Redhead Rambles

Of the 2.3 million registered Syrian refugees in the region, an estimated 865,000 are children, and about 70 percent of them are not enrolled in school, Unicef says. But the real figure is almost certainly higher.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have yet to be registered by the United Nations, especially in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. The children among them, probably accounting for one-third, are unlikely to be attending school. Many are simply unable to register in school systems that are struggling to deal with the inundation of Syrians.

Among those who do enroll, many attend irregularly because of cost or safety concerns. Others, especially those who have already missed a year or two of school because of the conflict in Syria, are unable to cope with a new environment, a new curriculum and, in the case of Lebanon, a new language. Still others work to help parents whose savings are being depleted.