More than three years of violent conflict have forever changed the lives of every person in Syria. With the death toll exceeding 191,000, and many hundreds of thousands more internally displaced or forced to flee across borders, few have been unscathed – least of all the young who have been denied the right to a childhood, an education and, perhaps, a future.
As The National reported on the weekend, nearly three million Syrian children – about half the school-age population – are not attending school. Where Syria once boasted one of the best school systems in the region, the NGO Save the Children now describes education as “one of the deadliest pursuits” in that country. Unicef figures show that one-fifth of Syria’s schools have been destroyed, damaged, closed or seized by armed groups.
Even those children who are able to go to school have been traumatised by the horrors of a complex civil war that shows no signs of ending. In addition to the privations caused by president Bashar Al Assad’s brutal crackdown, militant groups are now forcing families to flee. This past weekend, about 45,000 Syrian Kurds crossed the border into Turkey to escape the advance of the ruthless extremist group ISIL. This means that more children will struggle simply to find food and shelter, let alone a good education.
In the countries that are accommodating refugees, learning opportunities for Syrian children are scarce. They fight for space in already overcrowded classrooms that teach an unfamiliar curriculum, sometimes in a language they barely understand. Their poor diets affect their cognitive skills, meaning they struggle to concentrate on their lessons.
This is not just a tragedy for the children involved, who have been robbed of their childhood and the opportunity to better themselves in life, it is a tragedy for Syria and the entire region. An important first step in rescuing this lost generation is to support efforts to eliminate the cancer that is ISIL, whose activities are also now tearing families apart in Iraq. As UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed noted at the United Nations in New York yesterday, ISIL is a malicious phenomenon that must be confronted.
