REACHING ALL CHILDREN WITH EDUCATION: THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION FOR SYRIAN REFUGEE CHILDREN AND NATIONALS UNDER THE LEBANESE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

O direito à educação para crianças refugiadas sírias e nacionais no sistema educacional libanês

Abstract

The program Reaching All Children with Education (RACE), developed by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education of Lebanon (MEHE), was conceived in 2014 under the perspective of a response-plan to the arrival of Syrian refugees in the neighbouring country. The Lebanese educational system required its own reformulation, tackling policies of access and social aid, school infrastructure and even governance over national schooling. To a certain extent, the process was adapted as the Syrian migration process to Lebanon developed, taking into consideration the peculiarities of these migrants and the regions where they settled. By the year of 2017, a second program was launched, the Reaching All Children with Education II, furthering the achievements of RACE I. This article aims to analyse the above-mentioned program, spotting the perspective of the actors associated with it, e.g. the MEHE, United-Nations-related organisms and non-governmental organisations, as well as scholarly material. Based on data obtained from reports produced by these agents, the article proposes to discuss the RACE programs, having as the starting point the importance of public policies looking forward to integrating refugees and asylum-seekers, children being a key-group in the debate, along with the role of education and international cooperation in the process.