Translation by Yusra Ahmed
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Prominent delegates of UNICEF has visited the Under-Siege Neighbourhood of Alwaer in Homs, yesterday Monday and found severe shortage of teaching facilities and increasing risk of children who miss the opportunity of teaching.
Zaman Al Wasl reporter said UNICEF delegation was headed by Anthony Lake, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund “UNICEF” , had visited the teaching facilities in al-Waer funded by UNICEF.
Lake and the local teaching staff discussed the reality of education services and problems of certificates, and other psychological and mental difficulties children suffer due to the war and violent environment.
Education situation in al-Waer is extremely difficult, because of long and severe siege which caused shortage of school books and teaching aids, besides closing schools for long time during academic year resulted from sniping and shelling.
Moreover, most schools have become unsuitable for teaching because of severe damage and using them as shelters for displaced people.
In its report “Education under fire” September, 2015, UNICEF mentioned that the conflict in Syria has displaced 7.6 million people inside the country , and driven more than four million refugees abroad, mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan . Families from Syria have featured strongly among the desperate migrants arriving in Europe recently, and among those who were killed in the attempt.
Conflicts in Syria have reached new levels, as killing, abduction and arbitrary arrest of students, teachers and education personnel have become common.
Education facilities have been occupied and used as bases or detention centres by armed groups and forces or as sheltering centres. As a result of poverty resulted by the conflict, children are increasingly exploited, forced to leave school and take up jobs often in poor conditions and for minimal wages. Girls at ages under 15 are being pushed to marry to relieve economic strains on their families. Failure to resolve an increasingly brutal conflict is threatening an entire generation of children, and the education system is paying a massive price.
The report detailed that one in four schools cannot be used because they have been damaged, destroyed, or are being used as shelters for the internally displaced or for military purposes. The lack of safe learning environments coupled with a number of other factors like unsafe routes to and from school, discrimination, insecurity, displacement, shortages of teachers and supplie, would increase the number of children who drop out of school.
Moreover, the report mentioned that in Syria today, at least 20% of children have to cross active lines of conflict just to take their examinations, In neighbouring countries where Syrian children have sought refuge, more than 700,000 children are not in school, especially in Turkey and Lebanon. Schools receiving Syrian children are over-crowded and under-resourced. In some cases schools are far and parents are not able to pay for the transportation. Syrian refugee children struggle to adapt to the host country curriculum and to the local language and dialect.
Syria’s teachers according the UNICEF’s report, have paid a particularly heavy price. Since the beginning of the crisis, almost one quarter of the country’s teaching personnel - some 52,500 teachers and 523 school counsellors have left their posts. Even those Syrian teachers who have ended up as refugees in other countries have faced other obstacles which prevent them from working.
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Prominent delegates of UNICEF has visited the Under-Siege Neighbourhood of Alwaer in Homs, yesterday Monday and found severe shortage of teaching facilities and increasing risk of children who miss the opportunity of teaching.
Zaman Al Wasl reporter said UNICEF delegation was headed by Anthony Lake, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund “UNICEF” , had visited the teaching facilities in al-Waer funded by UNICEF.
Lake and the local teaching staff discussed the reality of education services and problems of certificates, and other psychological and mental difficulties children suffer due to the war and violent environment.
Education situation in al-Waer is extremely difficult, because of long and severe siege which caused shortage of school books and teaching aids, besides closing schools for long time during academic year resulted from sniping and shelling.
Moreover, most schools have become unsuitable for teaching because of severe damage and using them as shelters for displaced people.
In its report “Education under fire” September, 2015, UNICEF mentioned that the conflict in Syria has displaced 7.6 million people inside the country , and driven more than four million refugees abroad, mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan . Families from Syria have featured strongly among the desperate migrants arriving in Europe recently, and among those who were killed in the attempt.
Conflicts in Syria have reached new levels, as killing, abduction and arbitrary arrest of students, teachers and education personnel have become common.
Education facilities have been occupied and used as bases or detention centres by armed groups and forces or as sheltering centres. As a result of poverty resulted by the conflict, children are increasingly exploited, forced to leave school and take up jobs often in poor conditions and for minimal wages. Girls at ages under 15 are being pushed to marry to relieve economic strains on their families. Failure to resolve an increasingly brutal conflict is threatening an entire generation of children, and the education system is paying a massive price.
The report detailed that one in four schools cannot be used because they have been damaged, destroyed, or are being used as shelters for the internally displaced or for military purposes. The lack of safe learning environments coupled with a number of other factors like unsafe routes to and from school, discrimination, insecurity, displacement, shortages of teachers and supplie, would increase the number of children who drop out of school.
Moreover, the report mentioned that in Syria today, at least 20% of children have to cross active lines of conflict just to take their examinations, In neighbouring countries where Syrian children have sought refuge, more than 700,000 children are not in school, especially in Turkey and Lebanon. Schools receiving Syrian children are over-crowded and under-resourced. In some cases schools are far and parents are not able to pay for the transportation. Syrian refugee children struggle to adapt to the host country curriculum and to the local language and dialect.
Syria’s teachers according the UNICEF’s report, have paid a particularly heavy price. Since the beginning of the crisis, almost one quarter of the country’s teaching personnel - some 52,500 teachers and 523 school counsellors have left their posts. Even those Syrian teachers who have ended up as refugees in other countries have faced other obstacles which prevent them from working.
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