Building bridges through inclusive education system: The case of Syrian refugee children in Hatay/TURKEY

The civil war that started in Syria in March 2011 has been continuing for the last 8 years with a profound impact on the lives of millions of Syrian citizens. Syrian children, who are currently living in Syria and those who migrated to other countries, pay the heaviest price. Since the outbreak of the war, approximately 5,6 million Syrian refugees have fled from war and conflict and migrated to other countries. At the same time, 6,2 million people were displaced within Syria. While Syrians have been forcibly displaced, they have sought refuge primarily in their border neighbours, specifically including Turkey. Turkey is home to 3,6 million Syrian refugees which make it the largest refugee-hosting country in the world. Almost half of the Syrian refugee population in Turkey is school-age children, which greatly increases the importance of refugee education in Turkey. Education plays a key role in helping refugee children cope with the negative situations they are exposed to and adapt to the country in which they migrate. In this study, the services provided by the Turkish Government to meet the educational needs of Syrian refugee children since 2011 have been examined, the different education systems applied to refugee students and how these systems have been transformed from temporary policies to permanent policies have been discussed. It also examined how access to education and different educational systems have importance in integrating Syrian refugee children to host society. Finally, the fieldwork conducted in Hatay discussed the accessibility, quality, and inclusivity of education services, and identified the difficulties and good examples encountered in the education process. Through the identified challenges and good examples, various policy recommendations have been made to expand the inclusiveness of the current refugee education system.