More than half of the nearly 500,000 school-age Syrian children registered in Lebanon are not enrolled in formal education, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday.

Although Lebanon, which is hosting 1.1 million registered Syrian refugees, has allowed Syrian children to enroll for free in public schools, limited resources and Lebanese policies on residency and work for Syrians are keeping children out of the classroom.

The 87-page report, “‘Growing Up Without an Education’: Barriers to Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon,” documents the important steps Lebanon has taken to allow Syrian children to access public schools.

But Human Rights Watch found that some schools have not complied with enrollment policies, and that more donor support is needed for Syrian families and for Lebanon’s over-stretched public school system.

Lebanon is also undermining its positive education policy by imposing harsh residency requirements that restrict refugees’ freedom of movement and exacerbate poverty, limiting parents’ ability to send their children to school and contributing to child labor. Secondary school-age children and children with disabilities face particularly difficult obstacles.

Access to education is crucial to help refugee children cope with the trauma of war and displacement, and gain the skills to play a positive role in host countries like Lebanon and in the eventual reconstruction and future of Syria, Human Rights Watch said.

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