You are on page 1of 10

Zaitoon

1
Reem Zaitoon
Karen Tucker
ENC2135
11 November 2015
The Consequences of the Syrian War on Syrian Education
The Syrian refugee crisis is no doubt one of the most horrifying and striking
humanitarian crises of our time. It is currently endangering the lives of around 4,183,535
Syrians who are directly affected by the violence in Syria (UNHCR). From what the
news has told the general population, rebel groups and religious extremists are forcing
Syrians out of their country through unyielding violence, torture, and bombings of
schools and homes. However, in order to leave their war-ridden country Syrians must
risk their necks and pay a very high price in order to seek an unguaranteed safety. The
horrors they face are extremely dangerous and choppy waters in small, unstable and weak
boats. Many children have drowned in hopes of seeking shelter away from the war back
home. However, most people are not aware of these facts. Most people when they think
about the Syrian refugees think of some ocean that they had to cross and had to leave
that place with all the war. Dont you think that for a humanitarian crises that has
caused the deaths of over 100,000 and the displacement of 11 million people deserves
more concrete descriptions and awareness than the amorphous language of that place
and some ocean?1 I believe that they do. I believe that they, too, deserve a voice and a
speaker on their behalf that can raise accurate, stable, and important information about
their stories.

Zaitoon 2

The children of Syria are stripped of basic rights to have a childhood and to have
an education because of the violence and the war that has stood as a barrier for them to
acquire these basic rights. More than one million Syrian children have been forced to
flee their war-torn country. One in every three of these refugees is between 12 and 17.
This is the generation that will be the one to rebuild Syria and the destruction that it bore.
However, they are missing out on critical life lessons such as building social skills,
enriching their confidence, and most importantly, getting an education. Based on a study
called Advancing Adolescence hosted in refugee communities in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq,
and Turkey, Syrian refugee youth are facing daily obstacles that stop them from being
children and having an education. The study also describes ways to prevent the
generation that is tasked with rebuilding Syria in the future from becoming a lost one.
According to the study, of the 1.5 million refugee children under the age of 18
living outside of Syria, one in four is in the sensitive and adolescent age 12-17. Hopwood
provides that these young people continue to miss critical educational and social
moments in their lives, which in turn deny the country of Syria a productive and working
youth that it will need in order to reassemble and rebuild its shattered economy and
infrastructure in the future (85). The study was done by the humanitarian organization
Mercy Corps and it believes that Syrian refugee and host-community youngsters living in
host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon represent a critical investment for Syrias
future that requires careful attention today. The reason why I am choosing to focus on the
children of Syria instead of the elderly or the adult population is because of this very
reason: they hold in their hands the key to rebuilding their country and to have a safer and

Zaitoon 3
confined place that they can work together to build. These children have not yet been
exposed to all of Syrias horrors and they hold more hope than anybody else in their
country. In addition, they have time in order to build the skills required in order to help
rebuild their war-devastated country.
So what exactly started this whole problem? What caused for the destruction of
an entire country and nearly an entire generation of people? The war undoubtedly
induced tremendous sorrow and pain on Syria, but lets find out why and how the
problem escalated into the war it is today. Pro-democracy protests started in March of
2011 when a few teenagers drew democracy slogans on the side of a building. Security
forces opened fire on civilians who were opposing the President Assads regime. After
news of the violent outbursts broke out, civilians took to the streets and started fighting
Assads security forces. The country quickly fell into civil war in which rebel groups
were pitted against the countrys regime. The conflict is now more than just an Assad
versus the people deal. It now includes religious overtones in which the countrys Sunni
majority fights the governments Shia.
The Syrian refugee crisis is undeniably horrendous and a terrible thing to happen
all around. However, it is happening and it is still continuing to get even worse. More
than four years after it began, the Syrian civil war has killed over 220,000 people, most of
which were civilians (Syrian Civil War). These numbers are continuing to grow
everyday, as only those fortunate enough to afford a boat ride across the Mediterranean
Sea have even the slight chance of surviving. Although the numbers are rising and more
and more people are being displaced and killed everyday because of the violent war, I
believe that the single hope for Syria at this time is its youth population and its children.

