Syria’s Lost Generation: a Struggle for Children’s Education

Shafali Jalota

18 October 2015

“Vedat…Serkan…Sefa…Emre,” says Mohammed, a short, skinny Syrian boy, proudly reciting the Turkish names of his friends. 

His father listens as they stand together in a Syrian-owned café and butchery in Esenyurt, a district of Istanbul where their family currently lives, during the Muslim holiday of Eid.

The eight-year old boy learned Turkish while playing on the streets of Turkey’s most famous city and now translates everything for his parents and six-year-old brother.  They’ve lived in Turkey for two years.

Mohammed’s father Hussein fears the difficulty of traveling to Europe.  “When the war is over, we’ll return to Syria,” he says, as he protectively lays his hand on his firstborn son’s shoulder.  Until then, they will remain in Turkey with the rest of their family.

“I like Turkey,” says Mohammed with a shy smile. “Here, I feel safe, but I’ve never been to school.  I’d love to go to school!”[1]

Like many other bright young children, Mohammed is one of what is rapidly becoming known as the Syrian “Lost Generation.”  Like over a million other Syrian children currently in Turkey, he has few opportunities to get an education.

“Syria is losing a whole generation to war and exile. A pen and a book can give hope to Syrian children. They are the best weapon against hatred and radicalization.” said the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini in a written statement.[2]  However, less than 15% of Syrian children in Turkey can currently attend school.  This statistic is even more shocking considering that before the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, the enrollment rate in primary school in Syria was 99%.[3]  Many fear that the lack of education available to a whole generation of Syrians will have important consequences—not just in terms of economic opportunities for Syrians, but also in terms of the likelihood of ideological indoctrination, an ever-present concern in the Middle-East heightened by the recent emergence of the Islamic State in Syria.

Turkey is currently estimated to have 2 million Syrian immigrants within its borders as a result of the ongoing civil war in Syria, more than any European nation.[4]  While Europe’s leaders discuss plans to relocate and house 120,000 migrants in the next two years, Turkey’s open door policy has resulted in the country taking in the highest number of Syrian migrants of all other countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

The Syrian Civil War began in 2011 with pro-democracy protests in the South of Syria.  These protests gained momentum, becoming national movements demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad.  The government responded violently, using force to crush the protest, which only added to the people’s sense of injustice and tyranny.  By 2012, fighting reached the capital city of Damascus and the city of Aleppo.  The conflict gradually took on broader sectarian overtones; the conflict was not just between supporters and detractors of the Assad regime, but also between Sunni and Shia Alawite sects.  Opposition to the Assad regime evolved from the initial secular moderates to Islamists and moderates.  The so-called Islamic State also emerged and took control over large swathes of northern and eastern Syria through a campaign of terror.  The political opposition in Syria remains fragmented, and there is no clear leader.

War crimes against civilians, chemical weapons, and terrorism have been used by all sides in the conflict, according to a UN commission of inquiry investigating human rights violations since 2011.  As a result of the ongoing conflict, a total of 11 million Syrians have been forced to leave their homes—about half of the total population of Syria in 2011.  4 million Syrians have left Syria since 2011, with over 2 million of those in Turkey.[5]

Turkey’s open door policy continues, despite the majority of the Turkish population supporting more control over Syrians entering the country.  Under the Turkish policy, Syrian migrants do not receive “refugee” status; rather, they are considered “guests.” With Syrian documents, such as a passport, the migrants can receive a residence permit and a Foreigner’s ID.  The refugees, however, are not legally permitted to work.[6]  Many Syrians in Turkey have turned to working in the black market to make enough money to support themselves and their families.

For some young boys like Mohammed, a 13-year old boy living in Istanbul with his mother, 3 siblings, and father, working in the black market is the only option. Mohammed’s father was blinded by a beating in Syria—now it’s Mohammed’s responsibility to look after his family.  He takes an hour-long bus ride to the Istanbul suburbs each day, where he works long hours in a textile workshop to feed his family. He doesn’t want to work, but has no choice.[7]

Of the over 1 million Syrian children in Turkey, about 700,000 are school-age like Mohammed.  While 80% of school-age children living in Turkish refugee camps attend school, only 27% of school-age children living outside those camps attend school.  80% of refugees live outside refugee camps, in cities where they hope to make enough money to live.[8]  Overall, only 15% of school-age Syrian children attend school in Turkey.[9]

