KEEPING OUR PROMISE
At the London Conference in 2016, the international community made a commitment to secure learning pathways and protection for Syrian children and youth, whose educational future was jeopardized by the ongoing crisis.
It committed to reach all out-of-school children inside Syria, all school-age Syrian refugee children in the five host countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt)1 as well as affected host-community children, with learning opportunities through a total funding ask of US$1.4 billion per year.
One year after the London Conference, during the Brussels Conference in 2017, the Education Report called for more effective education response architecture inside Syria,2 supporting public education systems in the five host countries, mainstreaming refugee response plans and policies, and strengthening child protection mechanisms.
In 2018, as the Syria crisis enters its eighth year, the need to honour that commitment is as pressing as ever.
Yet many of the most vulnerable children inside Syria and in the host countries are still denied access to inclusive, equitable and quality learning opportunities. This puts the entire next generation at jeopardy.
Through the collective efforts of host-country governments – who continue to make a significant contribution by opening their national systems to refugee children – and the No Lost Generation (NLG) partners, some progress has been made. School enrolment in Syria has stabilized, with approximately 3.7 million children (64 per cent of school-age children) currently enrolled. In the five host countries, the number of school-age Syrian children enrolled in formal or regulated non-formal education (NFE) has increased, from 1.04 million (59 per cent) in December 2016 to 1.25 million (65 per cent) in December 2017.
This progress, which has been achieved by strategic shifts in the education response focusing on the three pillars of access, quality and system strengthening, has averted an even worse situation for the children and youth concerned.4 Yet, there is a long way to go if the promise made at the London Conference is to be kept. Around 2.08 million school-age Syrian children (36 per cent) remain out of school inside Syria and 689,000 school-age Syrian children (35 per cent) remain out of school in the five host countries. Many of these children are the most vulnerable, including those with disabilities.
Barriers to access and effective learning for Syrian children and youth are complex and extend beyond the education sector to a wide range of protection and socio-economic issues. These complicating factors include the prevalence of child labour, child marriage, lack of identity documentation, lack of safety both at home and in school, the cumulative psychosocial effects of protracted trauma and displacement, and the need for young people to earn a livelihood for themselves and their families.
In 2017, the total funding requirement for the education humanitarian responses in Syria and the five host countries was calculated at US$1,091 million.5 By the end of the year, US$566 million had been received, only 52 per cent of the funds required. This represented a decline from the US$618 million (71 per cent of sector requirements) received in 2016,6 posing a further challenge to an effective education response.
The need for multi-year, sustained and timely funding remains as urgent in 2018 as it was in 2016 if the education response is to be strategic and effective, and if the learning pathways and futures of all Syrian children and youth are to be secured as promised. The second conference in Brussels in April 2018 is an opportunity to renew the promise we made two years ago in London.