Despite pledges, 1 million refugees are out of school

The five-year-long Syrian war has placed huge strain on the region’s school systems, forcing neighboring countries to depend on multibillion-dollar grants from donor nations to meet education needs.

In Lebanon, more than half of the nearly 500,000 school-age Syrian refugee children receive no formal education, according to Human Rights Watch, despite reforms allowing overburdened public schools to run two shifts a day.

Many Syrian refugee families have no choice but to put their children to work to help meet basic expenses in a country with few social protections and tight movement restrictions.

Children who do go to school face difficulties with new curriculums, and many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychosocial problems.