Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
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attendance in practice. No support policies have yet been developed for Yemeni children, who
currently must pay the foreigners’ fees to enroll in public schools.
Yet attendance and enrollment rates also remain low for Syrian and Iraqi children. Enrollment
has reportedly been persistently low among Iraqi children.228 During the 2014-2015 school
year, only an estimated 83 percent of Syrian school-aged children were enrolled in school, and
school authorities believed actual attendance rates were much lower than enrollment.229
Attendance may be better in urban areas than in camps, according to a recent needs
assessment; residents of the largest camp, Zaatari, reported that overcrowding in camp
schools, transportation difficulties, and poor quality of teaching deterred attendance.230
The capacity of Jordanian schools has clearly been strained by the rapid growth in the student
population, driven primarily by inflows of Syrian refugee children and youth.231 The Jordanian
government has estimated that school capacity in Jordan has been exceeded by 13 percent, in
large part due to the increase in Syrian students. In order to meet the additional demand, the
Jordanian government estimates an additional 300 schools are needed.232 To fill this gap, the
government has cooperated with UNICEF to open double shifts in several schools to
accommodate newcomers. UNICEF has also supported the government in expanding school
buildings and classrooms, and has opened schools to serve Syrian students in the refugee
camps. However, international support and assistance has not always been sufficient to cover
the increased costs of meeting greater demand for educational services. In 2014, for example,
while international donors provided assistance to cover schooling costs for Syrian children, no
such support was available for Iraqis and local schools and the government has born these
costs itself.233
In Palestinian refugee camps, UNRWA provides most basic education. As of 2013, UNRWA
served 90 percent of Palestinian youth inside of the camps.234 Outside of the camps,
Palestinians may attend Jordanian schools, although a small proportion (about 15 percent in
2013) use the UNRWA school system.235 While Palestinians with Jordanian citizenship may
enroll in national schools free of charge, ex-Gazans and PRS must pay the foreigners’ fee to
attend Jordanian public schools.236
For many years, UNRWA schools had a reputation for providing high quality education, often
better than the Jordanian public schools.237 As evidence of this, educational attainment has
clearly improved over generations for Palestinians in Jordan; while nearly 60 percent of
Palestinians between 60-65 years living in camps had not completed any school in 2011, just
228 Hart and Kvittingen, Tested at the Margins
229 RAND Europe, “Evaluating UNICEF's Emergency Education Response Programme”
230 Parents in Zaatari also were reportedly more reluctant to enroll their children in schools as they viewed their stay in the
camp as temporary rather than a permanent move. RAND Europe, “Evaluating UNICEF's Emergency Education Response
Programme”
231 RAND Europe, “Evaluating UNICEF's Emergency Education Response Programme,” accessed June 9, 2016,
232 Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Jordan Response Plan for the Syria
Crisis: 2016-2018
233 Hart and Kvittingen, Tested at the Margins: the Contingent Rights of Displaced Iraqi Children in Jordan
234 Tiltnes and Zhang , Progress, challenges, diversity: Insights into the socio-economic conditions of Palestinian refugees in
Jordan
235 Tiltnes and Zhang , Progress, challenges, diversity: Insights into the socio-economic conditions of Palestinian refugees in
Jordan
236 Sara Pavanello and Simone Haysom, “Sanctuary in the city? Urban displacement and vulnerability in Amman,” (working
paper, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute, London, 2012),
237 Pavanello and Haysom, “Sanctuary in the city? Urban displacement and vulnerability in Amman”