Roger Mullin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Mullin on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect of attacks on schools in Syria on children’s education in that country.

Mr Desmond Swayne

We are deeply concerned about the impact of the conflict on Syrian children and young people. Children continue to be killed, injured and recruited by parties to the conflict. According to the UN, 35 schools were attacked in 2015 alone, with one quarter of all Syrian schools now closed, damaged or destroyed. Consequently 2.1 million children inside Syria are out of school. This will have profound implications for years to come if it is not urgently addressed.

That is why the UK helped to launch and mobilise international support for the No Lost Generation Initiative (NLGI). As part of this support, we have allocated £115 million to provide protection, psychosocial support and education for children affected by the crisis in Syria and the region. As a result, more than 308,000 children have been reached with child protection initiatives inside Syria, mainly in the form of psychosocial consultations and child-friendly spaces. In addition, almost 228,000 children have received formal and informal education inside Syria, allowing them to catch up on lost learning time.

The "Supporting Syria and the Region London 2016" Conference was held on 4 February last week, and more than US$11 billion was pledged to support people in Syria and the region affected by the conflict, the largest amount raised in one day for a humanitarian crisis. Commitments made at the Conference include education for an additional 1 million children.