As the violence continues to rock the country, many schools and health centres have shut down or simply been destroyed. An increasing number of Syrian families are fleeing the country resulting in taking the children out of school and putting a halt to their education.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners launched the Syria Regional Response Plan which aims at ensuring that the refugee children can continue their education in host countries and allocates about 15% of sectorial aid to education which provides just for the partner organizations including UNICEF, UNESCO, Save the Children to cover basic expenses such as renting schools, supplying necessary materials and supporting school registration fees, among others.

UNICEF’s awareness campaign Back-To-School has been finalised for Lebanon and Iraq which is envisaged to provide basic education supplies, additional teachers, psychological support and remedial classes.

The governments of the host countries have granted access to all Syrian refugee children to attend schools. In Jordan, UNICEF and Save the Children are facilitating the registration of Syrian refugee children who are willing to attend school. UNICEF has estimated that Jordan immediately needs around USD 6.5 million for 5,000 children; in Lebanon, the enrolment of the children in public schools is underway; in Iraq, an additional 5 prefabricated classrooms are planned to be opened in the camp; and in Turkey, the government continues to provide education at pre-school, primary and secondary levels to the children and adolescents.

Currently, it is estimated that USD 65 million is needed to provide basic services to the refugees. So far USD 24.6 million has been funded but a gross amount of USD 40 million is still needed. The education sector is requiring 16.1 million in funding out of which USD 7.7 million has been funded with an estimated gap of 8.4 million. It is also expected that the requirements will be doubled given the fact that the number of Syrians fleeing the country is increasing day by day, as does the number of children out of school.

In this regard, Education International is urgently asking its affiliates around the world to call their respective governments to help and to lobby the donor communities to increase their aid to ensure access to education and basic services for Syrian refugee children.

The demands for access to education for Syrian refugees are increasing as the new school year is starting in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey.

EI is grateful for your solidarity in support of Syrian refugee children.