Beirut’s schoolchildren need our help to rebuild their lives
Lebanon’s multiple simultaneous crises are fuelling domestic abuse, child exploitation, child marriages and child labour, writes Emma Pajunen, FCA’s humanitarian assistance coordinator living in Beirut. FCA has begun work in schools affected by the Beirut port explosion.
I recently visited a Beirut school, where we are launching Finn Church Aid’s educational programme, to ask the teachers and students how they felt the school was doing. They showed me a deserted basketball court and said it now served as a car park.
In Beirut, Covid-19 closed playgrounds early on, and many children and young people have spent much of the past 18 months at home. The students I met at school hoped they would be able to play games and have fun in the schoolyard when schools restart in the autumn.
Finn Church Aid is about to start repairing five schools affected by the port explosion in Beirut. The damage to the schools has made them unsafe for children to play games. Photo: Emma Pajunen 2021.
In Lebanon, children and young people need our support now more than ever. In the wake of the devastating port explosion in August 2020, the country has plunged into a political stalemate without a functioning government. Lebanon is also suffering from a severe economic crisis which is exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides the locals, refugees also need help. About 1.5 million Syrians fled the war in their home country to Lebanon. Now refugees account for a staggering 25 per cent of Lebanon’s population.
Unprecedented economic collapse and a devastating explosion
According to a report published by the World Bank in June, Lebanon’s economic crisis is thought to rank in the top three most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-19th century.
Since October 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost about 90 per cent of its value against the dollar. This means that ordinary people’s salaries or pension savings have lost most of their value. Poverty and unemployment are estimated to have at least doubled.
Along with food supplies, the currency collapse is affecting the availability and prices of fuel and medicines. The Lebanese people I met said the only way to make ends meet is for relatives and friends living abroad to send them dollars.
The devastating port explosion in Beirut took place on 4 August 2020. A strong pressure wave caused extensive damage to the city’s buildings. This photo is from the school where FCA is starting programme work. Photo: Emma Pajunen 2021.
Lebanon has not had a sovereign government since the previous government resigned after the Beirut port explosion in August 2020, which further complicates the situation. About 200 people died and 300,000 people lost their homes in the blast.
Immediately after the explosion, FCA sent emergency relief, including food and hygiene items, to more than a hundred families.
The explosion damaged more than 200 schools, affecting over 85,000 students. Reconstruction is still in progress.
Finn Church Aid is beginning repairs in some schools damaged by the port explosion. The schools are in the poorest areas of Beirut and mostly attended by local Lebanese or refugee children.
Schools face many challenges
The Lebanese education sector is in deep crisis. Nationwide protests that began in October 2019 forced children to stay at home even before the Covid-19 lockdowns. Since then, some Lebanese and Syrian students have missed out on education completely, and over a million students have lost more than a year of learning.
According to a recent UNICEF report, 15 per cent of the families they interviewed had taken their children out of school because they could no longer afford school fees, and nine per cent of families had to send their children to work instead of school.
Before remote learning was offered, only half of Syrian school-age refugees attended school. During the 2020–2021 school year, 25,000 Syrian refugees dropped out of school and more than 40,000 Lebanese students moved from private to public education because their parents could no longer afford tuition fees. But public schools were already full, and now children go to school in two shifts.
The explosion smashed building structures and windows. In this school, plastic sheeting still replaced windowpanes in May 2021. Photo: Emma Pajunen.
For many reasons, distance learning has been difficult to provide. Internet connections are slow and expensive, power cuts are common, families lack IT equipment and parents may be unable to help their children with home schooling. The effects have been particularly disastrous for vulnerable schoolchildren, such as Syrian refugees.
The economic crisis has also affected teachers who have seen their salaries plummet. If the value of a teacher’s monthly salary in dollars was about $1,900 a month, it is now about $160. At current prices, it’s hard to imagine how this would be enough to support a family, pay rent or even buy food. So teachers often take two or more evening or weekend jobs just to make ends meet.
