A recent international study shows an increase in violent attacks on higher educational institutions in across the world. The US-based Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) conducted the survey of in 70 countries between 2009 and 2013.

The researchers revealed a total of 9,600 schools were either smashed or shattered by assaults including air and missile strikes, burnings, bombings, shootings and raiding during the study period. Students, staff and education trade union officials were reported to have been abducted and held captive. There were also reports of forced seizures of education institutions in war-struck zones.

Pakistan was the worst affected country followed by Afghanistan, Colombia, Somalia, Sudan and Syria, where at least 1,000 attacks or armed seizures were documented in each country between 2009 and 2012. In Pakistan, more than 800 schools were attacked, mainly through explosions during the same period.

Most of the attacks were reported in civil unrest or war-torn countries. At least 500 cases of attacks were recorded in Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Libya, Mexico and Yemen. However, in Mexico, drugs trade was the main cause of the attacks.

Diya Nijhowne, the director of the GCPEA, said that students were not only trapped in the crossfire in many countries but were targeted on purpose.

"Many individuals are bombed, burned, shot, threatened or abducted for attending classes or doing their job at school or university," Nijhowne said. "Many schools and universities are deliberately attacked because they are soft, easy targets, or to undermine government control - a tactic of war," the Guardian reports.

The researchers urged the governments, United Nations and other peacekeeping organisations to improve protection for educational institutions. They should also prevent schools and universities to be used for military purposes.

In the survey, the researchers found that school buildings were used as bases for weapons caches, prisons and torture chambers in 24 countries for several years.

"More schools and universities could be protected from attack if state military forces and armed groups agreed to stop using them as military facilities," Nijhowne said.

A similar study was conducted by UNESCO in 2010. When compared to the recent survey, the study comprised of just 30 countries.