Refugee children do not complete primary school

A report indicates that many refugee children do not complete Primary Seven. However, interventions such as providing teachers and more funding could help sort the challenge. File PHOTO

What you need to know:

A new report by Economic Policy Research Centre suggests that whereas majority refugees enroll for pre-primary and primary education most do not complete it.

Barbara and her 12-year-old daughter, Sofia, have been at Rhino Camp refugee settlement since November 2016. They fled fighting in South Sudan. Sofia is back in school as part of Save the Children’s accelerated learning programme at Ariwa School in Arua District.
Armed militia conducted a campaign of terror in Barbara’s village. Some of her neighbours were killed, others were abducted. It took her five days to reach the border.
Barbara is a great believer in education. “If you are learned, the information you get will empower you to be independent, self-reliant able to handle issues and fit in well with others,” she says.
But while Barbara wants to keep her daughter in school, she does not have the money for her fees. The result is that Sofia regularly misses classes.
Sofia explains that she wants to become a nurse or a doctor, “I love school because I want to continue reading so that when I grow up I can support my mother.”
Her school is under stress. It is severely overcrowded, with more than 85 students in some classes. In total, more than 1,450 children attend the school, nearly two thirds of whom are recently arrived refugees.
The above is an excerpt from Save the Children, one of the non-governmental organisations attending to the plight of refugee education in Uganda. The scenario also explains the difficulties refugee children go through to access education in Uganda.

Current statistics indicate that Uganda is a host to 1.2 million refugees in at least 12 districts across Uganda; 60 per cent being children.
In September last year, when Janet Museveni, the Education minister was launching the Education Response Plan for Host communities in Uganda, she mentioned that the current refugee crisis is a children’s crisis since 61 per cent of the total refugee population are estimated to be children under the age of 18.
The Education minister went on to say education is key for the refugees’ survival.
“Education brings a sense of normalcy in their lives after being affected by severe circumstances. It provides protection mechanisms to these children in challenging conditions, and helps them to cope with the difficult situation as well as building the foundation to reach their full potential of their lives. As such, education is an essential enabler to break of the vulnerability created by conflict and displacement.”

Obstacles
However, a recent report, ‘Child Poverty and Deprivation in Refugee- Hosting Areas—Evidence from Uganda’ conducted by the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), indicates that whereas majority refugees enroll for pre-primary and primary education, most do not complete.
An analysis for the educational achievement of individuals aged 15 and above reveals that the vast majority of refugees, especially those residing in rural settlements did not complete primary education and more than 20 per cent do not have any kind of skills.
Several reasons are given for not attending and dropping out of school such as being too young, long distances, school feeding, the cost as well as financial constraints such as lack of fees, and basic scholastic materials. One of the refugees is quoted saying: “Education is very expensive for us. We do not have any business or even jobs because we are refugees. Therefore, we do not have money to educate our children. We also cannot get scholarships, because of the lengthy procedure. When our children complete Primary Seven, they are not able to continue with education.”
Another refugee from Rwamanja refugee settlement notes that there’s need to support girls in attaining better education.
“Refugee girls are always demoted from secondary to primary level in government schools due to language barrier. Because they are usually older, girls prefer to abandon school rather than continue attending with relatively younger children in lower classes.”
It is also apparent the influx of refugees has caused a strain on school facilities in rural refugee settlements. There are not enough classrooms and they are often overcrowded with a high pupil to teacher ratio. Instances of children attending schools in shifts are not rare. For instance, in Yumbe District, the ratios are alarmingly high at 1:177 for classroom to pupil ratio.
The high number of pupils sometimes overwhelms the teachers, rendering them ineffective and at times violent. Issues of psychological abuse and discrimination based on status and identity in integrated schools continue to exist and affect children both emotionally and physically.