Schoolchildren need our support
During school visits, I have listened to the discussions between the teaching staff and students. Support for the wellbeing of children often comes up. Lebanon’s multiple simultaneous crises are fuelling domestic abuse, child exploitation, child marriages and child labour. Children’s distress is palpable, and the need for psychosocial support in schools is growing.
FCA’s school projects are repairing schoolyards so that children can play games and have fun again. Photo: Emma Pajunen 2021.
Our work aims to improve the learning conditions for schoolchildren. In our partner schools, we are not only repairing the damage caused by the port explosion, but also investing in outdoor spaces. In some schools, the yards are small and lack the space for play, exercise or games. Pleasant schoolyards and the time spent in them will provide a major boost for students’ wellbeing.
FCA offers remedial classes for those at risk of dropping out of school, including a free meal for the students attending the classes. We also provide cash assistance to parents who cannot afford school fees. And based on feedback from students, we organise activities such as sports and games to boost students’ wellbeing. Teachers receive training in psychosocial support and distance learning methods.
I’m happy to report that the repair works will begin soon, and the other school programmes will start in September when the new semester begins.
The writer is Finn Church Aid’s humanitarian assistance coordinator in Lebanon. She has lived in Beirut for two and half years.
Girls’ education gains ground in Somalia’s hard-to-reach area
Five thousand learners enrolled in school in Hudur in one of the first education interventions in the area, supported by EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO). Almost half of the learners were girls.
Parents in Somalia’s rural areas have traditionally not valued education, and if the opportunity exists, families typically send only their boys to school. As a result, the interventions in the education sector were few when FCA launched its program in six schools in Hudur in June 2020.
FCA started implementing the education project funded by EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) by launching mass awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of education. In addition, community meetings and the forming of local education committees increased the engagement of people.
Child marriage is one of the most significant barriers to girls’ education in areas such as Hudur. Becoming a caretaker of the family and a mother can end their chances of progressing at school.
Poverty is another obstacle to sending children to school. However, within this program, education is free, and the quality of learning is ensured through teacher training and quality learning materials. As a result, the project reached its goal of enrolling five thousand learners. The learners include 2,387 girls, almost half of the total. To keep girls in school during menstruation, 806 girls received monthly sanitary kits. In addition, older boys and girls were given gender-sensitive recreational materials.
Muna Mohamed Haydar, 17, washes her hands outside the school. She says, “My teachers are good and teach well. Math is my favorite subject because I enjoy doing calculations. It is important for us to attend school. Education will help us build a bright future.”
Teacher Lul Mohamed Nur is responsible for the protection and safety of the students. She encourages girls to receive good education. Today, the number of girls is higher than the number of boys in my school. She tells that, “we have achieved this after conducting relentless awareness in the neighborhood, telling families the importance of sending their girls to schools. We give special attention to learners with disabilities. They are often allocated seats at the front of the classroom.”
Hawa Isak Warsame, 16, tells, “my parents couldn’t afford to pay for my school fees but since it is free and they give us uniforms and other learning materials. I am keen to take advantage of this opportunity to educate myself.” Her favourite subject is English and she would like to work for a humanitarian organisation in the future. She also praises the safety of the school: “If one of the learners feel threatened they can submit their complaint into the box FCA has brought us. This really given me and my classmates a strong sense of safety.”
Suleqo Hassan Adan, 10, tells, “I like math because it is easy for me. I want to become a well-known engineer and rebuild my country or a teacher to help those in need in the community.” She also has a strong opinion about equality: “Education is important for everyone whether be it a boy or a girl. Parents must give equal opportunity to their children.”
