The world is witnessing a crisis in refugee education. This situation has been acute in the countries of the Global South, whose education systems tend to be underfunded and lack adequate school infrastructure and teachers trained in refugees’ needs. In these conditions, refugee families, including refugee children, often fail to enrol due to overcrowded classrooms; refugee teachers do no pay due attention to the specific needs of refugee children; refugee children face discrimination and bullying; and school administration bodies lack mechanisms to provide support to undocumented, over-aged refugee children, or those struggling with trauma. From the persepctive of refugees themselves, refugee child education challenges also originate from their preference to learn the curriculum of their home country, from constant migration and from hope of immediate return to their home country or resettlement.

These factors have disrupted the education of refugee children. As influenced by the aspiration of return and resettlement, refugee families have resisted enrolling their children in national schools. In worst-case situations, refugee families have retained their children at home, hoping that they would leave the host countries soon. Another aspect of this problem are the educational interventions based on the service-delivery approach. What matters in education programmes drawn from this approach is just the provision of physical access to education. Usually, aspects such as quality education, social cohesion and belonging are less – or not at all – prioritised in such educational interventions.