GENEVA (WAM)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that while remarkable progress has been achieved in global refugee education and enrolment, significant challenges remain with nearly half of the world’s 14.8 million school-aged refugee children still out of school.
In this year's refugee education report, the UNHCR stated that Data from 65 refugee hosting countries analysed in the report shows that approximately 7.2 million refugee children are missing out on education due to a host of factors.
This includes insecurity, a lack of inclusive education policies, capacity constraints, and language barriers, risking young people’s future prosperity and denying them the chance to fulfil their potential.
The report revealed that average gross enrolment rates for refugees for the academic year 2022-23 stood at 37 percent for pre-primary, a more encouraging 65 percent for primary and 42 percent for secondary.
Global enrolment of refugees in tertiary education, where barriers include high tuition fees and a lack of reliable connectivity, did not change compared to last year’s reporting of seven percent, the halfway point in reaching the target of 15 percent by 2030 (15by30).
Despite an increase in the global population of tertiary school age refugees in 2023, this figure remained at seven percent due to a real increase in the number of refugees enrolled in tertiary education by nearly 50,000.
The UNHCR affirmed that despite the hurdles, promising progress has been made over the last five years, with the new report indicating that access to education for refugees has expanded in some key hosting countries.
Furthermore, although few refugees sit for national examinations, pass rates continue to be high and sometimes even exceed national averages.
UNHCR called on hosting states, governments, donors and partners to continue and accelerate sustainable international cooperation and innovative partnerships to address the education needs of refugees by 2030.