News / Society

Millions of refugee kids losing education, UN warns

Thursday, 15 September 2016 1:13 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 15 September 2016 1:43 PM ]

Syrian refugee children sit on the ground as they listen to their teacher inside a tent in a refugee camp in the town of Kabelias, Lebanon. (Photo by AP)

The UN has warned that millions of children with refugee status have been missing out on a chance to get an education, calling on the world to do more to provide the kids with proper schooling.

On Thursday, the United Nations refugee agency released a report revealing that the agency had failed to provide schooling for more than half of the children under its responsibility.

A full 3.7 million school-age children under the agency mandate have no school to attend, said the report.

It added that some 1.75 million refugee children were not in primary school and 1.95 million refugee adolescents were not attending secondary school.

"This represents a crisis for millions of refugee children," United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement, urging international action to get the children back to school.

According to the UN report, just one percent of older refugees are lucky enough to attend university.

The report said that 40 percent of Syrian refugee children, or nearly 900,000, were living in neighboring countries without an education.

Cypriot security officers guide Syrian refugee kids at the Kokkinotrimithia refugee camp, west of the Cypriot capital of Nicosia on September 7, 2016.(Photo by AFP)

Due to the lack of sufficient funding, the report said only 39 percent of Syrian school-age refugee children and adolescents in Turkey were enrolled in primary and secondary schools while the number was 40 and 70 percent in Lebanon and Jordan respectively.

The report called on donors to provide sufficient funding to allow for sustainable education planning and programming for refugee kids and young people.

The report comes as the UN General Assembly is preparing to host a summit on refugees in New York next week.

The UN refugee agency plans to use the summit as a platform to urge governments, private donors, and humanitarian agencies to support the UN agency in ensuring that every refugee child gets a chance to receive a decent education.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk