More than 20 years of experience in Education in Emergencies
Our core competencies in the spectrum of education is built on interventions ranging from the strengthening of formal and non-formal education to basic literacy and numeracy, tertiary education, psychosocial support, human rights, refugee rights, children’s rights, women’s rights and more.
In stable contexts, formal education is usually the central pillar of knowledge, and we instinctively think of as education. However, in emergencies, the formal education system is often dysfunctional or completely non-existent, creating a wide range of approaches to respond to the specific and acute needs of young people. RET’s first step is always to conduct a needs & assets assessment survey (NAAS), to have a clear picture of what we will need to deploy in each specific crisis. For these surveys to be meaningful, we spend a lot of time listening carefully to the key stakeholders on the ground and in the donor community. Project creation is a strongly participatory process.
RET is committed to increasing access, retention rates, and support completion of refugee, displaced, and vulnerable local young people, including those with disabilities – with particular focus on young women – to accredited education programs.
In the framework of SDG4 (inclusive & equitable quality education for all) and RET’s commitments regarding the right to education of refugees and other persons of concern. RET is committed to providing technical support to facilitate refugee youth’s access to quality and relevant education, preferably within or in line with the education system of the host country, and to increasing the proportion of its support to refugee adolescents and youth’s access to “accredited education” relative to other education programs. Moreover, RET is devoted to enhancing the national education systems’ capacity to include refugees and other displaced adolescents & youth, including those with disabilities, to prevent behaviors and acts of discrimination and harassment against them, and to mitigate the xenophobia culture.
In line with SDG 13 (Climate Change and reduction of its impact) RET commits to mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction & Management within its education interventions to improve all learners’ education on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
To date, RET has implemented more than 150 projects with Education & Capacity Building as a main area of intervention.
RET has extensive experience in providing Education in Emergencies (EiE) in refugee camps, urban, semi-urban and rural areas, and in non-camps settings; by (1) using the home or host country curriculum depending on the host government and UNHCR orientations and policies. (2) in non-camps settings: RET supports the integration of learners into the national education system and support the strengthening of national education systems to host learners from other nationalities (teachers training, provision of education supplies, development of communication and awareness-raising campaigns against xenophobia and discrimination of migrants and refugees, etc.)
Education Programs Around the World:
- Primary & Post Primary Education
- Secondary & Tertiary Education
- Accelerated Learning programs (ALP)
- Life and Peace Skills
- Livelihoods – Socio-economic Empowerment
- Entrepreneurship
- Income Generation Activities,
- Vocational /Technical Training
- Tertiary Scholarships
- Distance Learning (SEDL)
- Professional Development of teachers & other education personnel
- Strengthening public education systems at local, regional and or national levels.
- Improvement/expansion of safe education facilities (renovation, building, equipment, etc.)
Education Support Strategies:
Homework Support; Assistant Teachers; Mentoring School Administrators; Study Groups; Girls’ Committees; Parent-Teacher Association(PTA), MTA training, Mobile Technical Team (MTT); Catch Up classes; Boys’ Committees; Certificate Equivalence; Exam Preparation; Psycho-social Support (PSS); Dignity Kit supplies; Mobile phone learning; Community Sensitization; Code of Conduct and PSEA Training; Language Courses; School supplies; Construction and Rehabilitation; ICT/Digital Learning; School Fees Support; Transportation Support.
Around the School
The presence of schools and classroom environments has always been a vital and stabilizing force within communities. RET has, therefore, developed a holistic approach to make sure schools are present and play their protective role for vulnerable young people during crises. It includes the provision of formal education, non-formal education, and the capacity building of local educational assets.
Formal Education
RET provides formal education by running schools based on official national curricula or by facilitating access to recognized or state-run schools. There is equally often a need for accelerated learning programs for young people who are over-aged for their level as a result of their flight and exile. RET also manages scholarship programs for tertiary education.
