April 2015 — This report, commissioned by UNICEF, sought to answer the question: Are countries where some ethnic or religious groups have systematically lower levels of education more likely to experience civil conflict than those where all groups have equal access to school? Findings from the study show that in most recent years, countries with higher levels of horizontal inequalities (i.e., inequalities between ethnic, religious and subnational groups) in terms of mean years of schooling have been substantially more likely to experience violent conflict. The report offers plausible explanations, including the increasingly severe implications of educational exclusion on individuals’ life prospects, and suggests avenues for future research and data collection.
