The refugee crisis has put many countries under considerable pressure to integrate large numbers of refugee pupils into basic education. Children with a refugee background are a particularly vulnerable group as a result of their forced displacement. Their specific needs are not always met by host country education systems, which can hinder the integration potential of these pupils to basic education. Barriers which Include: curriculum difference, the language of instruction, educational policy restriction, financial and inadequate teacher training to handle refugee pupils poses considerable challenges in the integration of refugee children in primary education.
Once resettled in the host country, refugee learners start the challenging journey of exploring a new educational opportunity. Most refugee pupils experience academic, financial, emotional, and psychosocial challenges that include cultural assimilation stress constrained English and host language capability, curriculum challenges, policy restrictions, and the inability of school teachers to handle children with a refugee background. Accordingly, refugee pupils are at higher risk for school dropout. The government encampment policies restrict refugees in remote camps. Hence, aid is often given to refugees settling in camps, with humanitarian organizations and governments not willing to do anything in urban settings that may counter encampment policy or draw in refugees to the urban.
Refugees have still been migrating to the city, but due to legal restrictions constraining both potential donors and recipients of aid, their needs have not been fully assessed or acted on. Urban refugees have never been systematically registered since they are largely ineligible for assistance outside the camp and theoretically do not exist. This lack of legal protection in urban areas means that most refugees are obliged to return temporarily to the camps during population counts to register with UNHCR to keep their legal attachment to the refugee regime. Government authorities regularly make statements highlighting the illegality of urban refugees in the local press or at events relating to refugee protection. Official statements ordering urban refugees to return to the camps or face the consequences are also often found posted in public places. These threats are sometimes followed up by police sweeps and mass arrests of refugees. In return, they often fear joining the primary school for fear of being recognized.
