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facts

Students

  • More than 27 million children and youth affected by armed conflict, including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), do not have access to formal education. The vast majority of these (more than 90 percent) are internally displaced or within their country of origin.
  • The majority of internally displaced and refugee children who are in school are enrolled in the early primary grades.

  • While girls are almost as likely as boys to be enrolled in pre-primary and grade one, their enrollment decreases steadily after that. Continued focus on girls’ education is required to reach the Education for All (EFA) goal of “eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005."
  • Only six percent of all refugee students are enrolled in secondary education. For IDP youth, even fewer opportunities exist.
  • Adolescents and youth have the least access to formal education. Many have not completed even primary education and so require a range of formal and non-formal education options.
  • Children, youth and their families value and want formal education. From the forests of eastern Burma to the IDP camps outside of Monrovia, Liberia, families seek out and communities support educational activities with the hope that one day their children will have a better life and the opportunity to contribute to the rebuilding of their countries.
  • Research confirms that basic education is a cost-effective investment that helps stabilize economies by supporting the creation of literate, self-reliant societies.
  • A UNESCO survey showed that countries with an adult literacy rate of about 40% averaged a $210 GNP per capita while in countries with literacy rates of 80 %, the GNP per capita was $1000 and above.
  • A World Bank study of 13 countries found that a minimum of 4 years of primary education increased farmers' productivity by up to 10%.
  • UN studies show that illiterate girls marry earlier, beginning at 11 years of age, and may have up to 7 children before they are 18. Girls who go to school marry later and have an average of 50% fewer children.
  • Research shows that between 1970 and 1995, educating women and improving their social status led to a nearly 50% reduction in child malnutrition in developing countries. The same studies showed that improvements in women's education contributed more than any other single factor.

Teachers

  • In emergencies, teachers face especially difficult and stressful working conditions, including: Overcrowded classrooms—often with 50 or more students,  multi-grade, multi-age classrooms where children range in age from 6 to over 20, continued threats to their own safety, as teachers are often targeted during conflict.
  • Little or no compensation for their efforts. As a result, teachers become frustrated, are frequently absent and often seek other employment in order to care for themselves and their families. The most qualified teachers are frequently the ones who obtain other employment and leave the teaching profession, which means that teachers with fewer qualifications replace them and the quality of education deteriorates.
  • Many refugee and displaced teachers do not meet the minimum requirements of their governments to be considered “qualified.” High quality teacher training and continued follow-up is essential to support these teachers and to improve the quality of education available to refugee and displaced children and youth.
  • In most emergency situations, the majority of teachers are men—one result of the low education levels of girls and women in most countries affected by conflict. Increasing the number of female teachers is a priority for several reasons:

- Families often do not allow their girls to attend school post-puberty as they fear for their daughters’ safety. The presence of female teachers may help alleviate some of these fears. Recent evidence of sexual exploitation of students by teachers suggests that increasing the number of female teachers in schools may be an added protection mechanism for girls. Female teachers are important role models for young girls. They are a sign that girls can achieve academically and that higher levels of education can also benefit girls.

- Organisations supporting education in emergencies must make extra efforts to identify women who would like to become teachers and must invest accordingly in their training and support.

 

From: the Women’s commission for refugee women and children’s “Global survey on Education in Emergencies.” The Global Survey on Education in Emergencies is a project of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.It is an effort to understand how many refugee, displaced and returnee children and youth have access to education andthe nature of the education they receive. The Global Survey as conducted by Mary Diaz of the Women’s Commission andLynne Bethke and Scott Braunschweig of InterWorks under secondment to the Women’s Commission.