Life in a refugee camp is not easy for Syrian Children.

 

LONDON—As the Syrian crisis spills over into another year, millions of Syrian children are still suffering from violence and displacement. Above all, experts are worrying that their lack of access to education will have profound consequences on Syria and beyond. 

In October 2013, UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) launched the No Lost Generation initiative to provide education and protection to Syrian refugee children. However, the initiative focuses more on providing psychosocial support and promoting access to learning rather than actually helping set up schools for refugee children to attend, said Dawn Chatty, former director of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford.
 

In addition, the initiative is underfunded. “There will be a lost generation unless more money is put into this effort, ” Chatty said. Most refugee children are in camps and they do not automatically have access to schools in those countries. Chatty said it is difficult for them to enroll, and the governments have been very slow on permitting them because it would mean having to open a second afternoon shift for schools.
 

Most refugee children from Syria are not in school. In Lebanon for example, 80 percent of the school-aged children of refugees from Syria are not in school either because they do not have any access, they cannot afford it, or they are too far away from the nearest school, Chatty said. In some cases, they are afraid to go to school because of increased discrimination, harassment or bullying, she added.
 

“This is a very serious problem because it means that a generation of Syrians will grow up without education, and that will make it difficult to rebuild the country in the future,” she warned.

 

Jiang Hong is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.