Over 250,000 Syrian School-Age Refugees in Lebanon Deprived of Education

250,000 children, approximately half of the nearly 500,000 school-aged Syrian children registered in Lebanon, are out of school, according to the report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — About half of all Syrian refugee children currently registered in Lebanon are out of school, an international human rights watchdog said on Tuesday.

"Five years after the start of the conflict, more than 250,000 children — approximately half of the nearly 500,000 school-aged Syrian children registered in Lebanon — are out of school…. Older children are particularly affected: of the 82,744 registered Syrian refugees aged 15-18 as of August 2015, less than 3 percent enrolled in public secondary schools during the 2015-2016 school year," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report.

According to the report, the Lebanese authorities had taken steps to help Syrian children engage in the public education system, in particular, allowed refugees to enroll in school without providing proof of legal residency, waived school enrollment fees, and opened second shift classes in over 200 schools.

However, the report recalled that the Lebanese education system was already weak before the start of the Syrian crisis five years ago, and the influx of Syrian refugees further strained public schools, as only one-third of Lebanese children went to public schools.

Among the difficulties the Syrian children face in Lebanon when striving for education are state policies on educational limits for refugees, popularity of classes in foreign languages, lack of access to sanitation facilities, gender and disability prejudices, according to the report.

The ongoing war in Syria, which started in 2011, has displaced more than 11 million people, including 4.8 million, who are in neighboring states such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.