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As It Is
U.N.: Millions of Refugee Children Cannot Attend School
September 19, 2016
Syrian refugee children pose before the visit of actress Angelina Jolie to hold
a news conference at Azraq refugee camp for Syrians displaced by conflict, near
Al Azraq city, Jordan, Sept. 9, 2016.
Syrian refugee children pose before the visit of actress Angelina Jolie to hold
a news conference at Azraq refugee camp for Syrians displaced by conflict, near
Al Azraq city, Jordan, Sept. 9, 2016.
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World leaders will gather at United Nations headquarters in New York this week f
or the yearly meetings of the U.N. General Assembly.
The leaders have been invited to a special summit on refugees and economic migra
nts. They will discuss ways to improve the international community s reaction to t
he growing number of refugees and migrants worldwide.
The world s refugee crisis is now as bad as it was during World War II, according
to The New York Times newspaper.
The leaders are expected to talk about access to education for refugee children.
When families flee from countries because of war or political insecurity, the c
hildren leave behind not only their homes but, in many cases, their education.
That is the subject of a new report from the United Nations refugee agency.
The report says that 3.7 million children under the U.N. agency s mandate are unab
le to attend school. The situation gets worse as the children get older. The per
centage drops from 50 percent for young children to 22 percent at secondary scho
ol age.
U.N. information also shows that only one percent of refugees attend a universit
y, compared to 34 percent of the world s population.
As refugee children grow, their chances for education severely decrease. Source:
2016 UNHCR Report Missing Out: Refugee Education in Crisis
As refugee children grow, their chances for education severely decrease. Source:
2016 UNHCR Report Missing Out: Refugee Education in Crisis
Filippo Grandi is the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. In a statement, he sa
id that refugee education is, too often, terribly ignored. Grandi also said he w

ould like to change that.

In his words, education is one of the few opportunities we have to transform and
build the next generation of refugees so that they can improve the futures of the
many millions of forcibly displaced people.
The issue of providing refugees with an education is more difficult because of t
he expanding population and a lack of necessary financing.
According to the U.N. report, the population of school-age children grew by 30 p
ercent in 2014. That number requires an extra 20,000 teachers.
Many host nations already struggle to provide simple, but necessary services for
refugees. But now, they must also find a place to hold classes and a way to pur
chase additional school supplies.
Often, the children struggle in their studies after missing several years of sch
ool and do not speak the local language.
"As the international community considers how best to deal with the refugee cris
is, it is essential that we think beyond basic survival," Grandi said.
"Education enables refugees to positively shape the future of both their countri
es of asylum and their home countries when they one day return."
Refugees from Syria, for example, have been in the news as the Syrian conflict c
ontinues for a sixth year. Countries from Turkey to those across Europe must dec
ide what to do to assist the families that have fled the fighting.
The U.N. refugee agency says there are about 1.7 million Syrian refugees who sho
uld be in school; however, 900,000 of them are not.
The agency has asked international donors for $4.54 billion this year to aid Syr
ian refugees. Financing for education involves $662 million of that request. As
of June, the U.N. had collected only 39 percent of that total.
In 2015, most of the donations for this education program arrived in the final t
wo months of the year. U.N. officials said this hurt the ability of host countri
es to make effective long-term plans for schooling.
The U.N. is asking donors to provide dependable funding over many years to help
those countries better plan for providing teachers and supplies. It also urges t
he host governments to include refugees in their national education systems inst
ead of separate schools. Those schools cannot easily be supervised in the same w
ay to guarantee their effectiveness.
The new report discusses the helpful effects of education, saying it helps child
ren avoid child labor and membership in armed groups. It also said that not prov
iding schooling only extends conflict and leads to more people being displaced.
"There is solid evidence that quality education gives children a place of safety
and can also reduce child marriage, child labor, exploitative and dangerous wor
k, and teenage pregnancy," the report says.
I m Jill Robbins. And I'm Alice Bryant.
Chris Hannas wrote this story for VOANews.com. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learn
ing English. George Grow was the editor.
_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

summit
n. a meeting or series of meetings between the leaders of two or more gov
ernments
migrant
access

n. a person who goes from one place to another especially to find work
n. a way of being able to use or get something

mandate

n. an official order to do something

transform

v. to change (something) completely and usually in a good way

forcibly displaced this phrase describes people who are forced to leave their ho
mes, often because of war or political unrest
host adj. In the context of this story, the word host describes countries that rec
eive refugees. Sometimes we say host countries or host nations." Other times, we ma
y say host governments.
essential
enable

adj. extremely important and necessary

v. to make (someone or something) able to do or to be something

long-term

adj. lasting for, relating to, or involving a long period of time

exploitative adj. a word describing work that uses (someone or something) in a w

ay that helps someone else unfairly
Are there refugees in your country? Do the children attend regular schools or se
parate schools? Are the children able to attend school? We want to hear from you
. Write to us in the Comments Section.
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