Syrian secondary students celebrate the end of semester in Barikat refugee camp
Kurdistan Region of Iraq, 10 May 2016 – Syrian refugee students celebrated today the end of their first semester at Barkhodan Secondary School, the first secondary school to exist in Barikat refugee camp, where Syrian refugees had arrived over three years ago. The school was opened in February and has since hosted 70 students.
The celebration was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, municipal and camp management and administration, United Nations personnel, together with teachers, students, parents and local community.
The structure, rehabilitated by UNESCO, as part of the project ‘Improving access to secondary education for Syrian refugees in Iraq’, funded by the Government of Japan, has the capacity to host up to 350 pupils in one shift.
In addition to celebrating the end of the first semester, the event also aimed to reach out to the community in the interest of encouraging more parents to enroll their children in the next academic year.
Speaking at the ceremony, Eszter Szucs, UNESCO Project Manager said “When we opened the school in February, we were so busy with that, that we did not have a chance to formally celebrate the opening. Today, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the successful running of the school, marked by the end of the first semester.”
Over 240,000 Syrians have entered Iraq since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, with 97 per cent concentrated in the three Northern governorates of Duhok, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. Seven out of eight camps – that is, all Syrian refugee camps with over 3,000 inhabitants - now have secondary schooling for adolescents, but the number of students accessing quality education remains limited, especially for those in host communities. UNESCO has constructed, rehabilitated and operates all seven secondary schools for refugees.
The aim of the project ‘Improving access to secondary education for Syrian refugees in Iraq’ is to provide access to and improve quality of secondary education for young Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Also, the project aims to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Education in dealing with the impact of the Syrian Crisis and to support the provision of safe learning spaces, and teacher training. The project is an integral part of the wider UNESCO Education response to the impact of the Syria crisis and is reflected in the programmatic framework entitled “Bridging learning gaps for youth”.
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