Illustrative stock photo (source: AP/SITA)
Non-governmental organisations launched a project aiming to renovate and extend school facilities in places with a high number of Syrian refugees.
The Slovak agency for international development cooperation, SlovakAid, provided a grant amounting to €200,000 to the Habitat for Humanity organisation, which deals with development aid in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Thanks to the money, it will be able to renovate and modernise eight schools in the cities of Amman and Irbid in Jordan, as well as in their surroundings, the SITA newswire reported.
The project will enable about 4,000 children aged six to 18 visit the facilities.
“Currently, the quality of education in Jordan is endangered by an inadequate teaching environment,” said Zuzana Letková, head of SlovakAid, as quoted by SITA. “Many pupils study in overcrowded classrooms and schools, particularly in the urban areas. This is the reason why Slovakia considers it important to support this project.”
The long-term crisis in Syria has had an extreme impact on the education system in Jordan, as well as on the future of refugee communities. More than 200,000 Syrian children of school age were registered in the country last year, SITA reported.
Schools have problems with accepting new pupils as many of the facilities are overcrowded and the whole school infrastructure is in bad condition. Moreover, since the refugees do not have equal access to education, their results are worse than that of their Jordan peers, according to SITA.
SlovakAid and Habitat for Humanity are also participating in the project of renovating schools in Lebanon which together with Jordan servers as a shelter for the most Syrian refugees. In Lebanon, the NGO is renovating and expanding six school facilities.
