Crisis in the Middle East: 13 Million children not at school
Due to the brutal conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, 13 million children are unable to attend school, according to a report published recently by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
The lack of hope for their children's education and future is one reason why families are fleeing their crisis-hit homelands and seeking refuge in Europe.
By far the largest share of the roughly four million Syrian refugees is still in neighbouring countries: Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. They are trying to get their children to school, with support from UNICEF. Despite this, more than half of the boys and girls there have no educational opportunities, which is why UNICEF is calling urgently for more support for children in the countries bordering Syria.
"The destruction caused by these conflicts is affecting children all over the region," said Peter Salama, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa."Not only schools lie in ruins, but with them the dreams and futures of an entire generation."
The report "Education Under Fire" documents the various factors contributing to these children missing out on education: almost 9000 schools in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya have been destroyed or cannot be used. Thousands of teachers have fled and in many places, parents are not sending their children to school for fear that they will be killed on the way.
Countries hosting large numbers of refugees, such as Lebanon, are overwhelmed and not in a position to integrate so many children in their schools. Financial difficulties are leading to an increasing number of refugee children having to work or marry, while still in their teens.
As a result, in Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, an average of 53 per cent of refugee boys and girls of school age have no access to education.
UNICEF's work includes running schools in the refugee camps in Jordan, supporting 600 school clubs inside Syria, with courses for children to catch up on missed school. It provides camp schools in Turkey with furniture and materials, and distributes satchels, exercise books and pens to displaced children in Iraq.
However, more donations are urgently needed to give more refugee children in the region the hope of an education and a future. So far, only 2 per cent of international aid pledged for educational programmes has been made available.