Hamaro Mohamed Nur is Suleqo’s mother. “My daughter has been attending the school for a year. I always encourage her to go to the school and learn something. At first she used to resist but now she got used to it and she likes going to the school. Her interest has increased since she received uniform and learning materials. She has a lot of energy for her books now. My daughter is a child with special needs, she cannot see well due to her albinism. She told me the teachers make her sit next to the blackboard so that she sees what is written on the board. She really likes her teachers.”
Mohamed Hassan Abdirahman teaches English to internally displaced pupils. “I was motivated by the need of my community. There was no school in the area before we came up with the idea of establishing this learning center. All of the children here were out of school, so I decided to take action along with like-minded friends. As for the learners with disabilities, we pay special attention to them. We try to listen their demands and protect them from bullying. Safety and protection of the students is of high priority for us” and adds that it can protect girls from early marriages.
Zainab Abdullahi Ahmed, 10, goes to school for accelerated basic education (ABE) and says that she enjoys learning new things. “My teachers help me a lot. I don’t feel any problems attending the classes.” She also wants to help others in the future: “When I grow up, I want to become a doctor.”
Maryan Warsame tells that her child has been attending the school for five years. She says that, “as a parent, I am grateful for helping to educate my daughter. Here we consider teachers as second parents and indeed they are second parents because they treat our kids as their own.” She tells that, “I have both daughters and sons and I send all of them to school, but I am more confident in my daughters. An educated girl will always be helpful to her parent.”
Bashir Moallin Mohamed, 18, says he is very ambitious about his education. He praises the teacher for being kind and highly qualified. “English is my favorite subject because I am good at the grammar. I hope to speak good English soon. I want to become a teacher like my teachers and educate the the people in need in the community.”
FCA launches an ECHO-funded project to enhance access to Education for displaced children in hard-to-reach areas of Southwest State of Somalia
We are happy to announce the launch a 12-month Education in Emergencies project in the Southwest State (SWS) of Somalia to fulfil the right to education of displaced children in areas that especially hard to reach. The READ Project is aimed at restoring and maintaining safe access to quality education for 7,000 crises-affected children so that they can enter or return to protective learning opportunities.
FCA will be implementing the project with its local partner Gargaar Relief Development Organization (GREDO) and it will operate in hard-to-reach areas of El-Berde Baidoa and Hudur. The project is funded by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) in its quest to support the improvement of access to quality education in Somalia.
The READ project is striving to improve children’s access to a safe, inclusive and protective learning environment; to enhance the capacity of teachers and other education personnel to provide quality education and learning outcomes; and to strengthen safety and child protection mechanisms in target schools for psychosocial well-being, protection and safeguarding of affected children.
In El-Berde, only 8 % of school-aged children (1,574 in total, incl. 884 males and 690 females) are enrolled in one public primary school and eight meant for IDPs, with 12,198 children estimated to be out of school. Although the district only hosts 3,500 IDPs, FCA assessed that the needs for education are incredibly high, as 698 children (402M; 296F) are learning in the only available six classrooms, where there are on average 116 students per classroom.
Similarly, Hudur has the population of around 100,437 with around 42,504 IDPs (24,322 males and 36,482 females) residing in 26 IDP settlements across the district.
The Director General of Ministry of Education (MoE) of Southwest State of Somalia Fadal Abdullahi Mursal attended the launch meeting. He told that a delegation from the MoE visited Hudur town late last month to investigate the impact of FCA’s earlier ECHO-funded education project. They found great impact on the ground in terms of improved access to education.
“During our stay in Hudur, we had a meeting with the CECs and parents and they informed us that they are fully satisfied with FCA’s education program, especially the Accelerated Basic Education (ABE) system which supported many out-of-school children,” says Fadal Abdullahi Mursal, the DG of Ministry of Education of Southwest State.
The deputy minister for Education of Southwest hailed the ongoing FCA efforts in Bakool Region and requested FCA to expand their education projects and reach to the other Southwest State regions.
“Giving children a brighter future through education comes with commitment. I therefore request FCA to expand their education programmes to Lower Shebelle which is also part of Southwest State Regions,” says Abdifatah Isak Mohamed.
