News / Syria

About 400,000 Syrian child refugees in Turkey out of school: UNICEF

Thursday, 19 January 2017 6:15 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 19 January 2017 6:48 PM ]

File photo shows Syrian refugee children attend a class at a school in Turkey's Sanliurfa Province near the Syrian border. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, says nearly 400,000 Syrian child refugees living in Turkey are currently out of school and at risk of becoming a "lost generation."

UNICEF said on Thursday that more than 40 percent of Syrian child refugees of school-going age were missing out on education in Turkey.

In a statement published on Thursday, Justin Forsyth, the agency’s deputy executive director, called for action to tackle the issue.

"Unless more resources are provided, there is still a very real risk of a 'lost generation' of Syrian children, deprived of the skills they will one day need to rebuild their country,” Forsyth said.

The UN official made the remarks after a visit to southern Turkey where thousands of Syrians live in cities and inside camps.

The Ankara government says there are 2.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. According to UNICEF, children make up 1.2 million of the Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Syrian refugee children play at a refugee camp in Suruc, Turkey, on February 2, 2015. (photo by AFP)

In September 2016, the United Nations refugee agency said in a report that 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 agency called on donors to provide sufficient funding to allow for sustainable education planning and programming for refugee kids and young people.

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

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

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

Millions of Syrians have been fleeing the conflict in their home country to neighboring states as well as elsewhere in the world.

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