What the world owes refugee children
Countries that have relative peace and security must come forward to solve the crisis
Last year, images of desperate refugees, many of them children, stirred our collective conscience and prompted world leaders to take action, but a year of political upheaval has diverted media attention from the refugees’ plight. Against the backdrop of Brexit, terrorist attacks and elections in the United States, France, and Britain, we have lost sight of the fact that the refugee crisis is getting worse.
On World Refugee Day (June 20), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched its #WithRefugees petition, to remind governments that they must work together to end the crisis. Indeed, a renewed sense of urgency is needed.
All refugees and asylum-seekers need help, but children are especially vulnerable. One of the best ways to mitigate their plight is to provide them with an education. And yet host countries, which are often near war zones, have struggled to integrate refugee children into their education systems. Among UNHCR-registered refugees, including those fleeing from Afghanistan and Somalia, 3.75 million children — 900,000 of them Syrians — are not in school. All told, the chance that a refugee child will be deprived of schooling is five times higher than the global average.
This is a stain on the international community. It is crucial that refugee children receive an education, so that they can someday return to their home countries with the skills and knowledge needed to create functioning states. One young refugee girl I met wants to do just that. When I asked her about her future plans, she told me that her dream was to become an engineer so that she could rebuild her country.
Education is also a vital instrument for combating violent extremism, which can capture the minds of young people with no hope for the future. And school attendance is essential for children’s welfare, because it gives them access to basic healthcare services and protects them from the horrors of child labour and prostitution.
Fortunately, countries such as Greece, which is on the front line of the refugee crisis in Europe, are now adding more permanent education provisions to their refugeecare model. But, in Lebanon, we have had to resort to creative thinking to accommodate the influx of refugees from Syria.
When Syrian refugees first arrived, Lebanon’s education system was already in need of repair and reform. Now, Lebanon is host to some two million migrants, including 1.5 million Syrian refugees, in addition to its population of 3.75 million. With one refugee for every two citizens, Lebanon is dealing with a massive rise in demand for public services such as health care and education.
In addition to the 250,000 Lebanese students in the state school system, the Lebanese government has had to find a way to educate 450,000 Syrian children. To help meet this need, we have created the Reaching all Children with Education (RACE) initiative, focused on improving access to formal education for Syrian refugees and underprivileged Lebanese.
Shouldering the burden
Because it is crucial that we provide an education for all children, we have had to stretch our resources as far as possible. Today, many school-age Syrian refugees are studying under the same teachers as their Lebanese peers, and many of our schools are running double shifts in mornings and afternoons to accommodate refugees.
So far, Lebanon has already accommodated around 40 per cent of all UNHCRregistered school-age refugee children. Annually, this outlay costs approximately $343 (Dh1,261) for each Syrian child studying in the morning shift, and $550 for a child in the afternoon shift. It is neither fair nor sustainable for Lebanon to shoulder this burden alone.
Although the 2016 Supporting Syria and the Region Conference in London garnered aid pledges totalling $12 billion, many of these funds have been severely delayed or have never materialised. A recent study from children’s charity Theirworld finds that just $400 million of the $1.4 billion pledged for education has been delivered so far. Remote-learning tools would be especially useful for educating children in refugee communities. One good teacher would be able to reach anywhere that has satellite technology, solar-powered computer hardware, and an interactive live feed.
This is the idea behind Teach to Reach Remote Classrooms (TRC), a UNHCRfunded distance-learning programme overseen by the Varkey Foundation.
Leaders around the world, especially those who have been recently elected, should put responding to the global refugee crisis at the top of their agendas.
To that end, I was proud to join the Atlantis Group as a founding member. After launching at the Global Education & Skills Forum this year, we are bringing together former education ministers and heads of state from around the world to advise governments and policymakers on tackling the major issues of our time, not least refugee education.
The world cannot expect a small group of countries on the borders of war zones to bear sole responsibility for displaced people. To solve the refugee crisis, countries that are fortunate enough to have peace and security must do their part.