"I Want to Continue to Study" Barriers to Secondary Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan

As the Syria conflict continues into its tenth year, Syrian refugee children in Jordan are confronting obstacles to education that grow more acute as they progress into secondary education. Every child has the right to a quality primary and secondary education. But only a quarter of secondary-school-age Syrian refugee children in Jordan are enrolled in school.

This report, which is based on interviews with Syrian refugee families and children, staff at humanitarian agencies and NGOs, and officials of the Jordanian government and donor governments, finds that obstacles to education become more severe for secondary school-age refugee children, but that humanitarian education planning has overlooked the needs of this vulnerable age-group. Foreign donors have given more than US$356 million to education in Jordan since 2016 under UN-coordinated humanitarian response plans for the Syria crisis, but the plans do not set enrollment targets or other goals for refugee children’s secondary education.