A step to be emulated

The Cabinet has approved a recommendation to allow Syrian children to attend government schools even in the absence of the necessary documentation, continuing to fulfil its humanitarian duty towards the Syrian refugees.

Now, in order to be allowed to join formal education in the Kingdom, Syrian children have to present a special ID card issued by the Ministry of Interior indicating their status as refugees. 

The decision, said the education minister, is consistent with the government’s policy that grants all children “their right to education”.

The UNICEF representative in Jordan justly congratulated the move that enables every child “to get a fair chance in preparing for a better future for themselves and their families”.

The approval will be of particular help to some 80,000 Syrian children who were out of school for different reasons, including lack of necessary identification documents.

And it shows what Jordan is all about: a country generous with its refugee population that values children, all children, and looks after their welfare.

The right to education is a basic human right stipulated in most international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 

Jordan has gone beyond the call of duty and its treaty obligations in regard to refugees, and offers an example that deserves recognition and appreciation.

Above all, it deserves international support in this endeavour, for the plight of the refugees has repercussions that do not stop at our borders.

A child without education, without hope for the future, can be easily recruited by and has the potential to become a follower of extreme thought and behaviour.

There is more at stake than the future of Syrian refugee children; most countries of the world have felt, through the wave after wave of refugees arriving at their shores, the repercussions of destitution and war afflicting one particular nation.

Humanity is in this together. Jordan knows that and behaves with the concern all other countries should show towards those in need, particularly children.