The Ministry of Education in Yemen has stopped the interventions of the Education Cluster, which is the body concerned with coordinating donor interventions within the framework of the humanitarian needs matrix for the coming year 2024, due to its refusal to equitably distribute grants and international aid between the south and the north.

The Education Bloc had assigned 90% of the projects to the North and 10% to the South, which was rejected by the Ministry of Education as “a major imbalance in the standards and data of the degree of risk.”

It was stated in a memorandum issued by the Minister of Education, Tariq Al-Akbari, that stopping the Education Bloc’s interventions was based on the importance of the Education Bloc supporting emergency education needs in accordance with standards approved by the Ministry, to ensure quality and coordinated response throughout the country.

The memorandum added that stopping the education bloc’s interventions includes stopping the 2024 humanitarian needs matrix and all its national workshops, and holding an urgent meeting between representatives of the ministry and the education bloc.

The step taken by the Education Bloc aroused the discontent of the southerners, as they considered it “bias by the bloc towards the Houthis and giving them the largest share of aid at a rate of 90% compared to 10% for the southerners.”