Education Interrupted: Enrollment, Attainment, and Dropout of Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Education is a key means to integrate refugee populations into their host countries, as well as to prevent permanent deficits in human development among children affected by conflict. The large population of children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming a “lost generation” due to interruptions in their schooling. Jordan hosts one of the largest populations of Syrian refugees and has made a concerted effort to provide access to education for refugee children. This paper assesses how educational enrollment, attainment, and dropout of Syrian refugees in Jordan have been affected by conflict, displacement, and educational opportunities and experiences after arrival to Jordan. We rely on nationally representative survey data from Jordan in 2016 and in-depth interviews with 71 Syrian refugee youth. Syrian refugees in Jordan faced disrupted schooling in Syria due to the conflict, followed by challenges in joining the Jordanian school system. Yet ultimately enrollment rates, at least through 2016, have recovered to pre-conflict levels for basic education among the group of Syrians in Jordan in 2016. Refugee youth faced a number of barriers to school reentry and persistence in Jordan, including school interruptions leading to students being older than their classmates, discrimination from peers and teachers, and academic difficulty particularly at the secondary level. For male youth, the pressure to work to support their families underlay many non-enrollment decisions. Although some youth faced documentation challenges upon initial enrollment in school, they were able to overcome these challenges, demonstrating the importance of Jordan’s efforts to expand public school access to refugees.