More than half of the nearly 500,000 school-age Syrian children registered in Lebanon are not enrolled in formal education, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Tuesday (July 19th).
Although Lebanon, which is hosting 1.1 million registered Syrian refugees, has allowed Syrian children to enroll for free in public schools, limited resources and policies on residency and work for Syrians are keeping children out of the classroom, the report said.
The report documents the steps Lebanon has taken to allow Syrian children to access public schools. But HRW found some schools have not complied with enrollment policies, and that more donor support is needed for Syrian families and for Lebanon’s public school system.
Lebanon also is undermining its positive education policy by imposing harsh residency requirements that restrict refugees’ freedom of movement and exacerbate poverty, limiting parents’ ability to send their children to school and contributing to child labour, the report said.
"Despite Lebanon’s progress in enrolling Syrian children, the huge number of children still out of school is an immediate crisis, requiring bold reforms," said Bassam Khawaja of HRW's children’s rights division.
Access to education is crucial to help refugee children cope with the trauma of war and displacement, and gain the skills to play a positive role in host countries like Lebanon and in the eventual reconstruction and future of Syria, HRW said.
