As published in Al Jazeera America

In this commentary, AIR expert Amy West discusses the need for education and job skills training for displaced Syrian youth, a need that will require the help and cooperation of education ministries, donors, government officials, and others from multiple countries. More than 1.3 million Syrian refugees are under the age of 18 and desperately need access not just to basic necessities but to education as well. West states, "Many of the Syrian children have been out of school for almost three years now. And, according to the United Nations refugee agency, two-thirds of school-age Syrian refugees are not getting any education."

"The path to peace and political stability for Syrians is complicated," she writes, "but for young people, education puts a future without violence or exclusion within reach." 

Read the full commentary below.