Education in the Middle East is crucial in fighting extremism

This content was originally posted in 7DAYS UAE website at: Education in the Middle East is crucial in fighting extremism Developed countries in the Middle East have been urged to help provide an education for children in war-torn neighbouring states, after a new study laid bare the impact of conflict on youngsters. Former British prime minister Gordon Brown made the comments as he addressed the opening day of the Knowledge Summit 2015 in Dubai. Results of the Arab Knowledge Index showed Yemen currently has just 40 per cent of school-age children studying in pre-university education and in Syria the figure was just 41 per cent. The UAE was close to twice that. The index was released after UNICEF said in October that 2.7 million Syrian children are no longer attending school because of the ongoing war and 52,000 teachers had left their posts. The three-day summit opened with UN chief Ban Ki-moon insisting that terrorism in the region could be overcome through educating and empowering young people. Brown, who is the UN special envoy for global education, said: “All of the great advances in technology and the great thoughts we have – let us not only apply that to make sure that the education right of every child in this country is assured, but let us prove we can give young people opportunities even in the situations that look hopeless.” The UAE has scored highest in the 2015 Arab Knowledge Index, it was announced at the Knowledge Summit. Here’s a video by UNICEF: But Gordon Brown, the UN special envoy for global education, said the lowest scoring countries in the region, such as Yemen, which had only 16 per cent of students going on to university, and Syria, with just 26.3 per cent today, need support from their neighbours. Brown said the UAE “has done what most countries take 100 years to do” in terms of educating its population and said countries that have achieved such success can help others up the ladder. Brown also used Lebanon as an example of a country that brought in 200,000 Syrian refugee children to be educated. He continued: “We can do so much more. There are two million Syrian refugee children in this region. “There are six million displaced Syrian children due to the war. “Our aim for the next few months is to make sure that one million of these children are in education during the course of next year. To move from a figure from 200,000 to one million, so these kids have hope.” Brown said he had been inspired by one refugee he met in Beirut. He said: “I met a young boy and asked ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ and he said ‘an engineer’, but he wasn’t in school. “I asked him why he would want to be an engineer from all of the different options he has – he replied he wants to be an engineer so he can go back and rebuild Syria. “And there are two million children just like that in this vicinity of Syria.” The UAE has to date welcomed more than 100,000 Syrians since the crisis began and enroling more than 17,000 in schools. As of April 2015, the UAE government has provided Dhs2.14 billion to help 1.5 million displaced people and refugees in Syria and host countries including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt. Brown was also asked if enough was being done to help Syrian refugee children, to which he said: “No organisation is doing nearly enough for the Syrian refugees because the problem is on such a large scale.” sarwat@7days.ae Read the original story at: Education in the Middle East is crucial in fighting extremism