Zaitoon 4
This hope is powerful and can do so much for Syrias future. However, Syrias youth
and children are not being protected and preserved in the way that they should be.
Adolescents currently lack the sufficient psychological support in addition to educational
and skill building programs (Hopwood, 67) They are either missing access to these things
or they are using their time in order to do more important things, such as surviving,
helping their families or siblings make a living, or seeking shelter (Voices of Syria's
Youth: What It's like to Grow up as a Refugee). Girls have it worst of all. They are
forced to stay indoors where it is safest for them and help out with housework. The
repercussions of losing this vital and precious generation of young people are destructive
for Syrias already bleak future. Syria would have no future to build for and it would not
have the workforce and the minds necessary to put the broken Syria back together.
Not having an educated Syrian youth to put back together the shattered Syria
would be like if someone dropped a vase on the ground and not made any effort to put it
back together with some glue and varnish. A broken vase can be put back together with
the right skill and hand using glue and varnish to mend it back together again. Sure, it
would not look the same, but it would still hold together for the most part and be
identifiable as a flower-holding container. The same thing goes for the absence of an
educated youth for Syria. Syria desperately needs a youth that can rebuild its society and
infrastructure. Simply put, by investing in the young people of Syria today, we have a
greater hope for their tomorrow. And that means putting in the money into their
education, their psychological and mental health facilities, and into their basic shelter and
safety needs. Because a child should not be having to worry about if someone will

Zaitoon 5
kidnap them while theyre sleeping or if their parents are dead. They should be worrying
about if they did their homework well enough or if they will make friends at their school.
The educational issues of Syrian children and the detrimental effects they will
have on Syrias future are huge and present in the lives of Syrias children. Because Syria
is now an inhabitable wasteland of conflict and violence, many refugee children are
forced to live in neighboring host countries. But even the extended hand of countries
like Jordan and Lebanon cant possibly afford or accommodate for the needs of all the
children. However, Jordans government has set aside priorities for Syrian children
including healthcare, infrastructure, and most importantly, education (UNHCR Stories
From Syrian Refugees). Although education and schooling is a number one government
priority for Syrias children, some of the schools have become far too old and in need of
maintenance that they are demolished. Another huge problem is overpopulation. Syrian
refugees are by no means a little puddle of need-based children but rather an ocean of
desperate kids who are not getting an education simply because of the sheer number of
them. Classrooms are overcrowded and many schools use block scheduling which
consequentially leads to the shortening of classes to 35 minutes from 45 (Municipal
Needs Assessment Report). In addition, teachers have to work overtime and are not
compensated for their extra time. On top of all of these hardships, Syrian children face
discrimination against Jordanian parents who insist that their children be separated from
Syrian children at school (UNHCR).
Jordan is a very important component in understanding the Syrian refugee crisis
merely because of its geographical location to it and because of the number of refugees it
has taken in thus far. Also, Jordan now internationally faces an expectation and a

Zaitoon 6
responsibility to uphold the standard for safety and municipal needs of the Syrians
(Municipal Needs Assessment Report). The conflict in Syria started in 2011 yet the
overspill of it is still taking a toll on Jordanian host countries. Jordan is a huge hope for
the Syrians. Its municipal and public policies have the greatest chances of saving what
could be a good portion of the Syrian children. Jordan has effectively maintained an
open border policy since the start of Syrias civil war, but this has resulted in a massive
influx of helpless people flooding into the country. This sudden and overwhelming
influx of refugees proved to be challenging for Jordans municipal service and for its
social and economic makeup. For example, heavy tolls on Jordanians are seen in the
northern part of the country where over 600,000 Syrians live and push Jordans
population by 11% (Municipal Needs Assessment Report).
Despite the discouragement held by the vulnerability of Jordans around 83,232
Syrian Children were registered to start public school in Jordan in 2013 (UNHCR). More
importantly, despite efforts to encourage Syrian children to enroll in Jordans public
schools, over 60% of 250,000 school-aged Syrians are still unregistered (UNHCR). This
is a pre-existing problem that the Jordanian government has been dealing with since the
arrival of the refugees. Because of the war and the violence that Syrian families have had
to get away from, teachers complain that Syrian children are behind their Jordanian peers
because of the wars interruption. Other problems facing Syrian children in Jordan
include the difference in conservative values that stands in the way of their acquiring the
same education as Jordanians. Because Syrian children dont have valid health
certificates, they are prone to rare diseases, which makes them unable to attend school.

