The UK has a legal duty to ensure that education is available for all children, but young refugees and asylum-seekers face educational barriers that are not being adequately addressed by schools and the government.
UNICEF 2017 pointed out that, while standards are relatively high in the UK, the UK falls short on some of the goals it sets for refugee education. The UK target for time spent by refugee children outside of education is 20 school days, yet no region of the UK meets this target. Between government targets and school policies, there is a failure to provide refugee children with their right to education.
Dr. Jáfia Naftali Câmara (a researcher studying refugee children’s experiences in the UK) says that there is limited information regarding young refugees in England’s schools. Dr. Maureen McBride agrees, and says that a lack of research which is carried out directly with refugees is “undoubtedly a challenge for future research”. When tackling these issues, we risk homogenizing refugee experiences and generalising solutions. In Sandra Taylor and Ravinder Sidhu’s 2012 study, they described UK policy makers overlooking the diverse experiences of refugees as a significant barrier to inclusion. While I seek to describe this generally, the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking children in the UK education system are extremely diverse.
While issues such as poverty and mental health are important, Peterson et al. (2017) notes that a positive school/education experience is central to the sense of inclusion for asylum-seeking and refugee children, which contributes to an overall better quality of life. Advocating for policies that help young refugees in education will help with their integration into UK society and will give these children a better chance of living a healthy, fulfilling life.
Displaced children and their carers/parents cite language as one of the most difficult problems when making friends and settling in the UK. These difficulties contribute greatly to mental health issues; not being able to fit in and falling behind in school work exacerbates issues stemming from previous trauma such as PTSD. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) interviewed a student who, even after spending 2 years in the UK, had anxiety about doing her GCSEs in English, to the extent that she was considering quitting school.
Support for students who are not fluent in English varies greatly by school. ONS found that young refugees in England often felt like the support they received from their schools was inadequate and that they were being rushed into exams they were not ready for. Some have had to take additional English language courses to proceed to sixth form. However, multiple schools were reported to excel at providing tailored support for young people who were struggling with English through partnering them with fluent speakers and strategic timetabling with more ESL classes, showing that it is possible for schools to independently provide support for young refugee students.
Language difficulties sometimes follow young refugees outside of education. Young refugees who were displaced with their families sometimes need to help their parents/carers in translating medical/asylum documents. The UK asylum process is plagued with shoddy Home Office behavior and a massive backlog, which results in increasingly complex and bureaucratic tasks which are often delegated to children who themselves are not fluent in English. With a large portion of their time dedicated to learning English or translating documents, young refugees often feel like they cannot afford any leisure time, which contributes to mental health issues which further compound difficulties in language learning.
Refugee children also face insensitive behavior from teachers. In Rachel Hek’s 2005 study, refugee students emphasized emotional support from teachers as something that helped them feel welcome in school, but unhelpful and even hostile behavior from teachers is common towards refugee students.
Older students tend to face different difficulties that are almost never addressed by schools. Peterson et al. (2017) illustrated that refugee students with further education aspirations are generally unsupported by the school when it comes to admission and applications. This is compounded by a negative school ethos regarding refugees; schools tend to frame refugees as deficient or as ‘a problem to be solved’ which does not recognize the potential of students and leads to less opportunities being provided. In terms of language, cuts to ESL funding in the UK will affect older students who arrive towards the end of compulsory schooling.
How can we change the education system to make sure young refugees face less barriers to education? There are a range of evidence-backed programs and policies that can be implemented on a school level and beyond.
Testimonies from young refugee students show that classes that teach English as a Second Language (ESL) assist in all aspects of life; One testimony from a young female student in the UK said that the class helped her gain confidence in English and provided her with a community of other students who were facing language struggles. Feeling isolated is a common threat throughout many testimonies, so ESL classes can solve 2 problems at once. When students enter mid-year, ESL programs and funding can be difficult to organize. A flexible approach to admissions can help integrate refugee students. In Candappa et al’s (2007) study on refugee education in Scotland, one school explained that they have “admissions day every Monday afternoon”.