Finally, FCA’s Acting Somalia Country Director and the Programme Manager Mr. Bashir Fidow has appreciated the MoE-SWS partnership and pledged that FCA will continue working to enhance education for displaced people in hard-to-reach areas.
“On behalf of FCA Somalia, we are happy to be working closely with the Mistry of Education of Southwest State as a partner. FCA has been providing and implementing Education in Emergencies programmes in SWS since 2018, including Hudur town in Bakool region, which is a hard-to-reach zone,” Bashir Fidow says. “Our new ECHO project 2021-2022 is expanded to Elberde, which is also a hard-to-reach area. FCA will continue working with the MoE of the Federal Government of Somalia and Federal Member State of Southwest to make sure that children in hard-to-reach areas receive quality education and that teachers are qualified.”
FCA has started its EiE response in Baidoa and other hard to reach areas of SWS in 2018, with support from ECHO HIP 2018 and 2020, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA) and FCA’s own Disaster Fund. To date, the interventions have enabled 15,500 crisis-affected children (45 % girls and 400 CWD) have access inclusive education through safe learning environments, improved quality of education and school-based protection mechanisms. Among these children, 1299 (45 % girls) are Accelerated Basic Education (ABE) learners.
When the COVID-19 pandemic spread to the Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp, the Bangladeshi government announced that education was a non-essential activity, closed all education institutions, and instituted a countrywide lockdown. Hosting teacher trainings remotely became a challenge for the workers of FCA and DCA. Internet connectivity and access to IT tools are limited in areas of Bangladesh. Because of the pandemic, teachers were dealing with the extra stress of living under a lockdown, in an already heavily crisis-affected environment.
DCA and FCA education team members wanted to transform what they had learned during the pandemic into a package that could be used by any other partner at Cox’s Bazaar and in different local contexts in the world.
“The focus is as much on the participants as it is on the content,” FCA’s Education Technical Adviser Andreia Soares says. She has been seconded to the Cox’s Bazaar team of Dan Church Aid since March. “When we developed the package we paid attention to the participants’ relevant learning as well as well-being, and the process was very interactive,” she says.
Input and feedback from participants was constantly gathered and the activities were developed based on their experiences. Also volunteers from the Teachers Without Borders network helped with moving the training to digital channels. The training was delivered using both Zoom and WhatsApp offering both flexibility and social contact.
Finn Church Aid, University of Helsinki and Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) had the honor to host the first ever high-level Education in Emergencies -seminar in Finland on 14th May. Education experts around the world gathered in Helsinki to discuss how education in emergency settings could be made more accessible for all, and how we could step up our efforts to achieve sustainable development goals on time.
It has been widely agreed that sustainable development goals, SDG’s, cannot be achieved by 2030 without ensuring access to quality education for all. Nevertheless, the reality on the ground is still very different from the ideals set out in policy papers, not to mention emergency settings, where inclusive education is far from the targets.
Manos Antoninis, the director for the Global Education Monitoring Report at UNESCO, was one of the renowned education experts who shared his insights in Helsinki on how we could better plan and implement inclusive education programs in emergency settings, if we are to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030. According to him, inclusion should be seen as an inherent and cross-cutting element in all education programs.
Manos Antoninis delivering a key note speech on why we won’t reach SDG4 without inclusive education.
”Inclusive education needs to be seen as a general approach. We need to see a change in attitudes, beliefs and values towards including everyone in education, only then we have actually genuinely achieved SDG4”, Antoninis stated in his key note speech at the beginning of the seminar.
For the moment, only two percent of girls in the lowest income countries complete secondary education. As outlined in the Agenda 2030, by year 2030 we should live in a world where all girls and boys complete secondary education.
”It is not going to be possible, unless something dramatic changes”, Antoninis continues. ”We still face remarkable challenges, when it comes to e.g. learning environments; 1 in 4 schools in sub-Saharan Africa do not have any sanitation facilities, which is a major obstacle for girls to complete school.”
