Why is it that schools and schoolchildren have become such high-profile targets for murderous Islamist militants? The 147 students killed in an attack by the extremist group Al-Shabab at a college close to Kenya’s border with Somalia are only the latest victims in a succession of outrages in which educational institutions have been singled out for attack

In the past five years, there have been nearly 10,000 attacks on schools and educational establishments.

Next week will mark the first anniversary of the extremist group Boko Haram’s night-time abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitories in Chibok, in Nigeria’s northern Borno state.

In the depraved minds of terrorists, each attack has its own simple logic; the latest shootings, for example, are revenge by Al-Shabab for Kenya’s intervention in Somalia’s civil war.

Until recently, we have done far too little to protect schools and prevent their militarization during times of conflict.

More recently, as more than 80 pupils in South Sudan were taking their annual exams, fighters invaded their school and kidnapped them at gunpoint.

In a year when there are more local conflicts than ever – and in which children have become among the first (and forgotten) casualties – it is urgent that we make stopping attacks on schools a high priority.

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