Finding Refuge in Learning
By Zoe Cohen - IPNEd’s Secretariat Coordinator
Venetia, 9, is an unaccompanied child refugee from South Sudan. She has been able to enrol in a government school in Imvepi settlement in Uganda thanks to their progressive policies.
© Juozas Cernius/Save the Children
UNHCR’s 2019 Global Trends report, released on 18 June 2020, found that 1% of the world’s population, 79.5 million people, have been forcibly displaced, almost double the equivalent figure in 2010.
Of the 79.5 million forcibly displaced, an estimated 40% (30-34 million) are under the age of 18, 3.7 million of whom are out of school.
These vast numbers demonstrate the urgent need to scale up investment in refugee education. With rising levels of conflict and forced displacement across the world, refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced youth risk being left far behind their peers.
Education is not only a basic human right, it is an investment in the future. If ‘Education For All’ is to truly be for all, investment in and commitment to refugee education must be central to education systems worldwide.
Refugee inclusion in national education systems is vital
One of the most effective means to ensure refugee children do not get left behind is to integrate the children into national education systems. Despite this, refugees are often blocked from accessing these systems for a plethora of reasons ranging from bureaucratic barriers to prejudicial policies and a lack of sufficient funding.
Further, the vast majority of refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries, many of which are already struggling to finance public service delivery, including for education. Countries which do open their systems to refugees need the support of the international community in order to deliver the policy in practice. This is particularly so in light of the pandemic, with UNESCO predicting that if education budgets are reduced by 5% (as share of GDP) from pre-pandemic levels, financing losses up to $337 billion could be expected.
Uganda, which hosts 1.4 million refugees, provides a strong case for both an inclusive policy toward refugees and the strong support of the international community.
A Ugandan case study - inclusion beyond words
The Ugandan Ministry for Education and Sport’s 2018 ‘Education Response Plan for Refugees and Host Communities’ is notably cross-sectional, considering not only the difficulties faced by refugees, but also those of teachers, host communities and of resources.
Reporting in November 2019, UNHCR found that there had been an increase of 8% in enrolment at primary school level in Uganda. Although enrolment of refugees in secondary school was just 13%, significantly below the global rate for refugees of 24%, meaningful progress has been made.
© Norwegian Refugee Council
A crisis heightened by the pandemic
With less than half of school-aged refugee children globally enrolled in education prior to the emergence of COVID-19, the pandemic has served only to heighten educational disparities. Notably, difficulties in internet connectivity and the digital divide have restricted access to resources and risk refugees being left even further behind.
In Uganda, the inclusive policy toward refugees has been maintained consistently despite the additional pressures from COVID-19. For example, through a recent project supported by Education Cannot Wait, over 60,000 students in nine refugee-hosting districts have benefited from learning from home support during the pandemic.
The international response must ensure inclusion, collaboration and accountability
Spearheaded by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the international community is increasingly recognising the importance of education in both the prevention of, and the rebuilding after, conflict. Yet crisis-affected children, such as refugees and internally displaced persons, continue to be at great risk of losing out on a quality education, and the international community must ensure its commitments do not settle at words.
To support education in crisis, ECW seeks to mobilise the diverse network of governments, organisations and individuals engaged in ensuring a quality education for refugee and displaced children.
Whilst it is governments which are ultimately responsible for funding and implementing refugee inclusion programmes, parliamentarians are crucial to mobilising and holding their governments accountable. In particular, ‘inspiring political commitment’ and ‘generating additional funding’, two of ECW’s core functions, are central to the role of parliamentarians in the call for inclusion of refugees in education.
The International Parliamentary Network for Education and its member parliamentarians will work with Education Cannot Wait and partners to ensure support for education in crises and for those who have been forcibly displaced by crisis. IPNEd will work to:
Increase financing for education in crises.
Increase political support to education in crises.
Improve accountability.
With global campaigns and fora increasingly recognising the importance of equitable and accessible education for refugees, IPNEd will work with parliamentarians to enable effective accountability for these frameworks.
Parliamentarians have a vital role to play in delivering the international commitment to educating the world’s refugees, including by providing them with access to the national education systems in the countries to which they fled. For parliamentarians, this role includes:
Shaping policy.
Developing and passing legislation.
Scrutinising government policy and action.
Monitoring the implementation of international commitments, including those made by governments at the 2019 Global Refugee Forum.
Building on the commitments of the Global Framework for Refugee Education, and similar such pledges, IPNEd will work with parliamentarians, governments and other partners to ensure inclusive and equitable education. With models like the Ugandan Education Response Plan, IPNEd will amplify and support the tailoring of inclusive education for refugees, working to ensure that a quality education really is for all.