”Nothing about us without us”
First of all, what does it actually mean that education should be inclusive?
By UNESCO’s definition, inclusive education is “a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion from education and from within education.”
In practice, this means that different needs, such as those originating from disabilities, language, gender or age, should be taken into account and addressed when planning and implementing education activities.
Tuomas Tuure, Development Coordinator at the Threshold Association, shared his insights on addressing the needs of disabled people in planning and implementation of education activities.
Peter Hyll-Larsen and Tuomas Tuure.
”In no other group is participatory approach as important as with people with disabilities. Even in countries like Finland, disabled people themselves participate surprisingly little in decisions concerning their policies, their way of life or even their own lives. This is a group where participation is actually the key” Tuure stressed.
According to Tuure, we should first and foremost acknowledge that when it comes to people with disabilities, the best knowledge comes from disabled people themselves. Furthermore, it comes particularly from people with disabilities in that particular area and context.
On the right track with the SDG’s
Susan Nicolai, Acting Head of Programme at Overseas Development Institute (ODI), pointed out the essential difference between Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) from the point of view of inclusion; during the era of the MDG’s, the levels of inequality rose, whereas the ambition of the SDG’s is more transformational.
”The MDG’s showed significant progress on a range of issues and education, however, when one looks behind the numbers in terms of where progress occurred, the gains went to those who were more well-off. On the contrary, the ambition of the SDG’s is genuinely transformational; they explicitly make a commitment to the focus on ’Leave no one behind’”, Nicolai underlined.
It can be concluded that progress has been made, but a lot of work remains to be done in order to include everyone.
Turning the crisis into an opportunity by providing youth vocational education
Tomi Järvinen, director for International Cooperation at Finn Church Aid, stressed the importance of vocational training and accredited education as a way of including youth who are living in crisis-affected areas.
Seminar participants discussing in buzz groups.
”In every crisis there is also an opportunity. Waithood can become an opportunity to gain a skill, even a degree, that will then lead to an opportunity in the future”, Järvinen stated while stressing that we need to find new ways of giving young people relevant vocational training in refugee settings.
Furthermore, while introducing an example of accredited education provision in a refugee context, FCA College, Järvinen stressed that we need to emphasize that when possible, education should be accredited in order to provide access to lifelong learning.
”Continuous learning is also a life-saving activity. We need to focus on the quality and relevance of education, not only access”, Järvinen concluded.
Finally, Satu Santala, Director General at the Department of Development Policies at Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland, presented the key recommendations of the ”Stepping up Finland’s Global Role in Education” -report, which was prepared last year as a commission of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs by Dr. Ritva Reinikka, Professor Hannele Niemi and Mr. Jukka Tulivuori.
The report recommends that Finland takes a more active role in addressing the learning crisis in developing countries.
The seminar took place in Paasitorni, Helsinki.
”Finland has one of the best education systems in the world, but we haven’t really cracked the nut on how we can share this expertize, and how we can do more and deeply engage with international partners on sharing our own experience”, Santala said.
Finland has a lot of education expertize in the form of research institutions, authorities, civil society and private companies, however, more cooperation and partnerships are needed in order to put all that knowledge into use.
Nonetheless, Santala is optimistic about the way forward.
”There is a strong uptake within the Finnish society for this topic. We have made the report very visibly heard and we have a good sense that it has been well picked up. Now it is very much upto the new government – it remains to be seen how much they will be ready to devote to global development.”
When thinking of children and youth in their usual environment, we think of them amidst their families and friends, in the playground, and first and foremost, in schools.
We grow up with school being a natural part of our lives. We are nervous on our first day in school, excited to learn how to read, write or count and soon after our first day, school has become part of our daily routines. Getting older, decisions such as choosing the type of secondary school, vocational training or university become key to our personal and professional development.
