a shortage of trained teachers.
Next to the crowded tent, teacher Suad Saleh is doing her best with another large group of kids in a cheap temporary building.
“Each class has more than 105 or 110 students,” she said.
“With this overcrowding, most of them can neither read nor write,” she said.
Her rudimentary classroom is so packed that many children are sitting on the tiled floor, exercise books on their laps.
“It takes me 10 minutes just to quiet them down,” she said.
The plight of Yemen’s schools, which reflects the country’s humanitarian crisis, also signals difficulties for future development, hampered by an uneducated population.
More than 4.5 million children in the country of 40 million have been denied access to education, according to Unicef.
Each morning at Al-Ribat Al-Gharbi, students grab packets of UN-provided fortified biscuits to stave off hunger. “The main problems are the absence of suitable classrooms, almost no electricity, and no running water,” along with a lack of trained teachers, said deputy principal Mohammed Al-Mardahi.
Many professional teachers have quit, despairing at the low pay. 
“We work for a very small salary — 50,000 Yemeni rials ($31) — what can that do for us in these circumstances?” said Saleh.
Schools in Houthi areas face similar issues, with teachers frequently unpaid.
Donor funds helped train more than 150 female teachers and rebuild 30-plus schools, including Aden’s Al-Haram Al-Jami’i, according to Saudi aid officials.
There, the classrooms offer a stark contrast to the dilapidated government schools, with new desks, whiteboards, and fans, and students in bright uniforms.
“Students from this area used to travel far to reach schools, which caused hardship for both them and their parents,” said principal Fathiya Al-Afifi.
But even with the injection of aid, war still hangs heavy over everyday life. For Al-Afifi, the school principal, the destruction of Yemen’s education system has been nothing short of “catastrophic.”
“Stopping education has had a terrible impact ... An entire generation can neither read nor write,” she said.
“This is a disaster.”