Iraqeni in Siria

Gulf News

In Syria, which has absorbed the majority of Iraqi refugees, educational difficulties have become widespread. On top of the mental stresses and missed classes due to war, Iraqi students face long commutes to schools that can accommodate them and pressing financial needs that pull them out of school to earn money for their families.

"The danger is a generation of Iraqi children ill-equipped to participate in the economy of their country," says Sherazade Boualia, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) office in Syria, which spends $6 million (Dh22 million) on its education initiative. "It is also fertile ground for exploitation, early marriage, and poverty."

Extra classes

At the brightly painted Sabaa school in Sayda Zeinab, a suburb of Damascus, Tamara Al Shaikha has spent her summer taking catch-up classes. An 18-year-old Iraqi refugee, Tamara had to repeat a year of school after her education in Iraq was disrupted by the sectarian violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.

The summer classes Tamara is taking are part of multiple efforts to improve access to education by the Syrian government, Unicef, and the European Union. These groups are also funding vocational training centres and training teachers in the specific needs of the Iraqi community. Such efforts, advocates say, are necessary to the future prosperity of Iraq.

But the challenges are numerous. Ameenah Meza’al, Sabaa’s headmistress, says she has seen many of her Iraqi students drop out in the past two years. Enrolment among Iraqi children in Syrian schools has dropped 30 per cent since last year, according to Elizabeth Campbell of Refugees International, a US-based advocacy organisation, and many of those students who do attend show up irregularly.

While Jordan has also opened its borders — and schools — to refugees, Syria in particular is struggling.

"The needs in Syria are greatest as the majority of the Iraqi refugee community lives there. They also tend to be from a lower economic class," says Campbell.

"There is often a need for children to work or the family can’t afford basic costs such as books and uniforms," she adds.

Many refugees, who are not allowed to work legally in Syria, are relying on now-depleted savings and remittances. "To be successful, the needs of the entire family must be met," says Campbell.

Then there are the individual needs of the students, many of whom have had irregular or patchy schooling in recent years. "We have to try to find a common knowledge and work from there," says math teacher Ali Shaa. "It can be slow."

Gailan Rashid, a 16-year-old who has missed five years of school in order to work in a textiles factory, is now attending evening classes once a week.

via arab-reform.net