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This is how the Syrian students used to spend their leisure during the school day,
as before their country’s crisis, their craziest idea,
was to escape from school,
but today, or rather, for two years now,
escaping from death has been their most rational idea.
Not only their houses have been destroyed,
but also the schools on whose walls they have drawn their dreams,
and the desks on which they have written their ideas,
have also become a part of the battle field of the Syrian war.
“What are you doing here?”
“I am teaching little children”
“You are teaching little children! Why don’t they go to school?”
“There are no teachers and there is nothing”
The Syrian children have fled to the neighboring countries to save their childhood,
but they did not have in mind,
that they are mere numbers on long lists,
that have been prepared by the international organizations and the humanitarian associations,
that were supposed to help grant them the minimum of their rights,
including decent living and the right to learn.
“They did not enroll us.”
“They did not enroll you? Do you want to go to school?”
“Yes”
“What would you say if everybody were listening to you?”
“I want to enroll at school.”
“Do you love going to school?”
“Yes”
“What do you miss most in your school in Syria?”
“The school”
“And what else?”
“My friends, Zaid and Hammoudah”
“Where are Zaid and Hammoudah now?”
“In Syria”
“What I miss most is Syria, my teachers and my friends”
“Did you enroll at school here this year?”
“No”
“Why?”
“They do not allow us to.”
“What is their excuse?”
“They want to study”
“Schools are not accepting students”
“and the Lebanese syllabus is very difficult and most of it is in English”
“while in Syria the syllabus is in Arabic”
“and they are suffering from not being enrolled”
The parents, who have accepted their reality as it is,
wish their children’s future to be as they have always wished for them,
not as the harsh circumstances impose on them.
“Do they go to school?”
“No, there is no school.”
“Why don’t they go?”
“We went to the school and they are waiting for the Minister’s resolution on the 15th of this month”
“To decide whether to enroll them or not?”
“Yes, to decide whether to enroll them or not, and there is no response so far”
“Did all your children go to school in Syria?”
“Of course, they did.”
“My children have the will. My son has recently appeared on TV
and said we want to continue our study and become like the Lebanese,
to improve our English language”
“The children are ready to exert efforts to learn”
“But nobody is responding?”
“No. They always tell us we’ll see after a month.”
The children in Al Marj Camp in Al Biqa’a are a sample of
nearly 550000 Syrian student,
and according to UNCEF, 15% only of the migrant children
were enrolled at the Lebanese schools last year.
In this regard, the Ministries of Social Affairs and Education,
are working together on a series of procedures to facilitate the enrollment of students,
at the government schools,
under the pressure on the government schools in Lebanon,
to add to their Lebanese students this year more than 45000 Syrian ones,
who have the right to learn like other children,
and plan their future on this basis,
not on an unstable basis due to war, migration and decampment.
If they stayed in Syria, war could destroy their present,
rather they came to Lebanon to have their future destroyed by the dereliction of the international community.
The Syrian children have one of two options,
either staying under a war that is endangering their lives daily,
or migration that is threatening their childhood and dreams.
From Al Marj Camp in the Western Biqa’a,
Nawal Berri – New TV