Turkey has spent about $7 billion in attempts to help Syrian refugees in Turkey.[10]  The government created a number of refugee camps all over the country to house Syrian migrants and provide essential services, but 80% of Syrian migrants have eschewed these camps in favor of living in cities.  Living in cities provides them with more freedom of mobility: people have the freedom to find places to live, to choose schools, and to stay with their families and friends.  But living in the cities makes Syrians more economically vulnerable.[11]

Istanbul is the temporary home to the largest Syrian community.  A quarter of the 330,000 refugees in the city are school-age children like Mohammed, but only a quarter of those children are able to get any form of education, says the Commission, an organization that has become the educational authority for the Syrian opposition in Turkey and Syria.[12]

            There are a host of reasons for the lack of widespread education among Syrian immigrants.  Many children work, often selling water bottles and tissues on the streets or working in textile workshops in the backstreets of the city.  Their meager incomes help support their families.[13]  Another major barrier is language. Syrian families speak Arabic, not Turkish, making it hard for children to learn in Turkish schools.  Syrian children also face bullying from their Turkish counterparts. 

            Secondary education is an even more serious problem than primary education, with organizations reporting that the total number of high school age students in and outside refugee camps who attend school could be as low as 9,400 for 2014-2015.[14]  Students drop out early from school—girls to get married early or work, boys to work to make money for the family.[15]  The structure of the education institutions in place also discourages families from sending their children to school.

            There are three options for education available to Syrian migrants in Turkey.  Within the refugee camps, the Turkish Ministry of Education has set up schools.  These schools follow a Syrian curriculum, and teachers teach in Arabic.  However, the schools are not accredited by the Turkish government, so students do not receive diplomas or proof of completion.

            Outside the camps, Syrian refugees have two options: send their children to the local Turkish public school; or send them to a Syrian school run by NGOs, individuals, or community organizations.  To be able to get a diploma from a Turkish public school, Syrians must have a residence permit, and some knowledge of Turkish is essential in the public system.  Places at public schools are limited.  On the other hand, private Syrian schools are not always approved by the government.  Syrians who teach must work as volunteers only, and students receive no diploma when they graduate. [16]  The majority of these Syrian schools are not regulated by the Syrian Education Commission or the Turkish Ministry of Education.  As a result, the quality of education varies widely.  Most Syrians say that the instruction provided at these schools is far inferior to what they had access to back home.[17]

            During the 2015-2016 school year, Turkish authorities expect 70,000 Syrians to integrate into Turkey’s public school system.[18]  In collaboration with UNICEF, the Turkish Ministry of National Education has created Provincial Action Plans, which target 9 provinces that host high numbers of refugees.  Through these plans, the Turkish government and UNICEF will work together to increase Syrians in schools through creating new schools, recruiting Syrian teachers, renovating schools, among other strategies.[19]

            However, for many Syrians the lack of language support and the complex registration process for Turkish public schools are serious barriers. 

“I put my children into a Turkish school but Turkish children treated them badly, making fun of their limited Turkish,” says Eman Izi, 36.  Like other Syrian parents, she was forced to put her 3 children into a private Syrian school, but paying for each of them to attend school is an insurmountable barrier to many Syrian refugees.[20]

These private Syrian schools, also referred to as temporary education centers, are often created and supervised by the Syrian Education Commission.  The centers follow a Syrian curriculum and teach Arabic. 

            The Turkish Ministry of Education has only authorized 54 centers in Istanbul so far, but does not acknowledge them as fully legitimate educational institutions.  The Ministry states that they need to check and monitor the institutions more closely before granting internationally acceptable diplomas from them.[21]  As a result, students who attend receive no proof of attendance or diplomas, discouraging parents from wasting their children’s time in such institutions.  Authorities fear that unregistered, unmonitored educational centers could become breeding grounds for ideological indoctrination.

            Officials, like Dr. Abdulrahman Kowara, the director of the Syrian Education Commission, have encountered young Syrians who have experienced Islamic State propaganda. 

