sa国际传媒

Students at a double-shift school in the capital Amman

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Jordan has announced several measures that will allow tens of thousands of Syrian refugee children to go to school in the next few weeks.

The country 鈥� which is home to 225,000 school-age refugees 鈥� will let children enrol for the new academic year in September even if they don鈥檛 have the proper paperwork.

More than 100 of Jordan鈥檚 state schools willl start running a double-shift system, where local and refugee children are educated at different times. This will double the number of double-shift schools and let another 50,000 students enrol.

The education ministry also announced plans to create special catch-up classes for 25,000 children aged from eight to 12 who have missed out on three years or more of education.

鈥淥ur aim is zero children out of school in Jordan,鈥� said Education Minister听Mohammad Thneibat. 鈥淛ordan is completely committed to this. It is our national duty.鈥�

He added:听鈥淭he fundamental right of every child is the right to education, after the right to life.鈥�

Syrian refugee Kafa, 13, does homework at a refugee camp in Jordan Picture: UNICEF/Noorani

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At a Syria summit in London in February, Jordan pledged to educate every child living there during the 2016-17 academic year.

But many international donors have still to step up and provide the funds needed to get one million Syrian refugees into school in neighbouring countries, inckuding Turkey and Lebanon.

World leaders promised at the Supporting Syria and the Region conference that they would provide the $1.4 billion needed to educate all Syrian refugees. But $1 billion is still needed for this to happen.

The urgent funding gap has been revealed in a startling report published by the children鈥檚 charity sa国际传媒. It could leave hundreds of thousands of children out of school and at risk of child labour, early marriage, exploitation and recruitment by extremist groups.

Jordan鈥檚听King Abdullah II said in a statement yesterday: 鈥淲e have reached our limits鈥� This is an international crisis and an international responsibility, and the world has to do its part.鈥�

Jordan said it had signed a grant agreement with the United States, United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland that will provide $100 million to help put Syrian refugee children in school.

The measures annoucned were welcomed by the United Nations children鈥檚 agency UNICEF.听

Representative Robert Jenkins said: 鈥淲e greatly commend this bold and positive move by the Ministry of Education, which yet again shows Jordan鈥檚 leadership and generousity in responding to the plight of Syrian refugees and all vulnerable children.鈥�

UNICEF is backing听a nationwide school enrolment campaign called Learning for All 鈥� Back-to-School, which works with the education ministry and civil society partners to target 200,000 families, caregivers and children.

Human Rights Watch praised the decision not to exclude children who don鈥檛 yet have government-issued registration documents.

Bill Van Esveld, senior children鈥檚 rights researcher, said: 鈥淛ordan鈥檚 education ministry has taken an important step by ordering schools to accept Syrian children this fall even if they don鈥檛 have their papers in order.鈥