The Widening Educational Gap for Syrian Refugee Children
The Syria Crisis started in March 2011, when peaceful anti-government uprisings, as part of the Arab Spring, spiraled quickly into a civil war. Over 12 million Syrians – more than half of the country's pre-war population – have been displaced from their homes. Several millions are internally displaced while over 5.5 million Syrians are registered as refugees in the neighbouring countries. Syrian refugee children have faced all kinds of barriers to access education in neighbouring countries, ranging from restrictive government policies, to poor socioeconomic conditions (leading to negative coping mechanisms such as child labour and child marriage), to children being harrassed or bullied on the way to or in schools by bus drivers, teachers and other students. This report analyses the different barriers to education that Syrian refugee children face in the five countries that together carry the biggest refugee burden: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.