“Some teenagers we interviewed last year talked about being subjected to Islamic State propaganda; ideas like the West killing Muslims instead of the Assad regime,” said Dr. Kowara.  These ideas spread through education centers not monitored by the Turkish or de facto Syrian governments.  Kowara adds, “it’s physically impossible to track down these illegal centers one by one in a mega-metropolis like Istanbul with 14 million people.”[22]

            But ideological indoctrination is only one of many issues that will face this generation.  Children already uprooted by a brutal civil war have no access to the safety, routine, and purpose that daily schooling provides.  The psychological impacts of this are huge.[23]

            Economically, lack of education will prevent many Syrian children from having good jobs and economic stability in the future.  Those educated in non-accredited schools will have trouble finding jobs without diplomas.  In an already unstable economic climate for many Syrians, the lack of education will further prevent Syrians from achieving economic success.  Children already face widespread exploitation in unregulated education and temporary, poor working conditions.

The effects of the immense lack of access to education for this entire Lost Generation of Syrian children are far-reaching and very serious. 

            The issue will only continue to grow.  Turkish and E.U. officials estimate that another 3 million Syrians may flee Syria in the next few years as the civil war shows no signs of ceasing.[24]  Many families like Mohammed’s will be forced to remain in Turkey, where they have limited access to education. For Mohammed, and thousands of other children like him, his dream of going to school will not likely become a reality. 

            Meanwhile, Turkey faces domestic turmoil as violence between the government and the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group, surges; the Lira has reached a new low against the dollar; and political turmoil racks the country.  The “open-door” policy of 2011 is coming to an end, as public opinion against the huge influx of Syrian migrants mounts.  Turkey has imposed more limits on Syrians, preventing them from getting work permits and traveling to cities not mentioned in their registration documents.[25]  Lack of access to education is just one example of the poor conditions many Syrians currently live under in Turkey.  But for many children, including the younger brother of Abdullah Bakerli, a 22-year-old refugee, Turkey has become their home.

“My little brother, he’s [been] just three years in Turkey,” says Bakerli. “He speaks very well Turkish, he has a lot of Turkish friends … so he’s going to be a Syrian-Turkish, even if they don’t give him citizenship. But I hope we all get back to Syria,” he adds.[26]

 In the meantime, the prospects are bleak for the Lost Generation of Syrian children in Turkey. It’s not just a humanitarian issue affecting Syrians: the lack of access to education for a whole generation of people in the Middle East could have ramifications for the rest of the world.  As the pressure on Turkey mounts, the impact on access of Syrian children to education remains to be seen.

Works Cited

Albayrak, Ayla.  “Turkey’s Syrian Migrants Worry as Their Hosts are Strained.” Wall Street Journal, 18 October 2015.  Web.  http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkeys-syrian-migrants-worry-as-their-hosts-are-strained-1445160602

Arsu, Sebnem.  “Syria’s lost generation is Europe’s ‘time bomb.’” Politico, 23 September 2015.  Web. http://www.politico.eu/article/syrias-lost-generation-is-europes-time-bomb/

Asare, Patrick; Gritten, David; Offer, James; and Rodgers, Lucy.  “Syria: The story of the conflict.”  BBC News, 9 October 2015.  Web.  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868

Dorman, Stephanie.  Educational Needs Assessment for Urban Syrian Refugees in Turkey.  YUVA Association, September 2014.  Web. https://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/download.php?id=7898

“Education a distant dream for Syrian kids in Turkey.” Khaleej Times, 2 October 2015.  Web. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/europe/education-a-distant-dream-for-syrian-kids-in-turkey

“Education to be provided for more Syrian refugees this year.” Todays Zaman, 27 September 2015. Web.  http://www.todayszaman.com/anasayfa_education-to-be-provided-for-more-syrian-refugees-this-year_400011.html

Kaplan, Michael.  “Syrian Refugees In Turkey Face Exploitation, Despair As War Lingers At Home.” International Business Times, 24 September 2015. Web.  http://www.ibtimes.com/syrian-refugees-turkey-face-exploitation-despair-war-lingers-home-2110849

Nicks, Denver.  “3 Million More Refugees Could Flee Syria, E.U. Official Warns.” Time, 6 October 2015. Web. http://time.com/4062571/turkey-3-million-syria-refugees/

“School bell rings for hundreds of thousands of Syrian children in Turkey.” Reliefweb, 2 October 2015. Web. http://reliefweb.int/report/turkey/school-bell-rings-hundreds-thousands-syrian-children-turkey

Syria Regional Refugee Response.  UNHCR updated 2 October 2015.  Web.  http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=224