A school for Syrian children built by the government with financial and technical assistance from UNICEF opened on Friday in the southern province of Adana.

The prefabricated school, which has 24 classrooms, will house 2,100 Syrian students in the city where more than 10,000 Syrian refugees live in a refugee camp.

Turkish officials, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne C. Richard and UNICEF officials attended the opening ceremony. Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF representative in Turkey, said at the opening ceremony that it was the 13th school opened for Syrians in Turkey. He stressed that two out of every three Syrian children were unable to attend school despite efforts by Turkey and UNICEF partners. Richard praised Turkey in her speech for taking in more than 2 million Syrian refugees with exemplary generosity and dedication to educating Syrian children.

To ensure a better future for Syrian children, Turkey offers education in refugee camps, but a large number of Syrian children living outside the camps and in impoverished states lack educational opportunities although local and international charities have mobilized to provide education through private schools.

The country, which has spent billions of dollars on Syrian refugees since 2011, is the primary home for Syrians displaced by more than four years of civil war. It has provided Syrian citizens with refugee tent camps and state-of-the-art "container cities," which have been praised by the international community for their exemplary conditions. Yet the government has struggled to look after others who are unable or unwilling to stay in the crowded refugee camps with limited resources and little aid from other countries.

Authorities acknowledge that the growing number of Syrian refugees and lack of a solution to the conflict in Syria is a heavier burden to the country than previously thought. Ankara is often critical of the international community for its failure to provide funds for humanitarian aid to refugees.