At home, attending schools has become a hassle as students as well as teachers travelling to schools have to go through checkpoints, often commuting for hours. Safety precautions are taken at every stage. The Ministry of Education has even relieved the obligation of the school uniform for safety reasons. Internally displaced Syrians faced complications when registering their children in regions they had fled to since many of them had left in a hurry without any student records. The documents are essential for registration and many had either been lost when schools were damaged or burned, or cannot be obtained because it is unsafe for residents to go back to the regions they came from. Moreover, a number of public schools had been taken over by groups of displaced persons.

As for university students, the strain of commuting through checkpoints is also felt. More recently, the sporadic violence has directly reached universities when a bombing struck the Aleppo University and killed 82 students on their first day of exams. Students studying abroad are subjected to other challenges. In European universities, Syrian students have complained of losing their government funded scholarships for showing support of the opposition. Others have raised concerns over the inability to receive money from their parents because of European Union sanctions on bank transactions coming from Syria. Students who did not meet their fees are not allowed to graduate and consequently end up losing their visas and facing the risk of having to return to an insecure Syria.

The refugee population also encounters problems pertaining to funding when it comes to education. It is estimated that 30% of Syrian refugees are children of school age. According to the Syrian Crisis Bi-Weekly Report published by UNICEF on January 11, the education sector is among the sectors receiving the least funding. The largest amount required is 17.76 million US Dollars for Jordan, none of which is met. In Turkey, UNICEF has announced that a priority need for Syrian refugee children in the provision of school teachers able to instruct in Arabic.

Syrian refugees in Turkey have set up their own schools in order to continue providing education for their children. The problem is that since Turkish authorities will not legalize schools for fear of settlement, refugees have to find any available buildings to accommodate these schools. The teachers setting up these schools are volunteers who were teachers in Syria before fleeing. Inside the camps, it is difficult to find teachers who can instruct in Arabic. Syrian teachers are therefore working towards maintaining the curriculum that students received in Syria. But with no funding and little support from Turkish authorities, the upkeep of these schools is improbable.

In Lebanon, the lack of financial support has made the sustenance of schools within camps unfeasible. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education holds that around 27,211 Syrian students have enrolled in public schools around the country. However, the students are facing difficulties in adjusting to the Lebanese curriculum due to language differences, as many subjects are instructed in English or French. More importantly, refugee students have reported bullying on behalf of both students and teachers.

It is important to note that many of the refugee families refrain from sending their children to schools for financial considerations. In the Jordan Zaatari camp, a new school for Syrian children has opened with the capacity to host 4,200 students. But according to the International Network for Education in Emergencies, only 3,450 have enrolled. It is evident that financial restraints are hindering the continuity of education for Syrian children. Yet the continuity of education under circumstances of uncertainty and sudden change can help create a sense of normality to children amidst the region’s instability. Local and international funding for the aid of refugees should ensure that as many resources are allocated to education as is possible.