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Letters

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words
On July 27, nine-year-old Soriya Thol was sitting her examinations at Tamoun Sen Chey Primary School in Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province when the shelling began. She remembers the brief stillness, then the thud that shook the tin roof of her classroom.
Within hours, the school serving 191 children was torn apart. Along with hundreds of families, Soriya fled to a displacement camp in Siem Reap, her parents carrying little more than what they could hold.
This was not an isolated tragedy. More than 1,000 schools have since closed along the Thai-Cambodian border, disrupting education for more than 24,000 students and nearly 10,000 teachers.
Globally, the scale is staggering. As of 2025, an estimated 85 million children are out of school due to conflicts and crises, up sharply from 72 million just two years earlier. More than half are girls, and at least 15 million have been forcibly displaced. Nearly half live in just five crisis settings, including Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
For children like Soriya, the impact is deeply personal. She dreams of becoming a teacher. In displacement camps, she searched in mobile classrooms for books and attended lessons in tents. When she returned home after a ceasefire, her house was half destroyed, her family’s income was reduced to a fraction of what it once was and even basic online learning became uncertain.
Teachers, meanwhile, are expected to teach and heal students simultaneously, calming traumatised children while trying to restore routine. Yet each renewed attack threatens to erase months of painstaking work overnight.
When education collapses, the damage extends far beyond classrooms. Societies lose future health workers, teachers, engineers and community leaders – the very people needed for recovery and stability.
It’s International Day of Education today. If it is to mean anything, education must stop being treated as expendable during conflict. It is not a secondary concern. It is the foundation upon which recovery, peace and every other right depend.
Somewhere in Oddar Meanchey, Soriya is still waiting for her school to rise again. Her story, multiplied by millions, is a warning the world can no longer afford to ignore.
Jade McCulloch, director of engagement, Educate a Child programme, Education Above All Foundation, and Sopheak Srey, communication and partnership manager, Action Education Cambodia
Donald Trump is dismantling the old world order
US President Donald Trump is reshaping global politics as he dismantles the predominantly white world order that characterised much of the 20th century. Instead of relying on traditional soft-power approaches, he has employed hard power, using military might to pursue his vision of what is beneficial to the United States and bolstering his own position at the same time.
Trump has not hesitated to leverage his role as commander-in-chief to target his foes. He openly embraces his role as paramount leader among predominantly white political and economic unions, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union. It is striking how leaders and members of these organisations often appear compliant, not unlike tame Persian cats, as they accommodate Trump’s directives.
His vision extends beyond mere influence; he has floated the ideas of making Canada the 51st state and of acquiring Greenland. These ambitions come equipped with both military and economic tools, leaving many allies more willing to express dissent than to take substantive action.
The other continents ought to be quietly reordering their trade markets, value chains and logistical arrangements in the meantime, while evaluating their financial structures and fiat currencies. They should be aware that, unlike the US, they cannot rely on capital markets to create wealth to support and sustain their emerging economies.
Ultimately, there seems to be an overarching goal to dismantle institutions like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. Trump might be fundamentally changing the landscape of international relations and US politics.
Joseph Chan, chairman, Silk Road Economic Development Research Centre
Let us disentangle fact from European myth
I refer to your report, “Europe’s real threat is its own inner ‘demon’, not Russia: former Chinese envoy” (January 12).
The French say plus ca change (the more things change, the more they stay the same) and the adage fully applies to their continent. As a 62-year-old Russian, I remember European newshounds crowing with delight and producing laudatory articles about their countries dismantling border checkpoints and introducing the euro. Then it seemed that the European Union’s terminus ad quem had been achieved.
In fact, there was still a world of difference between its members. That problem was at best trivialised. But a myth based on spurious reasoning needed to be exploded and the moment of truth came in 2010 when the French controversially deported gypsies back to Romania and Bulgaria.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been putting the frighteners on Nato and the alliance’s security agreement over Greenland.
Mergen Mongush, Moscow


The Global South cannot afford to let its maritime border disputes fester

Small state, big agenda: Singapore prepares to steer Asean through crisis

Thailand hits back at ‘inaccuracies’ in UN expert’s Cambodia findings

Cambodia and Thailand must define the border to achieve lasting peace

2025 Cambodia-Thailand conflict

When conflicts disrupt education, societies lose

A boy stands among adults waiting to collect supplies at Batthkav refugee camp, amid clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, in Chong Kal, Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia on December 12. Photo: Reuters


Trump’s blunt interventions risk undermining US interests

Illustration: Craig Stephens

An injured elderly woman looks out of her broken window as an apartment building was hit by a Russian drone during an aerial attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 23, 2025. Photo: AP

Thai ruling party courts voters by vowing to end Cambodia conflict, close scam hubs

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (centre) looks on as Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow (right) shakes hands with  Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn  during a meeting in China’s Yunnan province on December 29, 2025. Photo: Agence Kampuchea Presse/AFP

Damaged houses are seen in Cambodia’s Chouk Chey village following clashes between Cambodian and Thai soldiers on January 2. Photo: Agence Kampuchea Press/AFP

Why US is splurging US$45 million on Thai-Cambodian border war amid cuts in aid funding

Cambodian soldiers repatriated from Thailand  receive roses following their release on December 31, 2025. Photo: Reuters

US’ Michael DeSombre (left) shakes hands with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on Saturday. Photo: Agence Kampuchea Press/AFP

A Thai soldier keeps watch over people waiting to be screened by officials at the Second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge Immigration Checkpoint on October 23, 2025. Photo: Thai News Pix/AFP

Opinion

Readers discuss education for crisis-affected children, how Donald Trump is reshaping global politics, and the truth about Europe


Readers discuss education for crisis-affected children, how Donald Trump is reshaping global politics, and the truth about Europe.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Readers discuss education for crisis-affected children, how Donald Trump is reshaping global politics, and the truth about Europe

Readers discuss education for crisis-affected children, how Donald Trump is reshaping global politics, and the truth about Europe