Poverty looms over refugees’ success in school
As Metro Vancouver schools prepare for an influx of Syrian refugee students, a new report from the OECD finds the socioeconomic status of students makes the most difference in how well they do.
“There is nothing about being a refugee that is easy, and that includes attending school,” says the report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“A refugee who completes primary school, who is able to attend secondary school and possibly post-secondary or even tertiary education has tremendous resilience and supportive parents who likely completed at least some of their own formal education.
“Even in those contexts where access to public education is possible, there are many obstacles to participation and most of them are related to poverty.”
The report, Immigrant Students at School: Easing the Journey towards Integration, found there is no link between the number of new immigrant students and how well the school system performs on international tests.
But at the same time, larger concentrations of immigrant students are often found in poor neighbourhoods, according to the report.
Canada has the fourth highest percentage in the world of immigrant students in schools where at least half of the students are immigrants.
Students in such schools tend to perform worse than those in schools with fewer immigrant students, the report says.
About half of the world’s 19 million refugees are under the age of 18, the report says.
The report encourages countries to help immigrants, including refugees, by providing sustained language support, encouraging immigrant parents to enrol their children in highquality early childhood education and building the capacity of all schools where immigrant students attend.
Over the long term, countries should avoid concentrating students with immigrant backgrounds in disadvantaged schools, avoid grade repetition and provide extra support and guidance to immigrant parents, the report says.