(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian refugee camps in Arsal in Lebanon started school year Saturday for the three school levels: primary, intermediate and secondary school.
Administrative clerk in Qaryat Hayat School Ibrahim al-Sheikh mentioned that the number of Syrian students enrolled in the schools in the Arsal camps reached 5000 students at all school levels. The students are distributed to 8 schools dedicated to the education of Syrians and adhere to the curriculum of the Ministry of Education in the Syrian Interim Government. The schools are Qaryat Hayat 1, Qaryat Hayat 2, Bunat al-Mustaqbal, al-Shudada, Sham, Mulhim, Baraem al-Bunyan and al-Azhar.
Al-Sheikh indicated that the difficulties facing the educational process in Arsal camps are the absence of salaries for teachers working in these schools. The number of teachers is more than 300 teachers .
Ibrahim pointed out that they work as volunteers in the absence of any organization or supporting body covering their salaries. He added that there is a shortage of furniture, books and educational aids such as geography maps, computers and test tubes.
He explained that the lack of classrooms which cannot accommodate the large number of students created another problem reflected in the distribution of pupils on the morning and evening hours due to inability of school principals to rent additional buildings for lack of financial support.
Parents were not far from the problems facing education in the camps. They participated with teachers in expressing their concerns at the beginning of the school year.
Abu Azmi al-Shaj, a parent of three pupils, told Zaman al-Wasl, " the problem of transportation and its wages is the biggest and most important burden on us as families because of the distance between the camp and the school, in addition to what the family has to provide their children with their pens, pencils and so on."
According to official statistics and the United Nations, there is a leakage of large numbers of Syrian children out of school in Lebanon estimated at about 50 thousand children, according to the UNHCR. Most of them entered the labor market due to economic hardship suffered by the Syrians in the camps in Lebanon. Where many children of school age are victims to early employment to help secure the needs of families because war stripped them of all they have and the breadwinning turned to children on the expense of their education.
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