Abstract:

Since 2011, more than 5 million refugees have fled Syria. In 2016, from an estimated pre-war population of 22 million, the United Nations (UN) identified 13.5 million Syrians requiring humanitarian assistance, of which more than 6 million are internally displaced within Syria. Around 5 million are refugees outside of Syria- asked resettlement countries to open their doors to new refugees. Mostly they passed throughTurkey or settled in Turkey.

Today, young refugees -approximately one million refugees- in Turkey are aged between 15 and 24. Turkey’s asylum framework provides a broad range of rights and entitlements including access to education, health care and social services for asylum-seekers and refugees. While refugees and asylum-seekers increased access to services provided through the public systems, the capacity of the existing infrastructure and personnel, including in hospitals and schools, is stretched. Mainly in education field, gap was deeper. Refugee children specially age from 9 to11 -which may have considered now as in Primary Grades- are the generation which were born in their own home countries. Like all others they need special care too. They need to learn new culture, new language; need to survive in a new learning field in their schools. But in Turkish Education System, not in each city, they could get separate classes for them. They just inserted up to their ages, not up to their knowledge’s. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees published on 31 Aug 2018 Close to 4 million refugees in Turkey continues to be home to the world’s largest refugee population. Main locations, almost 50 percent of all refugees, in Turkey are registered mainly in four key provinces: Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul and Sanliurfa. In these places with the help of international organisations, they have camps, hospitals and language schools in different levels. The rest of the country even its not highly dominated by refugees, still need to be cared differently. Because at the age of early education and primary level, they directly mixed with locals in schools.

In this study 150- 4th grade students and 120- 3rd grade students (from locals + refugees) has been watched during their art lessons, half a year in Eskisehir. Its an average city example which can be a random sample of other cities in Turkey, which are not in these four main provinces. Afghan, Uzbek but mostly Syrian Primary Students artworks; shapes, colors, feelings and ideas has been examined. By the help of this study we will try to find out what are the effects of being new in a different learning field for refugees in Turkey. How they are showing via their paintings. Are they really sitting 'in' the clasrooms or are they already getting lost in time and space?.

Keywords:

Refugees, asylum-seekers, education, primary, art, paintings, class management.