Education helps Jordan’s child refugees

Three years after fleeing Iraq with his five brothers and sisters, Omar is learning positive things at a school in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Omar’s father, a policeman in Baghdad, was shot dead by militiamen. The 13 year-old remembers the news of his father's death. "At that moment, we knew that staying in Baghdad was no longer possible," he said.His uncle helped Omar and his brothers and sisters flee to neighbouring Jordan, hidden in a taxi. In Amman, they were safe. But their terrified mother fled to the United Kingdom, but could not take the children, whose passports and ID papers were left behind.

Hundreds of thousands of children and young people forced to flee Iraq in recent years have had their education disrupted – some did not have the right papers, while others could not afford private schools. Children in refugee camps at least get primary education with the help of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). But in towns and cities, where most of the Iraqi refugees live, is not so straightforward. Because his ID papers were left behind in the rush to leave Iraq, Omar couldn’t enrol at school when he got to Amman because he did not have legal residency. His uncle, who has been looking after the children while also working at a market, used to spend four hours a day teaching his two nieces and four nephews how to read and write.But in 2007, Jordan issued a royal decree opening public schooling to Iraqi children regardless of their legal status. Omar enrolled in a primary school but because he had missed two years of schooling, he has had to start at a lower grade. And after the tough lessons he’s learned in the last three years, he does not mind. "I could not be happier to be in school;” he told a correspondent for Reuters news service. “I finally get a chance  to learn and study," he said. "My favourite class is Arabic; the teacher instructs us really well.”

Poor performance, bullying, limited capacity and overcrowding are other issues Jordan has to tackle to get all  children in school. The United Nations refugee agency, (UNHCR) and  Children's Fund (UNICEF), have been lobbying the government and donors to cover school fees, including enrolment costs, for Iraqi children whose parents cannot  afford them. Last year, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office paid school fees for 26,800 Iraqi refugees.