Number of Syrian Refugee Children Not Attending School Grows by 30% Since 2016

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The proportion of school-aged Syrian refugees who will be unable to attend school at the start of the academic year in the Middle East this week has reached 43 percent, which is just over one-third more than a year ago, Save the Children Fund said Monday.

"As children across the [Middle East] go back to school this week, 43 percent of school-aged Syrian refugee children will be missing out. This number — which has risen by almost one third from late last year when 34 percent were out of school — means that around 730,000 Syrian refugee children are receiving no education, leaving them more vulnerable to child marriage and labour," the charity said in a press release to a report.

Since September 2016, refugee children around the world have missed a combined 700 million days of school, the report by Save The Children reads, adding that 3.5 million of these youngsters are out of school at the moment.

In May, the guarantor states of the Syrian ceasefire — Russia, Turkey and Iran — signed a memorandum on the creation of four de-escalation zones in Syria. Two of them are already operating effectively, while in late July, representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry and moderate Syrian opposition had reached an agreement on the establishment of the third safe zone in the northern part of the Syrian Homs province. Consultations on the fourth safe zone in the Idlib province are underway.

The nationwide ceasefire in Syria came into force on December 30, 2016. The initiative has been supported by UN Security Council resolution.

The civil war between the Syrian government forces and various opposition and terror groups has been raging in the country since 2011.