Non-formal Education
RET’s non-formal education offers basic literacy and numeracy, catch-up courses to enable young people to re-integrate into local school systems, as well as language courses. For those who have been displaced, mastering the local language is key to integrating local educational systems and communities. Even if these courses are not part of the official national curriculum, RET always makes sure they meet institutional standards such as the INEE or UNESCO and make the extra effort to have them recognized by local authorities.
Capacity Building
Building the capacity of local educational assets in fragile environments is an indirect, but extremely efficient way of ensuring the presence of meaningful educational opportunities for vulnerable youth, while also strengthening the educational settings for the children and youth of the host community. This implies improving local school administration, engaging in teacher training and professional development, mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in educational programs, and the construction, renovation, and provision of equipment to create safe and learner-friendly environments.
ECUADOR
Improving access to quality Education for Venezuelan Refugees and migrants and Host Communities
Multi-sectoral Approach: Education & Capacity Building, Social Inclusion.
The political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has triggered a massive mobility of the Venezuelan population in the Americas, with influx of refugees and migrants transiting and residing in Ecuador. According to the analysis developed by UNICEF between 2018 and 2019 and based on official data on the inclusion of Venezuelan refugee and migrant children into the national education system, currently 18,293 out of the 37,000 Venezuelan children and adolescents between 3 and 17 years of age residing in the country need urgently access to education. As of February 2019, 58.8% of the Venezuelan children and adolescents between 3 and 17 years were excluded from education (8,568 girls and 9,662 boys). The main reasons are economic, administrative (enrolment processes, overcrowded schools and lack of information/awareness), along with discrimination by peers and teachers and/or bullying by peers.
In order to respond to the needs of the Venezuelan refugees in Ecuador along with the challenges the host community children are facing, RET and in partnership with Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is currently implementing a project aimed at improving access to quality formal education services for migrant and refugee children and adolescents from Venezuela and from the host communities in Quito and Esmeraldas.
The project aims at strengthening the capacities of public officials of the Ministry of Education both at national and subnational levels to ensure a) access to public education and b) for the implementation of inclusive education for Venezuelan refugee and migrant population; the distribution of essential supplies and support to eliminate the existing economic barriers to education for migrants and refugees from Venezuela; the support of host schools of migrant children with essential teaching and WASH material and finally the distribution of information to migrants and refugees from Venezuelan and host community families with out-of-school children and adolescents on the enrolment process into formal education.
PERU
Better educational opportunities for Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Peru
Multi-sectoral Approach: Education & Capacity Building, Social Inclusion.
The influx of refugees and migrant’s adolescent and children from Venezuela is overstretching the capacity of the Peruvian educational systems to accommodate students and provide them with quality education. According to the Metropolitan Lima Regional Education Directorate, 50,000 migrant and refugee children and adolescents are facing challenges to access the Peruvian education system due to several factors including xenophobia and discrimination, with girls being the most vulnerable. The project aims to create better educational opportunities for Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Peru by reaching to out-of-school migrant, refugee and host community children and adolescents, from whom 70 percent will be Venezuelans and the remainder will be host community members in the Southern districts of Metropolitan Lima, Chorrillos, San Juan de Miraflores, Villa El Salvador y Villa María del Triunfo.
The project will focus on increasing access to education for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, as well as Peruvian children and adolescents; reinforcing the MoE capacity to enroll and to provide education services for refugees and migrant populations; providing to out of school refugees, migrants and vulnerable local children and adolescents access to non-formal education programs that enrich their lives, allowing them to develop competencies and skills, increase self-esteem and help them access the formal education system and finally strengthening local communities’ capacities to protect out-of-school migrant, refugee and host community children and adolescents, increasing integration and avoiding xenophobia and discrimination.
RET is implementing the non-formal education program “Aprendiendo Unidos” using a “Project Based Learning Method (ABP)”, allowing students to be meaningfully engaged in the “identification, development and implementation” of solutions, while strengthening their leadership, communication and numeracy skills.