More teachers needed
Increasing the number of qualified teachers in primary schools remains a priority intervention in order to improve the quality of education. However, there are a number of bottlenecks to employ new teachers.
To teach in schools in Uganda, a person must be registered to teach and licensed as set out in the Education Act. Currently, many refugee teachers serve as classroom assistants since their qualifications are not recognised by Ministry of Education and Sports.
For refugee children to adapt to the Ugandan education system, language presents one of the most important barriers. In line with the Ugandan thematic curriculum, children in primary school are taught in the host’s local language which young refugees may not understand.
In other cases, caring for younger siblings, and other tasks such as fetching water and firewood or paid employment result in abseentism or drop out, particularly for girls.
Lack of key academic documents and equivalency from their country of origin.
A key informant at the Nakivaale refugee settlement says about 20 students are not going to sit for Senior Six exams because they do not have the necessary documentation to ascertain their Senior Four equivalent from their home countries.
Interventions
Whereas the government has embraced refugees, it is clear that it is over stretched to provide for the ever-increasing numbers. As such, the government and other private agencies is seeking interventions and strategies especially when it comes to providing education.
Aggrey Kibenge, the undersecretary in the Education ministry, confirms that new primary schools opened to address the large influx of refugees do not benefit from government capitation grants or school facilitation grants. For existing primary schools, the school capitation grants are calculated taking into account only Ugandan children. Therefore, government schools hosting refugees have to stretch these grants further. This means that primary schools which are opened in the settlements as community or private/ NGO schools are often fully dependent on donor funds. To facilitate refugees’ education, in September last year, the Education response Plan for Refugees and Host Communities in Uganda was launched. Hopes were raised among different refugee hosting communities in the country after a total of $390 million (about Shs2.4 trillion) was earmarked for refugees’ education for the next three and half years.
It covers actions from constructing new classrooms, training teachers and providing textbooks, to strengthening education polices, piloting innovative new ways of learning, and providing vocational skills training that benefit boys and girls equitably.
If fully funded, it will provide quality education for 567,500 learners from refugee and host communities.
Education Cannot Waitn —a global fund dedicated to providing education in emergencies, committed $11m towards implementing the first year of the response in November last year.

Funding boost
These new funds seek to support quality education for more than 100,000 children – both refugees and local host communities – of whom around 50 per cent are girls. Activities include constructing at least 100 new classrooms, training nearly 1,000 teachers, building more than 480 gender sensitive sanitation facilities in schools, and providing thousands of new textbooks.
The funds are also meant to help ensure that children with disabilities, child mothers and others who often miss out on school have access to education, for example by giving assistive devices such as hearing aids and braille textbooks, and providing psychosocial support.
Primary education is currently the main focus. Kibenge explains why it is so.
“The desire to priotise primary education other levels is because of the numbers and the need. The biggest proportion of refugees are children who are not attending school. That is why with the little money available, we shall focus on primary education. There is also support for volunteer teachers and skills training for secondary dropouts. We agreed we should deal with priorities because the numbers are so big. The focus was mainly primary and constructing structures that enable refugee children to have shelter over their heads.”

Language woes
Paul Kalyesubula who has worked with refugees in different settlement camps notes that language barrier is a big problem when it comes to education. To combat this challenge, community interpreters are mainly chosen from among the refugees who have also undergone training in English language.
The English for Adults programme was introduced to train refugees in basic English literacy—reading and writing as a pre- requisite for enrolling on other support programmes such as vocational studies.
The programme is mainly supported by local and international donations. Kibenge also explains that for all NGOs supporting refugee education; they will have to report to the Education ministry.
“We have established a secretariat within the ministry to oversee the implementation of the plan. Under the secretariat, we shall be coordinating all actors supporting refugees’ education because there’s more money that other agencies are investing in refugee education. We are putting together a monitoring mechanism which can capture all these sources of funds supporting refugee education so that at the end of the day, we arrive at the total sum invested in refugee education,” he explains
It is also a way to guide those supporting refugee education in Uganda. They should do so in line with the priorities of the education response plan. We think in such a way; we will achieve more ground than to leave everybody to work on his own which could lead to duplication.”
Meanwhile, all the major funding is targeted from mainly international donors.

New funding
These new funds seek to support quality education for more than 100,000 children – both refugees and local host communities – of whom around 50 per cent are girls. Activities include constructing at least 100 new classrooms, training nearly 1,000 teachers, building more than 480 gender sensitive sanitation facilities in schools, and providing thousands of new textbooks. The funds are also meant to help ensure that children with disabilities, child mothers and others who often miss out on school have access to education, for example by giving assistive devices such as hearing aids and braille textbooks, and providing psychosocial support.