Summary
Proof of legal residency is not a requirement for refugee children to enroll in Lebanese public schools or sit for the official exams that allow them to graduate from middle school and high school.
Last month, the education minister issued a directive stating that legal residency was not required for the certificates to be distributed.
But parents and activists told The Daily Star that local education officials still refused to hand over exam certificates to those without proof of legal residency.
A Syrian mother living in the Rawda area of the Bekaa Valley who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals said her daughter had completed the ninth grade and sat for the Brevet exam this year.
The number of Syrian students who remain in school long enough to take the official exams is already low. According to the U.N.'s 2018 Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, 11 percent of middle-school-aged refugee children were attending grades seven to nine, a significant drop-off from the elementary school attendance rate of 61 percent.
According to the U.N. vulnerability assessment, about three-quarters of Syrian refugees in Lebanon do not have legal residency, with most citing cost as the main barrier.
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