SYRIA / IRAQI REFUGEES EDUCATION

UNICEF and the European Union are taking a multi-faceted approach to regenerating education for Iraqi refugees in Syria by providing life-skills training, vocational courses and tailored remedial classes for a generation who lost the chance at an education because of conflict. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:18
• Production Date: 6 September 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: EDUCATION; EDUCATIONAL POLICY; EDUCATIONAL PLANNING; EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS; TEACHING PERSONNEL; POPULATION; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: IRAQ; SYRIA
• MAMS Id: U100906b

Description

STORY: SYRIA / IRAQI REFUGEES EDUCATION
TRT: 2.18
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ARABIC/NATS

DATELINE: 15 JULY 2010; DAMASCUS, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Iraqi refugees dancing
2. Pan right, young Iraqi refugees descending stairs
3. Wide shot, Iraqi vocational course graduates
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim Ali, Student:
“Look at my face, I’m so excited right now. We are doing something great.”
5. Wide shot, young Iraqi graduate
6. Wide shot, young refugees waiting to graduate
7. Wide shot, graduate walking to receive the diploma
8. Wide shot, diplomats and UNICEF staff applauding graduates
9. Wide shot, young student gets diploma
10. Close up, UNICEF/EU sign in school
11. Various shots, children in Syrian school
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Suroor Al Eisawi, student:
“We’re in a foreign country and the curriculum is difficult here. When the teacher used to ask me something I would get confused but then I became a lot more confident.”
13. Med shot, students in remedial English class
14. Wide shot, English teacher
15. Close up, girl writing in book
16. Med shot, student
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Olivier Beucher, Country Director Danish Refugee Council:
“The project is needed clearly. If you look at simply the marks of the children in the remedial classes before the classes and after the classes you will see a huge improvement.”
18. Wide shot, Iraqi female student talking into microphone
19. Various shots, Iraqi students dancing
20. Med shot, young students in class.
21. Wide shot, Iraqi students graduating

Storyline

For young Iraqi refugees in Syria like Ibrahim it’s difficult not to play the ‘what if’ game. To wonder how life might have panned out without the troubles in Iraq.

In the post war years UNICEF and their partners in Syria have been working to translate these ‘what if’ thoughts into the excitement for the future shown by Ibrahim and 80 of his fellow graduates of a UNICEF supported life-skills training centre in Damascus.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim Ali, Student:
“Look at my face, I’m so excited right now. We are doing something great.”

Each of these graduates had a litany of reasons for never returning to education. Like all refugee students they are still strangers in a foreign country.

Despite the problems of the past and present, these life skills graduates have worked hard to overturn potentially bleak futures, gaining secretarial and electricity diplomas.

The life skills taught in vocational centers like this represents just one element of UNICEF’s attempts to support the education of Iraqis in Syria.

The focus of this drive has been within the schools themselves. Despite positive steps by the Ministry of Education to welcome all refugee students many still opt not to cross the playground.

One of the largest barriers to entry and reasons for dropouts has been that a great many refugee children need extra education as they have missed large tracts of school because of conflict.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Suroor Al-Eisawi, student:
“We’re in a foreign country and the curriculum is difficult here. When the teacher used to ask me something I would get confused but then I became a lot more confident.”

A key to coaxing difficult to reach Iraqi refugees back into school has been the creation of European Union and UNICEF partnered remedial classes targeting areas coping with large refugee populations; something which has clearly boosted the success of Iraqi refugees in schools.

SOUNDBITE (English) Olivier Beucher, Country Director Danish Refugee Council:
“The project is needed clearly. If you look at simply the marks of the children in the remedial classes before the classes and after the classes you will see a huge improvement.”

Whether it be vocational courses targeting older students, supported by the Danish Embassy, or remedial classes, supported by the European Union, the emphasis for UNICEF remains the same, to offer Iraqi students the choice of a continuous education.”