Syrian Refugees: Students and Class

syrian refugees: Belanger said the purpose of the LEAD class is getting students up to speed on where they should be in the Canadian school system, and filling gaps in students' education, according to Toronto Star. Just like any other high school students in Calgary, they're handling cash, and conversing in English, a language not their first, all despite some having huge gaps in their education stemming from displacement back in Syria. According to Carla Belanger, James Fowlers English language learning leader and teacher of the LEAD class, about 90 per cent of the class' 45 students are Syrian refugees who came to Calgary from the refugee influx two years ago. When we first came, the first day it was hard, because everything is new, but now it's better because we learned English, we can speak to the people, said student Murhaf Aolthman, who came to Canada two years ago as a Syrian refugee from a refugee camp in Jordan. They gave us a lot of chances to learn, to have friends, to have a new life, to have freedom, he said. Article Continued Below Canadians are good because they helped us to be confident in Canada, to get to school, to have work, to be the same as Canadians, said Aolthman. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.