The OECD countries have historically produced strong national education systems, yet refugee education in Europe faces multiple challenges, often due to the failure to recognize refugee education as a new and integral part of education system, rather than a temporary problem. Some countries, especially those greatly affected by large refugee arrivals, tend to develop their refugee education systems in a complex way. Others with large numbers of refugee students, yet not overwhelming, have taken some initiatives to address refugee education. However, such initiatives are found to experience budget cuts and/or lack proper actions aimed at its realization. The European countries least affected by the refugee crisis barely have any programmes to show for, and as a result many refugees suffer multiple violations in pursuit of their right to quality education. We asked several affiliated organisations to provide information answering some questions on refugee education in their countries. A short summary of this data is shown below, however, More data will be presented during the information session.
The number of refugee children in schools and their “visibility� directly relates to the attention to the problem of refugee education in corresponding countries. Unfortunately, there is no public data on this share for many OECD countries. National surveys keep track of the nationalities and language skills of students, yet not of their legal status and KEY POINT special needs of refugees. Rough estimations show that countries with the TO BE CONSIDERED least share of refugee and asylum-seeking children demonstrate the least attention paid to the problems of refugee education; yet the actual Public authorities of transit activity in this area also greatly depends on the budget of these and host countries should countries. In Poland far less than 0,01 percent of students are refugees. give first priority to the As a result no special programmes or initiatives exist on the national care of unaccompanied and regional level. Though in Sweden this share goes up to 15 percent minors by providing in some sectors of education, creating a great demand for special shelter, food, healthcare, programmes, refugee education specialists and relevant programmes, education and protecting which is being addressed. In Spain, where about 0,015 percent are them against abuse refugee students, there exist many programmes, but their development is severely limited by budget cuts and by being considered low priority. When we look to Canada, where roughly 0,13 percent of pupils are refugee children, and of whom only children under 14 are considered part of this group, programmes are mainly designed and distributed by NGOs and other public organisations, while national priorities concern mostly more general immigrant education. In the Netherlands there are 0,5-1 percent of refugee children in schools and there are many programmes focused on language and integration, yet they are limited in budget. In the United Kingdom and Germany, the share of refugee students is 1-1.3 percent and 1-3 percent respectively. Refugee education in these
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