A Syrian student has ranked first in Turkey's nationwide high school entrance exam known as the LGS, a statement from his school announced Wednesday.
The Selahaddin Eyyubi Imam Hatip Secondary School in southeastern Siirt province’s Kurtalan district congratulated the student, Dlyar Safo in the tweet.
Imam Hatip secondary and high schools are Turkey’s vocational education institutes that follow a religion-focused curriculum.
It has been 10 years since the first group of Syrian refugees, consisting of 250 people, entered Turkey, starting their new lives in the new country after fleeing the war and persecution of the Assad regime.
Since then, the number of Syrians living in Turkey has swelled to around 3.8 million.
In addition to 33,000 university students, more than half a million Syrian children are enrolled in schools across Turkey, according to UNICEF. At these schools, the children learn the Turkish language as well as other disciplines.
Integrating children into Turkish schools was one of the policies interrupted by the coronavirus, as schools across the country were closed and education continued via distance learning.
Many Syrians live in crowded houses and many may not have the equipment needed for their children to continue education online.
Yet, while children find themselves working instead of going to school, Syrian women tend to remain unemployed. Only 6% of Syrian women are working in the country's labor market. The overall labor force participation rate among Syrians in Turkey is 38%.
Although some Syrians are business owners or co-owners with Turkish nationals, a large number of Syrians in Turkey work in the service sector. According to the U.N. figures, over 130,000 work permits have been granted and over 10,000 Syrian entrepreneurs have had the opportunity to start a business in Turkey.
Ankara so far has spent around $40 billion (TL 274 billion) on Syrians in Turkey, while the European Union has provided only around 3 billion euros ($3.34 billion) of a promised 6 billion euros – a gap Turkey has long demanded be closed.
