Refugee Education Gap

01/22/2016

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There is a growing education crisis in the Middle East. Maysoun Chehab is a Program Officer at UNESCO and Coordinator for the World Forum's Global Leaders for the Arab Region. She is now leading, on behalf of UNESCO, a huge regional effort to ensure the recognition of Non Formal Education (NFE) of the Syrian refugees. She shared this update:

"Across the Arab region learning often takes place within formal settings and learning environments. Yet in some countries a great deal of valuable learning also takes place in non-formal settings, especially in settings related to refugees or displacements such as the Syrian refugees. Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan have hosted a large number of Syrian learners, who live in camps or in informal/illegal concentrations. They have been out of their homes for more than 5 years now. The vast majority of them receive education in non-formal settings, which is not recognized or accredited by many states.

"The recognition of Non Formal Education is a key lever in making lifelong learning a reality. It makes visible and gives value to the hidden and unrecognized competences that individuals have obtained through various means and in different phases of their lives. Valuing and recognizing these learning outcomes may significantly improve their self-esteem and well-being, motivate them to further learning, and strengthen their future opportunities in the labor market.

"If this kind of education continues un-recognized, millions of children will lose educational opportunities and will never make it to formal school, colleges, and decent jobs. They will be tempted to join extremist groups and radical movements.

UNESCO is a leading agency mandated and committed to build peace in the minds of men and women by: a) collecting and disseminating information and successful practices in the development of such systems; b) facilitating policy dialogue, networking and sharing of experiences between Members; and c) responding to the needs and requests of Member States in the field of formal and non-formal education by providing technical assistance and capacity-building to key national stakeholders and practitioners. Within this framework, I am engaged with UNESCO Beirut in initiating dialogue with several governments in the region to help advancing an ambitious initiative for developing Regional and National Policy frameworks on the regularization and recognition of Non Formal Education.

The process is going slow but steady and I am happy for the achieved outcomes so far. Policy makers are becoming increasingly aware that learning outcomes acquired in non-formal settings represents a rich source of human capital and have put the issue of recognizing and regularizing NFE high on their agenda. The challenge for policy makers is to develop pathway processes or systems for recognizing such learning."

To learn more about this crisis, please see this UNESCO report or contact Maysoun Chehab at [email protected]

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