DOHA/LONDON: H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Founder and Chairperson, Education Above All Foundation, said yesterday that EAA plans to provide primary education to over one million Syrian refugee children by next year.
Sheikha Moza spoke as she took part in a ‘No Lost Generation’ education event on the sidelines of the ‘Supporting Syria and the Region’ conference in London. Foreign Minister
H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also attended the event.
“We have already enrolled half a million children in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon into quality primary education. By 2017, we hope to have more than doubled the number to 1.1 million.
“Refugee children across the region have diverse needs and conditions that cannot always be met with a one-size-fits-all solution in the formal education setting.
“When formal education systems cannot absorb students, Educate A Child (EAC) steps in to offer alternative education programmes in flexible learning sites. We also support remedial, bridging and accelerated programmes to compensate for lost time,” said Sheikha Moza.
The education event brought together governments, donors, NGOs and other partners determined to ensure that all Syrian refugee children have access to quality education by the end of the 2016-17 academic year.
An estimated three million Syrian children have had their schooling cut short by the ongoing crisis.
The education event was co-chaired by Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende and UK Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening.
Fellow panellists alongside Sheikha Moza included Elias Bou Saab, Lebanese Minister of Education; Imad Fakhoury, Jordan Minister of Planning & International Cooperation; Malala Yousufzai, The Malala Fund; Tony Lake, Executive Director, Unicef; Sarah Brown, Executive Chair, Global Business Coalition for Education, and NGO, civil society and business representatives.
EAC, a global programme of EAA and UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, have launched a three-year partnership to provide access to education for 710,000 children affected by conflict and forced displacement in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The EAC-funded programme will continue to support education of children and help enrol a further 450,000 in schools over the next three years.
