Ideas for Educating Syrian Children

Farrukh Mirza, the education coordinator of UNICEF in Jordan invited us to meet with him in his office in Amman this week.  He is a delightful man, full of energy and passion for his work with the Syrian children.  His organization heads up a group of about 25 other NGO's who are trying to assist the refugees in a variety of ways.

As education coordinator Farrukh works with the Jordan Ministry of Education to try to accommodate the large number of children in the school system.  At the present time, classes are being held in the mornings for the Syrians and in the afternoons for the Jordanian children using the same classrooms.  There is a shortage of classrooms and teachers as well as students.  Attendance among the various age groups is low for a variety of reasons.  The number of children not enrolled or attending school is alarming.

Farrukh explained one of the ways they would like to address the problem is to provide a mobile school van that would go around to the various groups living too far away to attend school.  The van and teacher would visit 3 times a week and have a standardized curriculum approved by the Ministry of Education.  Participation certificates would be given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd level completion.  We really like the idea.  Save the Children is working on the details and we will meet with them next week.  It's something we have been thinking about doing with United Muslim Relief.  Perhaps this will be a project LDS Charities can help "make happen."  It looks promising.

Would it look like this?