SENA MEGERSA  

Under United States law, a refugee is someone who is located outside of the United States, demonstrates that they were persecuted, or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. A lot of refugees are people under the age of 25 and of school age or education. The UNHCR estimates that over half of refugee children are not in school. Being a refugee means one is unable to return home under any circumstance if their country of origin hasn't changed and become safe, except for those escaping directly persecution. They are deprived of any protection in their country of origin, so most of the schooling age, they may not able to access the education that they need due to financial status or economic limitations. So, we are restricted from education by the host country we are in, although education is a universal right, as mentioned in Article 26 of the UN Human Rights Charter. The biggest problem refugees experience is the lack of finance due to their status and a possible lack of qualification in most fields which might give them a hard time when looking for a job. Refugees are not able to give their children a proper education. Most of the time they are not given social services that a citizen might get in their home country. They are likely not able to benefit from a free schooling system as it might not be available to them. Refugee space could be solved by the host countries such as Turkey or Lebanon, providing social programs for refugees to gain financial benefits to assist them in providing an appropriate education for their children. Programs and or laws that can assist refugees to enroll their children in state-funded public schooling can also be beneficial, as some communities of refugees have children that are of school age but a high percentage of them might not attend a school as the only school nearby may cost too much. There might be a state-run school that they might not be able to attend, although state-run schools are free of charge. Another barrier refugees face is the lack of proper funding. An indication that can help a child develop well in a refugee school in certain countries that host a lot of refugees such as Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, or Jordan. There are schools that appeal to those financially unable to afford the normal cost of education funds in the host country for foreigners. Those schools are usually unable to sustain themselves and give the children attending them an education that helps them develop and be prepared for the outside world. Schools should be able to provide the students with appropriate and internationally relevant education. A good number of schools tend to offer the Sudanese national curriculum to students, irrespective of whether they are Sudanese or not, which is not recognized both in the host country Egypt and in no first world countries. These issues lead to come crumbled schools or schools with little to no external funding unlike other private schools for displaced people who are not able to rely on government funding instead of relying on tuition fees only.

The lack of funding of schools for displaced people could be addressed by giving more people insights into refugees and their life, as most organizations that otherwise might be willing to fund those schools might possibly not even be aware of them at all. A solution would be for the state to fund the schools. Generally, those schools are private schools and won't be getting the funding provided by the state through taxation. Well, it would be still a lot of help if the state could assist the schools that are financially unstable or can provide their students relevant education. In conclusion, although the issues regarding the education of refugees aren't limited to these two issues, they remain, in my opinion, the most important issues. Refugees are very limited in their ability to make advances in society due to their general misfortune. By limiting them, you prevent them from being able to do basic things for their children. Education is a basic human right. As mentioned in Article 26 of the UN human rights charter and in the 1989 convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1951 Refugee Convention. Yet only 23% of refugees obtain secondary schooling and 3% of refugees imposed secondary schooling out of the tens of millions of refugees. This is a catastrophic waste of potential but could be solved in the future. 

HIBA 

My name is Hiba and I am a 16-year-old Ethiopian girl. I live in Egypt with my parents since 2016. I have been to many schools before and found that each of the schools had its own complications. The first issue was that my last year’s school certificate wasn't with me, which made me two steps behind. Another point worth noting is that I had lost my birth certificate in the first taxi that we took after arrival to Egypt after a long, exhausting journey. Nobody noticed this loss until I was asked about it at my school. I needed this to start in class 3, two grades behind. The one possible solution was to contact the Vital Records office in Ethiopia. I need to get a copy of my birth certificate. Taking everything into consideration, I was able to continue my study.

RIMON 

Hello, my name is Raymond. I'm 15 years old. I'm from Eritrea and I live in Egypt. I came here in 2019 with my mom and my sisters for education. Firstly, I studied at the Saint Joseph learning center for two years. That is a school for refugees. I started learning there from Grade 7 onwards. The school curriculum included six subjects and these subjects were math, English, technology, Arabic, science, and religion. I did not understand. It was too much and that's cool because the teachers were just explaining and going. They were not caring about us. I was here for two years, grades seven and eight. They gave us the examination. It was so hard. Questions did not come from the lessons that we studied. But I got 130 and I failed by 10 marks because you have to score above 140. The total marks we could obtain were 280 marks. After completing grade 8 I came to CAWU Learning Center and they gave us a GL test. The test was so hard. But thank God, I passed and I started learning there. I like the school so much because I started speaking English there and the lessons and the way of teaching are better. I started improving my English and everything.

