BEIRUT: Educating Syrian refugee children is both a humanitarian and security imperative, Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and a senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday during a tour of a school in a Beirut suburb.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne C. Richard met with Bou Saab at the Sadd al-Boushrieh Intermediate School for Girls to discuss the education of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
According to UNICEF statistics, there are 400,000 refugee children aged 6-14 in Lebanon, only 25 percent of whom are enrolled in school. Many of these children attend school in the afternoon after their Lebanese peers have left for the day. While a boon for Syrian refugees, the two-shift system has strained Lebanese infrastructure and resources, Richard heard from Bou Saab and administrators at the school.
Bou Saab acknowledged that the number of Syrian refugees needing access to education in Lebanon is unlikely to decrease for “three or four years or even more.”
Aside from the humanitarian impetus to educate young children, Bou Saab said that keeping Syrian youths in school is a matter of national security. While certainly not the major contributing factor to instability in Lebanon, vulnerable Syrian youths may be exploited by terrorist groups, Bou Saab said.
“We had reports before that some of the [refugee] kids left early from school and some of them went into different terrorism camps,” Bou Saab told The Daily Star.
He noted disturbing images circulating on social media sites and YouTube showing youths and young children fighting alongside terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria. “It’s a concern,” Bou Saab acknowledged.
Richard agreed. Children out of school, she said, “can get into trouble. First they can get exploited in terms of being forced to work, or recruited for military campaigns in other countries or they’re just idle ... We want them to have full lives and we want them to contribute to a future Syria.”
While investing in the future of children is an important humanitarian undertaking, it will also help maintain stability in Lebanon, explained Luciano Calestini, the acting director of UNICEF in Lebanon. “Obviously an educated child with a constructive healthy worldview is an asset to a more stable Lebanon, there’s no question about that,” he said.
While the two-shift system has been hailed as a success by many, there are still thousands of Syrian children in Lebanon without access to education. Even some of those in school say they wish there were more resources available.
“I wish we had more books, more teachers and more time [in school],” said Cherko, a young Syrian refugee from Aleppo attending classes at Sadd al-Boushrieh Intermediate School.
When asked if the United States would consider dialogue with the Bashar Assad regime if it meant the safe return of Syrian refugees and their re-enrollment in full-time schools, Richard demurred.
“I think my boss, Secretary [of State John] Kerry is a creative thinker,” she said.
“I can’t comment on how my boss is going to spend his time, but everyone knows that there is no humanitarian solution to this. It has to be a political solution,” Richard told The Daily Star.
Richard arrived in Beirut Wednesday evening after attending the Syrian crisis funding conference in Kuwait. The United States pledged $118 million to aid refugees and host communities in Lebanon.
“The U.S. government very much supports and is grateful for the work of the Lebanese government and Lebanese society to [welcome] so many refugees from Syria,” Richard said during the tour. “We feel very strongly that Lebanon is doing the right thing and should be rewarded and that we are obligated to help.”
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