McBride notes that teachers in the UK tend to be ignorant to the traumatic experiences and difficulties that refugee students can face, and recommends staff training and student counselling as ways to break down this barrier.
When it comes to the teaching material, a translated curriculum is seldom available, and external resources commonly recommended to struggling students (such as BBC Bitesize) are not suited for auto-translation. While this might seem too large of a project for schools to implement independently, organisations such as The Teachers’ Union and numerous Local Education Authorities have published guides on ‘making the curriculum accessible’.
Looking at previous examples of effective policies can be helpful, but it is important to centre young refugee voices in order to effectively help them. Young refugees have suggested to the ONS that they would greatly benefit from receiving class materials in advance, having translated curricula or being able to use their phones for in-class translation. Large scale programs like ESL classes might face administrative or fiscal issues that cause delays. These suggestions from young refugees can be easier, quicker and more effective to implement.
The ONS catalogued many incidents of bullying in schools, with reasons including lack of subject comprehension, lower language proficiency and cultural differences. What seems to be increasingly common, however, is racism stemming from the rise of far-right rhetoric among young people, which spreads through social media spaces. The Teachers’ Union have already sounded alarms about the influence of far-right rhetoric on school children, reporting rampant surges of hate crimes in schools, attributed to far right social media content. 63% of teachers in Scotland feel like social media negatively impacts student behavior. Teachers from Black, Caribbean or African backgrounds are more likely to experience regular physical abuse from students, with 26.9% reporting multiple incidents a week, compared to only 15.9% of White teachers. With racism on the rise, young refugees might suffer from more hate crimes and violence than we have already seen. Far-right racism is not just limited to students, McBride’s review of the literature even found examples of teachers being racist towards refugee students, which is a crime under the Equality Act (2010). J. Lynn McBrien’s 2005 study linked behavioral issues to trauma, bullying and language barriers. With increased anti-immigration rhetoric, refugee and asylum-seeking children would encounter increased bullying, which would exacerbate behavioral issues and further disrupt young refugees’ education.
Nationwide policies for ESL and other standardised language support schemes would help combat the extreme differences refugee children face in schools. However, McBride writes that a significant barrier to the improvement of refugee education is lack of specific funding and support from the government. Racism and anti-immigration rhetoric might force refugee children to rely on the sadly inconsistent support of volunteers and charities.
To conclude, many studies show that asylum-seeking and refugee children have a very positive attitude towards school and regard education as an important part of their lives. If these students struggle in their education, it is not for a lack of motivation, but a failure on the part of the school and government.
Bibliography
‘How do young refugees and their families encounter England’s education system?’, Jáfia Naftali Câmara, University of Bristol website, at https://www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/policy-briefings/young-refugees-education, accessed 4 Nov 2025.
‘Education for refugee and asylum seeking children’, UNICEF website, at https://www.unicef.org.uk/publications/access-to-education-refugee-asylum-seeking-children, accessed 4 Nov 2025.
‘Experiences of displaced young people living in England: January to March 2023’, Office for National Statistics website, at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/experiencesofdisplacedyoungpeoplelivinginengland/januarytomarch2023#school-and-education, accessed 4 Nov 2025.
‘Far-right movements fuelling violence in schools’, NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union website, at https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/article-listing/far-right-movements-fuelling-violence-in-schools.html, accessed 4 Nov 2025.
‘Far right movements behind rising tide of misogyny and racism in schools’, NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union website, at https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/article-listing/far-right-movements-misogyny-and-racism.html, accessed 4 Nov 2025.
Maureen McBride, Refugee Children’s Education: A Review of the Literature (What Works Scotland, June 2018).
‘A review of the evidence: Understanding educational experiences of children and young people who are seeking refuge and asylum’, UK Trauma Council website, at https://uktraumacouncil.org/resource/refuge-and-asylum-literature-review, accessed 4 Nov 2025.
‘Briefing: the sorry state of the UK asylum system’, freemovement website, at https://freemovement.org.uk/briefing-the-sorry-state-of-the-uk-asylum-system/#Asylum_backlog, accessed 6 Nov 2025.