Amman: Donor countries have pledged close to $100 million to help Jordan enrol all Syrian refugee children in the kingdom’s schools next month.
In the previous school year, 145,000 Syrian children in Jordan attended school, while 91,000 didn’t, in part because of overcrowding.
Jordan is now adding a second shift in 102 schools to accommodate the Syrians, bringing the total of double-shift schools to 200.
Jordan on Monday signed grant agreements for the school program with Britain, the US, Norway and Switzerland.
Some 5 million Syrians have fled civil war since 2011, many settling in neighbouring countries.
The UN agency for children estimates that about 700,000 refugee children in the region are not attending school. In Syria, some 2.1 million children, or half the student population, are not in school.
