The United Nations’ Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown warned on Monday that 2.5 million children could be displaced as refugees from Syria by the end of 2016, adding that the only way to ensure they remain in the region is to provide stability through a new plan for double-shift education.
Brown added that the conflict in Syria forces nearly 5,000 Syrian children to leave their country every week. He called for providing those children with education in Syria’s neighboring countries; namely Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Under the double-shift system, local children would be schooled in the mornings and early afternoons, and refugee boys and girls would use the same classrooms in late afternoon and early evening. Brown said that the plan will cost an initial $750 million, but $500 million has already been raised through offers of grants or loans from countries and businesses.
Brown pointed out that plans are underway to expand the program to cover 1,600 schools in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan by 2017, according to Anadolu Agency.
The Syrian interim government said yesterday that the Russian air force has bombed a total of 25 schools across Syria since the start of the Russian aggression against Syria on September 30, 2015.
The schools bombed include 14 in Aleppo, 6 in Idlib, 3 in Damascus and one in each of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