However, there are also the social aspects of school. Most of you may now think of your childhood friends from kindergarten or primary school. They are often the ones that accompany us all through our lives. At school, children learn how to communicate, to interact and play with others, how to compromise, just to name a few.
When I look back on my time in school, I remember how proud and excited I was to be called a pupil. And that was even more true for my younger siblings for whom it meant to be a member of “the big ones” when they finally were allowed to attend school.
Reality, however, shows that our world is anything but perfect. Not every child gets the opportunity to go to school, learn, thrive and interact socially. Children grow up in conflict zones, are suffering from natural disasters, and as a result are often forced to leave their homes and familiar environment.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) 68.5 million people are displaced, among them 25.4 million refugees, meaning they had to cross a boarder to be safe. Out of those 25.4 million, over half are under 18[1]. And while politicians in the so called West want to make us believe that all these refugees and displaced people are coming to Europe, 85 % are actually hosted by developing countries.
We know also, that the causes for displacement are not easily overcome – just look at the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, The Democratic Republic of Congo or the situation of Rohingya in Myanmar. According to the UNHCR, on average people remain displaced for over 20 years[2].
By now you may have become aware of the point I want to make – right – the importance of securing education for these millions of displaced children and youth. Displacement takes longer than before, and simply providing shelter, water, food and medical services over such a long time is just not sufficient for a dignified life with some sort of future prospective.
I am currently working in Bangladesh in the Rohingya response and I’m witnessing first-hand how providing Education in Emergencies (EiE) can impact people’s lives. And that’s not only the case for children and youths but also for the lives of our volunteer teachers from the community. Each context has its special characteristics but overall we can claim that access to at least some sort of – and at best quality, accredited – education gives families back some routines, a sense of normality and perspective.
During class, children and youth can focus on something else than their daily struggle or previous experiences. Education means a gaining in knowledge, but also contributes to psycho-social well-being, emotional learning, the improvement of social networks, and it provides parents and caregivers with spare time for other tasks, such as earning a living while children are in school.
In humanitarian crisis in particular, we mainly tend to think of children’s education. This is not enough – we need to think of sustainable, more long-term solutions and not forget about secondary and tertiary education. Especially youth very often get a raw deal but are at the same time most at risk if they are not given any prospects for their future. Furthermore, if there are no follow-ups available after primary level there comes a point when attendance drops. Opportunities at secondary level and above can consequently also contribute to better attendance in lower levels.
While providing education in emergencies is not intended to compete with lifesaving services, I think we also have to start to acknowledge that the course of emergencies changed and call for a shift to more long-term – or at least mid-term – approaches and funding structures.
Only then can we ensure that children, youth and whole communities do get perspectives and we can hopefully also contribute to changes in perception. What I mean is not to think of displaced people only as helpless and defined by the situation they are in, but as people who have something to offer, who have potential, are skilled, knowledgeable, and so many other things rather than just victims.
Petra Weissengruber
The writer is an Education in Emergencies Professional, currently working as Education Programme Manager for FCA (seconded to DCA) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Finland is now in a position to lead on continued support to education for displaced children to ensure a more peaceful world. Finland is also in a unique position to more actively connect education in emergencies with vocational education – the two must go together if we are to break the vicious circle of displacement and disparity.
Each year in November, the World gets its school report card. This year is no exception.
The 400 page long Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM) from UNESCO in Paris has collected data and analysis on where each country is on its way to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal number 4 (SDG4) on education and development.
Although the world overall gets better and more coordinated at meeting the many challenges, the report also reveals how far we still are behind the goals, and the amount of work needed over the next decade to be where we want to be in 2030.
The report looks at all countries, analysing their data on school systems and education financing. It focuses both on the countries that provide aid assistance to education and those receiving it.
