Weekly Global Education News | September 24, 2017
Update on issues affecting teachers, children, and schools around the world
Conflict keeps 27 million children out of school, with girls at high risk of abuse
“Many of the 50 million uprooted children in the world are in desperate need of education — not despite being uprooted from their homes but because they are uprooted from their homes,” the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stressed in the report.
“For without education, how will they gain knowledge and skills to rebuild their lives? How will they be able to chart a path to a more peaceful and prosperous future for themselves, their families, their communities and the world?” queried the agency.
‘The night the sea rose’: Families from Barbuda and Cuba reflect on surviving Hurricane Irma
“These children witnessed a horrific hurricane that tore their homes away, destroyed their schools and left the island they called home totally in tatters. They will need lots of help to deal with the trauma associated with those experiences,” says Khin-Sandi Lwin, UNICEF Representative for the Eastern Caribbean. In addition to psychosocial support, UNICEF has deployed additional staff and humanitarian supplies, including water purification tablets, hygiene kits, tents and educational material.
‘Heavily traumatized ‘ Rohingya children go from terror in Myanmar to refugee camp chaos
“These children have been through a terrible experience. They are heavily traumatized,” says Fatema Khyrunnahar, a child protection officer with UNICEF who is working to set up what the agency calls “child friendly spaces” within the squalor and misery of the Rohingya camps.
These are rare spaces where these children can be around each other, to play, sing and shout, and have books read to them.
[…] ”They are under so much stress,” Khyrunnahar says. She has worked with children in distress before but says the tragedy of the children in these refugee camps sometimes overwhelms her.
They need counselling — first to express their trauma and perhaps later, if they are lucky, to let it go.
Mentoring project inspires teachers at vast school in Kenya
“Unity is one of the largest schools in Kakuma refugee camp, in northern Kenya, and the scale of the challenge facing its teachers is difficult to comprehend. Classes of 90 or 100 are common and classes of 200 are not unusual. In such circumstances, engaging and inspiring the students is a daunting task. Staying motivated as a teacher can also be tough.
At Kakuma, help has arrived from a long way off. More than 70 percent of the teachers there have participated in a project called Teachers for Teachers — a training, coaching and mentoring system devised by Columbia University in the United States.”
See also: Teacher training transforms learning in Kenyan camp schools
More than half of children and youth worldwide ‘not learning’ — UNESCO
“The report suggests some 387 million children of primary school age (or 56 per cent) and 230 million adolescents of lower secondary school age (or 61 per cent) will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and math.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, 202 million children and adolescents are not learning these fundamental subjects. Nearly 90 per cent of children between the ages of about 6 and 14 will not meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and math.”
A fight for education like you’ve never seen before | UNICEF
The long and dangerous path to school in eastern Ukraine
“Every morning, 14-year-old Karyna Shvets walks 2 km past piles of rubbish, abandoned buildings and unexploded landmines marked with bright orange ribbons.
“I am now used to walking alone on this road every day,” Karyna says, adjusting her pink backpack, on her way to school. “Last year though it was so scary to walk alone, especially when I could hear shooting from around Donetsk airport.”
Nigerian mediator who won Chibok girls’ release named 2017 winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Award
“This man has changed the life of so many people here. He has provided free farmland, free education, he even gave us seeds at the start and planted his own crop to show us what could be done,” said Sharif Abubakar, who fled his home after it was overrun by Boko Haram two years ago and is now the head of the foundation’s farm project.
Mustapha’s philanthropy has won many admirers. Unlike senior politicians, he has no enemies and links to all sides of the conflict. This led to him becoming one of the chief mediators in efforts to obtain the release of the Chibok schoolgirls who gained worldwide attention when they were abducted by Boko Haram militants in April 2014.
[…] Mustapha made contact with the abductors and, after a series of confidence-building measures, he was able to negotiate the release of 21 girls. Last May he had a major breakthrough, when another 82 girls were set free.
Losing out on learning: Action to ensure refugee children get an education
“Education gives all children a place of safety, and can also reduce early marriage, child labour, and recruitment by armed groups all of which refugee children are vulnerable to. It enables refugees to fulfil their potential, improving their job prospects, as well as boosting their confidence and self-esteem.
It is central to building peaceful and prosperous communities, either where they seek refuge, or on their return to their country of origin.”
See also: UN chief calls for ‘meaningful’ youth engagement in peace efforts, not just symbolism