Zaitoon 7
Also, transportation is not accessible to Syrians because they live in such scattered
locations and so this leads to a heightened risk of dropouts.
Overcrowded classrooms are a persistent problem that Syrians face in host
countries. The numbers of Syrians that come into Jordan surpass Jordans capacity to
house them all. Therefore, the quality of education has significantly dwindled in the last
few years. The quality of education in Jordan went from being called very good to
poor. Therefore, some of the municipalities called on Jordan include constructing new
education facilities in order to improve the quality of education for Jordanians and
Syrians. During interviews and discussions in Lebanon, 66% of the 80 children that were
asked about education said that they were not currently in school. Thats a drastic
number and if it doesnt change soon, Syria risks having and under-educated generation.
And in turn, it has no generation to save it.
For many of the refugee children, school is a safe place where they can be free to
grow and learn and make friends. It is a gateway in which they can establish some sort of
normalcy in their lives. Although parents and students say that teachers have been very
kind and supportive towards the children, Syrian children still need much more attention
and help because there are just so much of them.
As aforementioned, the influx of refugee children has taken a dramatic toll on the
host countries. Not all teachers are trained to deal with children who suffer from the
psychological issues of the Syrian children. There is a significant gap in the mental
illness awareness and education on the teachers part that is preventing Syrian children
from recovering from the trauma of the war. Coupled with these inadequate resources,

Zaitoon 8
many say that the quality of education has gone down because of lack of funding due to
the rapid population rise.
Displacement, loss of and missing family members, death, and bombed homes
and schools are just a few of the horrors that the Syrian children are experiencing. These
horrors are persistently preventing them from acquiring an education. In addition, Syrian
children receive verbal abuse from their peers and their teachers. Teachers tell their
Syrian students that they have ruined this country and they are dropping out of school
rapidly because of it. The problem isnt that these kids dont want to be educated. The
problem is that they dont want to get educated at the cost of their self-respect.
As you can see, the problem and the consequences are multi-faceted. The Syrians
suffer tremendously because of their war-ridden country and because of the fact that
everything is taken from them. But as I have discussed here, their education is what can
propel them to a higher place. It is what can give Syria a fighting chance to become
renewed and whole again. At the price of war and danger, Syrians are perishing and
becoming a lost and uneducated generation full of aimless and empty souls. Without
education, Syria probably cant exist like it did in the past again.

Zaitoon 9
Works Cited
ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR SYRIAN REFUGEE CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN
JORDAN HOST COMMUNITIES. JOINT EDUCATION NEEDS
ASSESSMENT REPORT. N.p.: UNICEF, 2015. Print.
Ayres, Sabra. "In a Struggling Balkan Economy, Smuggling Is Good Business." In
Struggling Balkans, Smuggling Is Good Business. Aljazeera America, 10 Oct.
2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
Hopwood, Derek. Syria 1945-1986: Politics and Society. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.
Print.
"Mitigating the Impact of the Syrian Refugee Crisis on Jordanian Vulnerable Host
Communities." UNDP in Jordan. United Nations Development Programme,
2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
"New Initiative Launched to Better Understand Future Learning Needs of Syrian Refugee
Youth | Education | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization." New Initiative Launched to Better Understand Future Learning
Needs of Syrian Refugee Youth | Education | United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO, 2015.
"Syrian Civil War | Syrian History." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia
Britannica, 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
"Syria Profile - Overview - BBC News." BBC News. BBC News, 25 June 2015. Web. 11
Oct. 2015.
"UNHCR Stories from Syrian Refugees." UNHCR Stories from Syrian Refugees. The UN
Refugee Agency, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.

Zaitoon 10
UNHCR: Total Number of Syrian Refugees Exceeds Four Million for First Time.
UNHCR
News. The UN Refugee Agency, n.d. Web.11 Oct. 2015.
"Voices of Syria's Youth: What It's like to Grow up as a Refugee." Mercy Corps. Mercy
Corps, 20 June 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.

You might also like