Finland has the means and the technical know-how to do so, and this would not only help ensure the right to quality education. It would also contribute to a much more stable world in an age of mass displacement and in a reality where the gap in transition to secondary education is especially large for refugee children and where few have the right skills to enter the labour market and therefore break out of a vicious circle of displacement and disparity.
Refugees and displaced children are the key to meeting SDG4
The report sets out the challenges with this large and growing population, and maps trends and debates on how progress is made, providing the international community with recommendations.
This is especially important for Finn Church Aid (FCA), because we work in some of the most difficult country contexts, where refugees and displaced persons are a major part of the population we try to assist.
Uganda has one of the world’s largest refugee populations as well as one of the most progressive policies on rights for displaced persons. Myanmar on the other hand has forced more than 700 000 people across the border into Bangladesh, a country which is understandably weary of integrating such a large new population into already fragile national systems. In Somalia and Eritrea a lot of people are either internally displaced or they left their home country after years of unrest or challenging political situation.
FCA works with education in all of these countries. Today’s crises are long and protracted, resulting in extensive periods of displacement and disruption. Because of this and a range of policy and financial barriers that may prevent refugees from accessing national education systems, displaced populations are five times less likely to attend school than other children and youth.
UNHCR estimates that only 61% of refugees attend primary school, compared to 91% at the global level. Only 22% refugee adolescents receive a secondary education, compared to 84% around the world.[1]
The new GEM report goes on to make the all-important link between ensuring the right to education for displaced populations and achieving the wider SDG4 goal for development.
Integration into national education systems
A major recommendation is for the inclusion of refugee children into national systems of the host countries – of which most are in the Global South, such as countries like Uganda and Bangladesh.
This is the best and most sustainable way forward to ensure quality education and avoid creating large parallel societies or refugee camps, in which people are caught for years and years with neither hope of going home nor integrating into the host countries.
Without integration and hope, there is a very real danger that war and instability continue and spread. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of political will for addressing this issue.
Only a little more than half of the 25 refugee host countries, who according to UNHCR have the biggest populations and needs, actually allow refugees to integrate into national systems.
One country that is on the forefront is Uganda, which for instance allows refugees from Chad, DRC and South Sudan the freedom of movement and gives them a piece of land, among other things.
This is in part due to a far-sighted regional collaboration of seven East African countries that have come together on a commitment to inclusion in education, as expressed in the Djibouti Declaration.
However, what is needed in Uganda, and in the many other countries that draw up impressive policies, is a greater support from the international community, better accountability and improved monitoring systems to prove that the good intentions are actually translated into action rather than just staying at a policy level.
Finland and its EU partners can help support and encourage the host countries to do so through collective and coordinated political and financial action, as well as through technical support on key issues like the important connection between education, youth and the labour market in the host countries.
By Peter Hyll-Larsen INEE Advocacy coordinator, seconded by FCA
Although enrollment in education in developing countries has increased, millions of children remain out of school. The situation is especially dire at times of a conflict; globally, half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected areas.
Humanitarian crises tend to be long and extremely complex, and therefore affect well-being and education over a long period. Most refugee adolescents and youth are out of school.
However, it is vital to ensure access to education also during conflicts. In addition to being a basic human right, education provides stability and normalcy for youth and children living in conflict-ridden zones.
“Children and youth affected by conflicts face multiple challenges in learning. Combining psychosocial support into the provision of education creates conditions for improved learning for children and youth living in difficult circumstances. Communities can play a key role in this”, says Minna Peltola, Senior Education Adviser for FCA and a co-author of the publication.
FCA has specialized in Education in Emergencies (EiE) and is currently implementing education projects in several fragile countries.
Finn Church Aid (FCA) has been selected to be member of the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) Steering Group. Executive Director Jouni Hemberg is representing FCA in the board beginning from April 2017.
Education in emergency settings matters today more than ever. For instance natural disasters, the Syrian war and continuous crises in the Central African Republic and South Sudan have forced people to leave their homes, and schools have been closed or destroyed. As a result, millions of children and youth in conflict affected areas are out of school.
