Syrian Arab Republic

Sectoral impact:

• Education facilities in Syria are severely strained, impacting access to education and learning opportunities. The PiN for the education sector has thus increased by 8 per cent from 7.2 million in 2024 to 7.8 million.
• Over 5,200 schools are damaged and require urgent support. Classrooms are overcrowded and there is a significant shortage of school furniture, teaching supplies and operational WASH facilities. The lack of electricity further hampers learning, especially during extreme weather conditions.
• Vulnerable children face significant barriers to education, including those who continue to be internally displaced, girls, out of school children and children living with disabilities (CLwD). Over 2.45 million children are out of school, with more than a million at risk of dropping out. These children are also more likely to be at higher risk of child protection issues, such as child marriage and child labour.
• Despite education being free in Syria, the socio-economic situation forces families to deprioritize education to cut costs, such as those for transportation to school. This situation also leads to negative coping mechanisms that impact school enrolment, attendance and retention and increases child vulnerabilities and protection risks.
• The worsening socio-economic conditions have affected the availability of qualified teachers. High transportation costs, irregular payment of low salaries and limited accreditation pathways reduce teacher motivation and accessibility, particularly in rural areas. This has led to the recruitment of temporary teachers, impacting the quality of education.

Immediate needs:

• With the conflict compounding effects on education, there is a need for comprehensive support and interventions to improve the overall education system in Syria.
• 5.3 million non-displaced boys and girls, including CLwD, are in urgent need of improved education. 2.45 million boys and girls are out of school with no form of education available. Ensuring the continuity of learning and provision of both formal and non-formal education is a top priority for the sector.
• Ensuring schools and education facilities are safe and capacitated to resume learning is an urgent priority, including overall rehabilitation, setting up semi-permanent classrooms and gender-sensitive WASH facilities as well as clearance of mines and unexploded ordnance.
• Provision of cash and in-kind support to families and education personnel (including teachers) to ease the economic burden and its impact on access to quality education.
• Coordinated provision of psychosocial support and referrals to enhance services to children and caregivers impacted by the overall context.
• Provision of capacity-building and training to teachers and education personnel to enhance the quality of teaching.
• Raising overall awareness on access to education, and on issues such as the risk of mines and unexploded ordnance is a necessity, especially as schools become more accessible in the coming months.
• Identification of education and learning needs through rapid needs assessments and joint education needs assessments.

Priority activities:

The education sector will continue to prioritize access to education and learning to formal and non-formal education, including early childhood education (ECE), more specifically:

• Provision of support to enhance learning environments, including rehabilitation and maintenance, provision of supplies, furniture and learning materials and provision of winter kits to learning spaces.
• Provide children and youth with non-formal education programs, including remedial classes, accelerated learning programs, catch-up classes, literacy and numeracy classes, self-learning programs, etc.
• Provision of awareness-raising through back to learning campaigns, especially EORE.
• Provision of psychosocial support to children, youth and education personnel/teachers.
• Continuing to provide cash transfers and or vouchers for education to support education personnel and families to send their children to school.
• Provision of cash support for maintenance and running costs of education facilities.
• Overall monitoring and evidence generation under education.

Response strategy:

• Education sector partners, in coordination with local authorities, have an overarching goal to increase access to and provision of safe, inclusive and quality education and learning services to all vulnerable children and youth. This focuses around three pillars: provision of ECE services; supporting formal education; and provision of non-formal education activities.
• Sector partners will also work on capacity development of education physical infrastructure, to ensure they are safe, gender-sensitive, and inclusive.
• Strengthen advocacy to prioritize education as a response, as well as working with local authorities to ensure that education is not disrupted. This is especially important to ensure that schools are no longer used as shelters.
• Working closely with other sectors to raise awareness, strengthen referrals and mainstream education.
• Enhance monitoring and evidence generation, especially as emerging educational needs are identified.