EDUCATION, TRAINING AND RESEARCH > JORDAN
Healing war scars at school n
Children entering the school
Over 165,000 Syrians have crossed www.enpi-info.eu into Jordan to escape the conflict since the beginning of 2013, bringing the total number of Syrian refugees registered or awaiting registration to more than 540,000. Half of them are children under 18 and many of them do not have access to education. Amid fears that an entire generation could be lost, Jordan has agreed to allow Syrian children to attend public schools. With the local authorities worried that the education system might reach breaking point under the pressure of Syrian asylum seekers UNICEF and the EU have put together an educational programme aimed at supporting the Jordanian authorities save the future of this war-affected generation. A journalist of the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre visited a public school where Syrian children have been welcomed. Here is his report. Text by: Mohammad Ben Hussein Pictures by: AFP ©EU/Neighbourhood Info Centre AMMAN - “The classroom feels like a fridge. It’s difficult to pay attention to the teacher while feeling so cold,” says Isra, a 17-year-old Syrian girl attending the run-down public school of Al Zubaydiyya in east Amman. Despite the freezing conditions in her classroom, Isra is pleased to experience school life again, following two years of displacement. She is slowly regaining some semblance of normality. “I want to be a nurse to help my people. I am dreaming about a better future,” she says in the comfort of the sunshine streaming into her schoolyard. Surrounded by apartment blocks in the bustling Hashemi Shamali district of east Amman, the school provides an This publication does outlet for Syrian children from their overcrowded homes. However, these public schools are far from the perfect place not represent the for proper education. Dilapidated furniture, cracked and dirty walls, reflect the deteriorating state of schools across official view of the EC Jordan, as authorities worry the education system might be nearing or the EU institutions. breaking point under the pressure of Syrian asylum seekers. EU Neighbourhood Info Centre The EC accepts no “We faced lots of challenges to handle the influx of Syrian children. This is Feature no. 118 responsibility or one of the oldest schools in the capital, built in 1952,” says Hanan Saif, This is a series of features on projects liability whatsoever funded by the EU, prepared by headmaster of Hashmi Shamali Al Zubaydiyya secondary school, where with regard to its journalists and photographers on the dozens of Syrian students study. content. ground or the EU Neighbourhood Saif says that the school lacks basic infrastructure such as separate toilets Info Centre. for boys and girls, let alone, educational equipment like laboratories and © 2014 EU/Neighbourhood Info Centre computers.
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n Children in the classroom
“The European support has freed up funds to enhance the quality of our education. We are also preparing pre-fabricated classrooms to be added in schools where there was no more space”
“Our school is not qualified to deal with such an influx of students: but it was chosen because it is the only remaining school working in one shift,” she adds. Jordan, a country with a proven history of absorbing waves of refugees, has agreed to allow Syrian children to attend public schools. According to the country’s Ministry of Education, a total of 44,000 students were enrolled in 2012 and 107,000 in 2013. Lack of sufficient space forced the government to adopt a double shift system in more than 80 schools, but the government is pleading for more international aid to accommodate them, estimating the need for JD 400 million ($565 million) in 2014. No lost generation The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF says that out of the 2.3 million recognised Syrian refugees in the region, around 865,000 are children. The number of registered students in Jordan has reached quota 108.000, which is almost 80% of the target. But aid workers say privately that the number of children with no access to an education could be much higher, as hundreds of thousands of refugees are not registered at the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR. Alarmed by the rising number of children without education, UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, World Vision and other organisations launched an appeal in early January 2014 under the title ‘No Lost Generation’. The initiative seeks to expand access to quality education through formal and non-formal methods, by introducing accelerated curricula for children who have been out of school, and by providing vocational training, teacher training as well as offering incentive programmes. In Jordan, UNICEF is already working in partnership with the European Union to improve education infrastructure. More than 150 schools have been selected for restoration, in order to add classroom capacity and to improve the quality of education and vocational training, also within refugee camps. Some 80 schools have a double shift in order to accommodate the growing demand of Syrian children. The school of Al Zubaydiyya is one of dozens of public schools benefiting from the EU-UNICEF aid programme. “The European support has freed up funds to enhance the quality of our education. We are also preparing pre-fabricated classrooms to be added in schools where there was no more space,” says Michele Servadei, deputy representative of UNICEF in Jordan. Additionally, UNICEF is using EU funds to reintegrate children with disabilities into formal education within camps and host communities. The project also involves providing vocational education to youth: 5,000 students in Zaatari camp are targeted.
n Hanan Saif, manager of Al Zubaydiyya school
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Areej, a teacher in Al Zubaydiyya school
n Nayfeh Edwery, a teacher in Al Zubaydiyya school
n Michele Servadi, deputy representative UNICEF
“Boys show aggressive behavior, while girls are very emotional. The trauma they have experienced is affecting them a lot…”
n Michele Servadi, deputy representative UNICEF
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“In this camp we have 1,000 vocational students learning to become hairdressers, or to knit, to sew, and to learn skills for other professions. We want to make vocational training relevant to refugee camps,” says Servadei. Children need psychological support One of the many challenges facing the organisation is to help children cope with different surroundings and new curricula. Syrian students fleeing the conflict have low educational levels, with some being deprived of education for months, in some cases even years. “Some of the kids are having difficulty adapting to new curricula, so we are introducing remedial classes. We are already seeing a big improvement in n Children at the Al Zubaydiyya school, where a ‘back to learning’ project is their performance,” adds Servadei. offered to Syrian refugees Providing classrooms and text books is not enough to guarantee proper education. Social workers in schools concede that Syrian children need teachers with special training “In this camp we to deal with the delicate psychological status of the students. have 1,000 “Boys show aggressive behavior, while girls are very emotional. The trauma they have experienced is vocational students affecting them a lot… You can tell that the student is with you at one point and suddenly he/she is learning to become turned away by something, and looses all concentration,” says Nayfa Dweiri, Social Advisor at Al hairdressers, or to Zubaydiyya school. knit, to sew, and to Recognising the psychological impact of conflicts on children, UNICEF and partner organisations are learn skills for other targeting around 3,000 teachers for special training. professions. We want Despite the dark memories and visible war scars on child behaviour, advocates see light at the end of to make vocational the tunnel. Within a few months of attending classes, the attitude of many students has already changed. training relevant to “Before, students were only talking about what happens in Syria. Now they are thinking about their refugee camps” future,” adds Dweiri. Coming to school is the first step towards healing war wounds, as children gradually accept their fate and look for a brighter future.
Support to the Emergency Education Response for Displaced Syrian Children and host communities in Jordan http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/jordan.html The objective of the project is that vulnerable Syrian children access free formal education and other relevant education services along with children in host communities. Among the estimated results of the project is that vulnerable school aged children access formal education opportunities and receive psychosocial support at schools in urban and camp settings. Thanks to the project, children excluded from formal education opportunities access alternative learning activities at the community level and in camp settings. An effective monitoring and evaluation system is established in collaboration with the Ministry of Education monitor progress towards Educational and learning activities. EU contribution: EUR 10,000,000
To find out more UNICEF & EU website EU Delegation Jordan
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre press pack EU & UNICEF: a partnership for children EU Neighbourhood Info Centre thematic portal: EDUCATION and TRAINING http://www.enpi-info.eu/thememed.php?subject=11
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