Turkey to educate up to 450,000 Syrian refugee children

ŞANLIURFA - Anadolu Agency

Orhan Erdem told state-run Anadolu Agency that there were currently 814,000 school-aged Syrian children in Turkey and that 340,000 received education last year.      

“This year our goal is to educate them all. However, we can only provide education for 400,000-450,000 of them,” Erdem said.      

He added the European Union had not yet provided the full 3 billion euros in aid for Syrian refugees and that Turkey would cover the costs itself.    
 
“Turkey already has 18 million students. Plus, there are 8 million others who are getting informal education. It is a big responsibility to add 800,000 refugees to this figure,” Erdem said.  
  
Turkey’s EU minister and chief negotiator with the bloc, Ömer Çelik, said on Sept. 26 that the Turkish government and local NGOs had spent more than $25 billion since 2011to host the nearly 3 million refugees in the country.      

The new academic year runs from Sept. 19 to June 9.