LIDYA MULOU

My name is Lydia and I'm from Eritrea but I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. In the past, my mom's parents were the ones who decided for her that she should leave Eritrea because the country was in bad circumstances. At that time there was a war going on between Etheopia and Eritrea. Living in Saudi Arabia is not easy or bad, and it's expensive to live. I was there with my family. The schools in Saudi Arabia are very good and worth it to obtain knowledge, however, we were suffering financially. That's why my parents decided to leave Saudi Arabia and live in Egypt as UN refugees. Before we arrived in Egypt, we never knew or felt to be a refuge in a country. But now we know what it is to be a refugee and it is really the worst thing I have experienced in my life. Egypt hosts registered asylum seekers and refugees from 65 different countries, according to the UNHCR. Approximately half arrived as children. Children experience numerous traumatic situations, disrupted by the refugee experience. Some suffer from family separation as they feel persecuted alone or become separated from their family during their flight. The unfortunate consequence of taking that journey to safety is that nearly half of them are out of school, despite the fact. that education is a basic human right in both the 1951 refugee convention and the 1989 convention on the rights of the child. The two main barriers to education are the school fees and the supplements. As a refugee, you might think that the UNHCR provides finance, food, and health insurance. Unfortunately, it is not true. They might help some people, but most do not obtain this. The best is to apply to good quality schools for their children. However, there are no good quality schools for refugees in Egypt. Things are changing like units here and are slowly supporting the enrollment of refugees. Children in schools, providing students with education grants to contribute to the school fees. In these supplements in the economic year 2020-2021, the UNHCR supported more than 48,000 students in public and community Schools. This includes providing several refugees from different nationalities with the opportunity to obtain the Albert Einstein, German Academic Refugee Initiative, scholarship by UNHCR, funded by the Government of Germany. In conclusion, among all the rights that are taken from refugees, the right to education remains one of the most important ones. We need advocates for and encouraging everyone to defend it, to help to create opportunities for a better future for refugees and this will benefit their host communities. 

TAWFIQ 

My name is Mohammed Tawfiq. I am a 17 years old male Eritrean living in Egypt. I was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2005. My parents fled to Saudi Arabia. I came to Egypt in January 2017. I had many different schooling experiences in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. I faced many difficulties with schooling in Egypt, including expensive and unaffordable school fees. And having to face racism and fights. Education in Egypt is very expensive and not worth the money. Refugees face racism and bullying because of their different cultures and color. Egypt needs to reduce the schools' fees to an amount they can afford. For all social classes, a problem for all refugees is coming here without any knowledge of the language and the culture. Egyptians should have classes and knowledge of other cultures from different parts of the world. The education system in Egypt has many problems which are slowing down the education and people's futures, mostly refugees. This includes costs and cultural differences. I have faced those problems in different schools in Egypt and I am trying to find a solution.

ANGOSOM 

My name is Angosom and I am 18 years old. I am from Eritrea. Currently, I am living in Cairo, Egypt and I go to school at the CAWU learning center. In Egypt. To find a good school isn't easy unless you pay a high amount of money and that's not available to many people here. And the schools that are available for a low amount of money are not providing a worldwide known certificate. The solution to this could be changing the school. We are currently in a better school which provides worldwide known certificates but with not a high amount of money. A school like CAWU is difficult to find.  

ZUHRA

My name is Zuhra. I am a 16 years old student who has been studying in Egypt for almost five years. I have attended a variety of institutions, including British and American schools. I have completed a variety of curriculums. Each one was unique, with each one having its own set of issues. It was difficult to get into the schools in October since they said that some certificates were invalid and could not be accepted. The second issue was that after I applied and was accepted into one school, I discovered that the school, despite its high fee, was not even that good. One school looked good on the outside while being horrific on the inside. Every day the teachers would quit because they couldn't handle the students they had. My answer would be that we recognize students' rates as much as state backgrounds because people come from a variety of backgrounds that made them receive upper education. They might, however, be mentally talented, and gifted, and only required assistance and encouragement to unleash their potential.

CALEB AMOLO

My name is Caleb and I am from the Central African Republic. I live and study in Egypt. I have been living here for nine years and the education system isn't the best, but this happened. There is limited access to quality education. Quality education is essential to success in life, but this becomes a challenge in refugee communities. There are several ways to reduce this education gap per year. Education is one of the fundamental rights of every citizen in most countries. Location plays a significant role in their overall development of the world. Education and literacy shape the future of the country. Unfortunately, millions of children across the world are unaware of their rights to education for various reasons. Especially children in underdeveloped countries have a lower education rate. To fix this problem, we must help in any shape or form. So everybody in the world will have a good education system.

YONAS

My name is Jonas. I am 16 years old and I live in Egypt. I am Ethiopian and live here for 9 years. I came here when I was seven years old when I was a kid. I was happy because my cousin was here. Finding education in Egypt is hard and it requires diligent work to look for a school. My cousin wanted to find a kindergarten school. My family was worried about that, but eventually, my cousin and I got into the kindergarten after my cousin traveled. I went to study at ATT 80. And I stayed there for eight years and it was fun to learn there. After I finished studying there, I had to look for another place to study. It was hard to look for a school and my friend called Senna, who was with me in the same school for years. They told me that they found a school and I was very, very happy. I went to CAWU and registered here. The thing is that the GL test was designed to test your brain abilities and how much you know. The test was hard, but I managed to finish it. My score was good and I passed. I was happy after I came here. The education is good and if you work hard you will benefit from it. I am glad that I have even though I faced difficulties.

PAUL CLEMENT

My name is Paul Clement. I am 14 years old. I live in Egypt. I went to Ghana. I stayed in Uganda for more than 10 years. Then I went to an International School. It was so much fun there. My family decided to come to Egypt. And actually, I came to know this Learning Center because of my sister. My sister knows the school. So she decided to bring me to this school. Coming to such a cool center is good and fun. Educational quality is essential. Education is the thing that makes you become successful in the future. Education at the Learning Center is not hard, actually because they have the same curriculum as my former school. I personally find this school good. The school teachers teach well in the classes.