School's out for Syrian children in Turkey

Not so long ago, Syria had an education system that was the envy of the Arab world and was reflected in its 90 percent literacy rate. But education has become yet another casualty of a civil war now in its fifth year.

Nearly half of the four million Syrians who have fled their country are living in neighbouring Turkey where authorities initially welcomed hundreds of thousands of the refugees in camps near the Syrian border. Many have since become tired of camp life and moved to cities in search of a more dignified existence.

Istanbul alone hosts more than 330,000 Syrians, according to 2014 figures from Turkey's interior ministry, but with international aid mainly going to those living in the camps, urban refugees receive little assistance and live in poor conditions that are worsening as their exile continues and they are barred from the formal employment sector. Their children are paying the highest price for this enforced limbo.

Earlier this year, in the run-up to elections, the Turkish government backtracked on plans to grant Syrians in the country, who have only temporary protection status, the right to work. The government did adopt legislation aimed at improving their access to health care and education, but according to NGOs working on the ground, the majority of Syrian children still aren't in school.

"Unfortunately, despite this new regulation, in Istanbul only 20,000 out of 80,000 [Syrian] children have access to school and amongst them less than 30 percent are enrolled in free Turkish schools," said Suleiman Alaaraj, a Syrian staff member of the Syrian Commission for Education (SCE), which provides education services both in Free Syrian Army-controlled areas of Syria and in Turkey, with funding from Qatar Charity and the Islamic Bank.

Some of the Turkish schools simply don't have space to admit more children while the language difference and Syrians' lack of the required documents or information about enrolment procedures have also presented barriers.

Karyn Thomas, the founder of Small Projects Istanbul, an NGO based in Fatih, a working-class district with a high number of Syrian residents, noted that "the lack of the right to work for adults has a direct and strong impact on their children's right to education."

"People have no jobs, and when they do they are underpaid and exploited, and they can't afford to pay for their children's tuition fees," she told IRIN. "The result is that many young children either stay at home looking after their siblings and household or are forced to work and beg in the streets to provide their families with some income."

For the small number of Syrian children in Istanbul who are admitted into free Turkish schools that follow the national curriculum, Alaaraj acknowledged, "it's often difficult for them to keep up with their classmates because of the language barrier and only one out of 10 succeed [in end-of-term exams]."

Across the city there are 60 Syrian schools (officially referred to as "temporary education centres") where classes are taught in Arabic using a curriculum created by the opposition Syrian Interim Government, but only six of them are free. Some are located inside mosques and private or public buildings, but often only for a limited period of time before being moved somewhere else. SCE provides the schools with free textbooks, the content of which have been adapted by the Free Syrian Army and purged of what they view as the Syrian regime's propaganda.

Reema Adadi is a Syrian teacher at a school located in a small mosque in Fatih. "The problem with this school is that each class is composed of kids of different ages," she said, adding that attendance is sporadic because the children are often forced to work and contribute to the family's income.

"[There are also] children who suffer from different traumas and should be taught by specialised personnel," she told IRIN.