Education for Syrian refugees and returnees: Opportunities and risks in the post-Assad transition

The civil war in Syria has, since 2011, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced more than 7 million people within Syria and more than 6 million abroad. On 7 December 2024, President Bashar Al Assad fled Syria, bringing an end to over 50 years of Assad family rule and handing power over to the Syrian Salvation Government in a caretaker capacity. The new government is calling for the return of refugees and interim Prime Minister Al-Bashir talks about the return of Syria’s “human capital and experience”.

The ERICC Helpdesk has been requested to produce a rapid study to develop a comprehensive understanding of current education-related enabling and inhibiting factors with the potential to influence the choice of Syrian families with school-age children returning to Syria. The study covers questions of: the capacity of Syria’s education institutions to absorb returnee learners; catalytic programming to most effectively support education continuity; the current status of Syrian refugees’ access to quality education in Jordan, Lebanon, and Türkiye, and how this impacts decisions to return; and targeted programming for Syrians in host countries that aspire to voluntarily return one day.