UN: Half of Refugee Children Do Not Go to School
By Anne Ball
03 September, 2019 // 2019-09-03
The United Nations refugee(难民) agency((代理机构)says that more than half of the world's 3.7 million(百万) refugee(难民) children do not go to school.
// 联合国管理难民的部门（UNHCR(联合国难民署)）说，世界370万难民儿童中有一半以上没有上学。
The UNHCR(联合国难民署) said that means these children will not gain(收益) the skills they need to build a valuable future.
The UNHCR(联合国难民署) found that as refugee(难民) children get older, fewer go to school. The report said that 63 percent of refugee(难民) children go to primary school. That is compared to 91 percent for children around the world. However, only one in four refugee(难民) teenagers gets a secondary(次要的) education, compared to 84 percent of teenagers worldwide.
The U.N. refugee(难民) agency(代理机构) said a lack of money is keeping the refugee(难民) children out of school.
UNHCR(联合国难民署) spokesperson, Melissa Fleming, called the failure to invest(投资) in refugee(难民) education unwise(不明智). She said this is not only sad, but also foolish.
"Not investing in refugees(难民), people who have fled warzones, people who have fled countries where the world is interested in the future of peace is not investing—very simply—in the future of its people ..."
The UNHCR(联合国难民署) supports a new program aimed at quickly starting up secondary(次要的) education efforts for refugees(难民). The program will seek to build and repair schools, train teachers and provide financial support to help refugee(难民) families pay for the expenses of sending their children to school.
Mamadou Dian Balde is UNHCR(联合国难民署) deputy director of the Department of Resilience and Solutions. He told VOA that some small, secondary(次要的) education projects for refugee(难民) teens will begin before the full programs get started.
He said efforts will start in a "resolute" way, in a number of countries in the eastern Horn of Africa and in Asia. Then the program will extend to more countries. He said officials will take into consideration the limited amount of resources that are available for such a program.
The UNHCR(联合国难民署) said making this program a reality will take a large amount of money. However, the agency(代理机构) said it will start with $250 million to increase the number of refugees(难民) in secondary(次要的) education.
I'm Anne Ball.
Lisa Shlein wrote this story for VOA News. Anne Ball adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter Jr. was the editor.
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