Lebanese education minister announces that Lebanon is to provide free school education for tens of thousands more children this year including Syrian refugees.
Lebanon is to provide schooling for tens of thousands more children this year including Syrian refugees, the education ministry said on Monday (September 21), as the country tries to cope with the effects of the war next door.
Funding from international donors, UN refugee agency UNHCR and children’s fund UNICEF could see up to 100,000 more Syrian children, twice the number of last year, attend public schools for free, the ministry and organisations announced at a joint news conference.
“All of the represented countries here today are creating a supporting education opportunity for children in Lebanon including vulnerable Lebanese as well as Syrian refugee children. With the support of the international community, his excellency the minister has doubled the number of available spaces for non Lebanese children in public schools and illuminated the cost for all parent contributions to their children schooling,” UNICEF representative in Lebanon, Tanya Chapuisat, told the attendees.
“100,000 more non Lebanese children than last year now have the opportunity to enroll in public schools across the country. We believe this opportunity for children symbolizes the depth of the Lebanese hospitality, setting an excellent example for the rest of the world,” she added.
With Lebanon hosting the highest proportion of Syrian refugees – 1.1 million in a country of 4 million people – some public schools already have more Syrian than Lebanese students.
Lebanon stopped UNHCR registering Syrian refugees in May in an attempt to cope with large numbers of people fleeing the four-year-old civil war.
“You all know the impact of the crisis in Europe, and how much they felt its danger. 120,000 refugees in the whole of Europe shook the world. A million and a half refugees for 4 million people in Lebanon – what do you think this has caused for us?” Education Minister Elias Bou Saab said.
The foreign minister recently called on other Arab countries and the wider international community to share the burden in hosting Syria’s 4 million refugees, most of whom are in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
International donors and organisations have provided $94 million for the “Back to school” campaign, which could see up to 367,000 children through middle school attend for free including 200,000 Syrians.
Many schools will be required to operate extra classes to accommodate the numbers.
There remain some 200,000 refugee children not enrolled in formal education in Lebanon, according to UNICEF, including children working to provide for their families.
Syria’s civil war has killed an estimated 250,000 people, and many continue to flee their homes, with 4 million refugees and another 7.6 million displaced inside the country.