There's no school for lots of kids across the Middle East and North Africa. And it may be a long time before many get to see the inside of a classroom again. UNICEF reports that more than 13 million children across the region are not getting an education as a result of conflict and war.

Using data collected in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, UNICEF presents a picture of a lost generation of students. In Yemen, for example, the Saudi-led bombing campaign to defeat Yemen's Houthi rebels has damaged many civilian buildings, including thousands of schools. As of August, 2015 at least 1.8 million Yemeni children were without an education.

The UNICEF study, Education Under Fire, found up to 9,000 schools across the region damaged or destroyed. "And we believe this is also one of the reasons that is fuelling the refugee crisis," says Sarah Crowe, Chief of Crisis Communications for UNICEF. She sees a direct link between the high numbers of refugees this summer and migrating parents wanting to get their children educated. "What we saw earlier in the summer were a lot of single men. And we're now seeing a dramatic increase in the number of children and women. Since the beginning of this year until June it's already been a 75 percent increase in the number of children and women coming through. And since the beginning of 2014, a quarter of a million children under 18 have been seeking asylum in the EU."

The UNICEF study highlights the dearth of educational opportunities in war zones. "Children are having to go to class, if they're lucky, in schools which are bombed out," she says. "And schools that should be a safe haven, that should be a place of learning have often been taken over by rebels, by military forces, and turned from places of learning into places of conflict."

Crowe says UNICEF in the short term is beefing up temporary facilities in and around Syria, for example, trying to get more children into the existing schools, and serving families on the move. She says, long term, educational systems must be restored. "This is not just about these 13 million children," Crowe says. "Today's teachers are not able to teach children to become tomorrow's teachers, engineers, and doctors. All forms of professions and workers are not going to be coming out of those schools because of this crisis. So it has a domino effect and it's extremely worrying. The future of those nations are at stake, too."