Executive Summary
Today, 75 million children and adolescents aged 3-18 have had their education directly affected by emergencies and protracted crises.[1] Of those identified as refugees or internally displaced persons by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), only 50 percent are enrolled in primary school, 25 percent in lower secondary school, and very few have access to pre-primary or tertiary education.[2] The severity of this education gap has garnered a new groundswell of support for investing in education in conflict and crisis settings. The magnitude of the need also calls for an opportunity to re-think the way that educational programs are developed and funded.
Given that the average length of displacement for a refugee is 17 years,[3] it is impractical to consider emergency assistance and long-term development as separate endeavors. Rather, the longevity of these problems require us to creatively approach new partnerships and new models of funding. Likewise, protracted conflicts are changing the long-term options for those who are displaced. They must be given the opportunity to forge a future for themselves and their families.
This paper details the work of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), a Catholic, nongovernmental organization working with refugees and other forcibly displaced persons in over 40 countries. In the past 35 years, JRS has placed an emphasis on ensuring that the most vulnerable have access to an education, regardless of their circumstances. Working both in newer emergencies, like Syria, and in protracted displacement settings including Chad, Ethiopia and Kenya, JRS is poised to offer substantive, thoughtful insight on providing effective, quality education programs for the forcibly displaced.
JRS aims to employ the following critical strategies to increase access to a quality education for the forcibly displaced:
•Parental Involvement to Ensure Access and Retention
•A Holistic Approach that Meets All Student Needs
•Complementary Programs for Parents and Families
•Investment in Teacher Training and Tertiary Education
•Emphasis on Language Skills and Remedial Education
•Youth Programming Focused on Life Skills & Leadership Training
Access to schools and quality education is an urgent priority for all refugee children and youth. It is a basic human right and is fundamental to a better future for their communities. For these reasons, JRS advocates for the basic right to emergency and long-term educational opportunities and urges better access to formal, informal and skill-building and vocational training programs for refugee children, youth and adults. To improve the quality of, and access to, education in emergencies and protracted crises, JRS recommends the following:
•Prioritization of access to education in all stages of humanitarian response and through development initiatives.
•Adequate and sustainable funding for the education of all refugees and other forcibly displaced persons, both in emergency and protracted crisis settings.
•Better coordination of education programs between host countries and humanitarian agencies and alignment of programs with country plans and systems.
•Effective transition from humanitarian response programming to long-term education development, through coordinated planning between humanitarian and development actors.
•Improved quality of education for the displaced, with a focus on special needs and equal access across genders and the prioritization of language training, long-term livelihoods development, and the use of technology.
•Integration of refugees into host communities, as appropriate, including integration of children into local school systems, access to employment opportunities and equitable compensation for the displaced.
•Assurance that schools remain safe and secure places free from armed groups, forcible military conscription, sexual violence, and discrimination.
•Academic instituitions accept international certificates, diplomas and degrees and explore the possibility of mainstreaming the accreditation process across countries and school systems.
•A diverse group of partners mobilize support for education in emergencies and protracted crises and support new efforts – including Education Cannot Wait: A Fund for Education in Emergencies – to address this critical issue.
Past investments in educational progress are in jeopardy as we face a record number of long-standing conflicts and resulting global displacement.
Donors, governments and the humanitarian and development communities must take action and seize an historic opportunity to grow, and leverage, the political will to address the lack of access to education for the forcibly displaced.