Right to Quality Education
Finn Church Aid (FCA) improves quality learning in Education in Emergencies building on the knowhow of Finland’s highly trained teachers, strategic partnerships and ICT for development.
Through Education in Emergencies, FCA provides access to learner-friendly and safe learning environments, and to quality learning opportunities for children, adolescent and youth.
FCA promotes practical ways of ensuring the accessibility and quality of vocational education.
FCA works in the field of education in emergencies in 9 countries as well as on a global level through e.g. INEE and the Education Cluster.
“In a crisis situation, getting schools up and running as fast as possible has remarkable significance for the safety and recovery of children and youth. Schools and the psychosocial support provided in schools can considerably help children and youth to restore a sense of normality, dignity and hope”, says Jouni Hemberg.
“FCA specialises in working with youth. There are many organisations focusing on children, but not as many focus on youth in particular. There’s also a rapidly growing need for vocational education. These are areas that FCA can bring added value to in the Steering Group and the work of INEE”, says Hemberg.
The Steering Group of INEE is comprised of UN agencies (UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF) as permanent members, as well as international non-governmental organisations and donor agencies that serve in four year periods. Steering Group members commit to promoting and advocating increased support for education in emergencies and recovery. They also play a role in seeking funding for INEE.
“The membership of INEE gives FCA an opportunity to influence the development of education from a global perspective”, Hemberg adds.
FCA has been a member of INEE’s Standards and Practice Working Group since 2015 and the network’s Advocacy Working Group since 2016. It has participated in developing practical tools and guidance to organisations that respond to education in emergencies.
A remarkable development work is currently taking place in developing guidance for integrating psychosocial support into education responses in crisis situations. This process will be finalised by the end of May.
“Currently, there‘s very little guidance on psychosocial support in the education sector. Yet, the teacher’s role is essential in improving the well-being of students and building resilience. In a crisis situation teachers themselves are also affected and need support to be able to improve the well-being of children and youth”, says Minna Peltola, Senior Adviser on Education at FCA.
INEE is a network of more than 12,000 individual members and 130 partner organisations in 170 countries. INEE serves its members through community building, advocating, and providing members with the resources and support they need to carry out their work on Education in Emergencies.
The international network for education in emergencies (INEE) has released an open source training pack for primary school teachers. The material is freely available on the INEE website for anyone to use.
The training package is meant to prepare, support and assist teachers who are called to work in emergency settings. The package was developed by the Teachers in Crisis Contexts Working Group where Finn Church Aid is one of seven members alongside International Rescue Committee, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, Teachers College-Columbia University, UNHCR and UNICEF.
This pack answers to a critical need for competency-based teacher training materials in disaster contexts where particular knowledge and skills are required from teachers, but teacher training is often limited.
“This is a complete package for teacher training, but it has also been designed to be flexible and allow for the use of selected modules, for example modules relating to child protection in school contexts. The material may also be tailored for youth education”, says Minna Peltola, FCA Senior Thematic Advisor on Education.
The pack consists of modules covering topics such as teacher’s role and wellbeing, child protection and curriculum planning. The modules have been developed around a set of 28 teacher competencies and the training pack has already been field-tested in Iraq and Kenya.
FCA has used the material for a pilot project at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where FCA East-African Regional Education Specialist Mary Tangelder has worked on providing teachers support through the use of mobile technology.
“Now, FCA is developing guidelines for long-term teacher mentoring. A condensed quick training version of the package is also being developed for situations where the disaster circumstances don’t allow for the use of the entire package”, Peltola says.
Materials within the pack may serve as refresher training for qualified teachers or build basic teaching competencies for under-qualified ones. The purpose is to provide these teachers with tools that can help them manage the difficult circumstances often related to education in disaster or displaced refugee settings.
More information on the package and the package itself can be found on the INEE website here.
