UNRWA: School year will start on schedule

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has announced that the school year 2015/2016 will start according to plan in Palestine on 24 August, in Jordan on 1 September, in Lebanon on 7 September, and in Syria on 13 September.

In an official statement issued on Wednesday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl said: “I have taken this decision first and foremost because of how central education is to the identity and dignity of Palestine refugees, and of the 500,000 boys and girls whose future depends on learning and developing skills in our 685 schools.”

“Education is a fundamental right for children everywhere in the world, and it should never have come to the point where the UNRWA school year risked being delayed because of a funding shortfall for our core budget, but it almost did. For this reason we fought very hard to create a revival of solidarity for Palestinian refugees and a renewed understanding of the importance of respecting their rights and addressing their needs adequately and predictably,” Krähenbühl added in the statement that was published on the website of the UN News Centre.

He noted that “for months UNRWA has been drawing the attention of the international community to the risks of neglecting the fate and plight of Palestinian refugees in an increasingly unstable Middle East.”

“Faced with the multiplicity of crises in the region, many were on the verge of purely and simply overlooking or forgetting the humiliation and despair endured for decades by Palestinian refugees,” he added.