Turkish gov’t calls for global attention to Turkey’s unschooled Syrian children

ANKARA

AA photo

The almost one million Syrian children in Turkey who have been deprived of education, has gone unnoticed by the world, the Turkish government has said, calling on the international community to contribute to Turkey’s ongoing education efforts.

Noting that Turkey is currently hosting almost three million Syrian refugees, Education Minister Nabi Avcı said on April 22 that around one third of these people were school-aged children and youth.

“Therefore, these children, these youth, are waiting for work to be done in line with UNESCO goals,” Avcı said, at a meeting of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme.

“Unfortunately, the international community has so far not been able to sufficiently contribute to what we have done on this issue as Turkey. We are not ignoring what is being done by UNICEF and, by extension, by some civil society organizations that are connected to it. But, as I emphasized at the Council of Europe’s Conference of Ministers of Education held in Brussels last week, while the countries that have accepted some 30,000, 35,000, 50,000 Syrian refugees have exaggeratedly explained what they have done, we have seen three million Syrians and 830,000 youth and children waiting for education during that same period and the 330,000 students whom we have schooled have unfortunately escaped international notice,” Avcı said.

Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said some 400,000 Syrian children living in Turkey have remained unschooled, while Turkey has been able to school 300,000 Syrian children.