UN Seeks Aid to Get Uprooted Iraqis into Schools

The United Nations asked for emergency funds on Friday to help uprooted Iraqi children attend schools in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and other countries hosting families who have fled war in Iraq.

In a joint appeal, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF asked donors for $129 million to get some 155,000 young Iraqi refugees into the classroom for the 2007-08 school year, starting in late August.

"Action must be taken now so that children are ready to go to school when classes begin," said Pierrette Vu Thi, deputy director of UNICEF's office of emergency programmes.

More than 2 million Iraqis are living outside the country, which has become engulfed in violence since U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2003 and deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, creating a power vacuum and unleashing deep sectarian tensions.

About 500,000 of those who fled are of school age, and most have limited or no access to education in their host countries, UNHCR and UNICEF said.

Only 33,000 of the 300,000 school-age Iraqi children in Syria are currently enrolled in school and at least 50,000 Iraqi boys and girls in Jordan are not in school, the agencies said. Many children have dropped out and some families cannot afford school fees, uniforms and other education costs.

UNICEF and UNHCR said their aid programmes would help families shoulder such costs, rent or buy buses to take children to school, upgrade school buildings to help them accommodate more students, and cover the salaries of more than 4,000 new teachers needed for the 155,000 additional children.

School counsellors and teachers would also receive special training to help them deal with the special needs of Iraqi children, many of whom have faced traumatic experiences, the agencies said.