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Improving Educational Access for Refugees
Analysis and Recommendations for a Post-2015 Agenda
by Ina Chu, Katherine Curtis, Claire Miller, Celia Reddick, and Mary Winters
MAY 12, 2015
Submitted to UNHCR as a part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education
Refugee Education Policy Lab
2
INTRODUCTION:
The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) defines access to quality
education as “the opportunity to enroll in, attend, and complete a formal or non-formal education
program” (INEE Minimum Standards, 2010). Since 2000, the number of children globally with
the opportunity to enroll in and attend primary school has increased exponentially, as has the
international focus in education in emergencies (UNESCO, 2015). Propelled by the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All (EFA) commitment, governments have
made great strides in expanding their education systems and increasing enrollment by building
more schools, employing more teachers, and in many countries, abolishing school fees. As a
result, the number of out-of-school children dropped by 42 percent worldwide between 2000 and
2012 (Millennium Development Goals Report, 2013). Data is less clear regarding the number of
children who complete their formal education trajectories1.
Unfortunately, despite increased overall enrollment, achievement of the EFA goals has been
uneven. The most disadvantaged children are most often the ones left behind. In 2012, there were
nearly 58 million primary school-aged children and 69 million adolescents out of school
(UNESCO, 2013); today, 36 percent of out-of-school primary school-aged children and one third
of out-of-school adolescents live in conflict-affected countries (UNESCO 2015). Rates are even
lower for secondary school; while the global primary school enrollment rate for refugees is 76
percent, it falls to 36 percent for secondary school. Finally, gender impacts enrollment in many
areas of the world; in East Africa for example, approximately half the number of girls attend
school as compared to boys (Dryden-Peterson, 2011).
UNHCR is mandated with the provision of education for refugees. It collaborates with other UN
agencies, international and national NGOs, and international governments, and strives to ensure
that all out-of-school refugee children have opportunities to learn. The upcoming 2015 World
Education Forum provides an opportunity to further create and bolster global programmatic
priorities that target refugee children.
In support of the upcoming World Education Forum, this paper seeks to serve as a tool for
advocacy and discussion. It outlines:
1) What is known about access to quality education among refugee children;
2) What progress has been made in access to quality education among refugee children;
3) What information or strategies might be missing that could help ensure that all refugee
children have access to quality education.
Central to this paper is a discussion of the vital role of host-government engagement in issues
pertaining to refugee education. As our analysis highlights, host-government engagement plays a
key role in making quality education accessible to refugee students. In exploring the relationship
between host-government engagement and a variety of other factors related to educational
access, this paper will present examples from diverse countries that host refugees, representing a
spectrum of responses to refugees including full integration, partial integration, and no
integration (please see the Integration memo), with implications for the education of refugees.
1
For the purposes of this paper we will use “access” to refer primarily to enrollment, noting where
measures of completion are also available.
3
While each example is distinct, they each also include generalizable features, allowing for useful
comparisons across regions and countries.
PART 1: WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT EDUCATIONAL ACCESS FOR
REFUGEE CHILDREN?
Fluctuations in refugee populations make planning for education challenging.
Across the world, refugee populations are in flux. In countries like Kenya, Lebanon and South
Sudan, changes in the number, demographics, and locations of refugee populations have made
strategic planning for school access challenging.
The example of Lebanon is the most salient. In Lebanon, a large influx of Syrian refugees has
made effective planning for schooling difficult. Approximately 450,000 Syrian children have
entered the country since 2011. While the Lebanese government has done its best to
accommodate Syrian primary school learners in the Lebanese national education system, the
rapid influx of Syrians has thwarted efforts to extend universal access to all Syrian primary
school aged learners. In 2011, 54 percent of Syrian school-aged children were enrolled in
schools. By 2012, given the rapid influx of refugees to Lebanon, where the refugee population
grew by more than 700%, primary school enrollment rates among refugees fell to 12 percent. As
the country has made adjustments to accommodate these learners, enrollment rates have
increased to 30 percent in 2014 with hopes for continued increases in enrollment numbers
(UNICEF Syria Crisis, 2013; UNHCR Operations Plans, Lebanon, 2011-2014).
Fluctuations in refugee populations are not limited to new caseloads. Rather, refugee populations
also move and change within countries. In Kenya, for example, there are efforts underway to
facilitate repatriation of Somali refugees where possible, but this has in large part resulted in
departures from one camp in Kenya to another. This inter-camp movement has made education
planning and provision difficult (UNHCR Operations Plans, Kenya, 2014).
Few post-primary opportunities for refugee students can discourage primary school
enrollment.
There are few opportunities for refugee students to pursue post-primary education (secondary
and tertiary) (Dryden-Peterson, 2011). The net secondary enrollment rate in Dadaab Refugee
Camp in Kenya is 2.3 percent (UNHCR Operations Plans, Kenya, 2014); in Lebanon 2 percent,
and in Malaysia 0.5 percent (UNHCR Operations Plans, Lebanon, 2014; UNHCR External
Briefing Notes, Malaysia, 2014). Despite the fact that there are few secondary school
opportunities available to refugees, the need is clear: the UNHCR 2012-2016 Education Strategy
states, “benefits of formal secondary education are greater than for any other level of schooling,
especially for girls. Secondary school graduates become the professionals on which society
depends,” (p. 6). Most relevant to a discussion of access is the fact that “education is a
continuum. The possibility of going to college motivates young people to enroll in and complete
secondary school, which has a similar impact on the demand for primary education” (UNHCR
Education Strategy, 2012, p. 6). To increase demand for and enrollment in primary school, it is
vital to create certified post-primary learning opportunities for refugees. Relatedly, while not a
focus of this report, post-secondary employment and skills-development opportunities are key to
this continuum in ensuring not only that students continue their education but also that post-
primary education has meaningful results.
4
Funding and resources cannot meet educational access needs.
Lack of educational resources remains a constraint. These resources go beyond school
buildings—those buildings also require qualified teachers and quality educational supplies that
support learning. For instance, UNHCR Kenya projected that 39,200 learners would be eligible
to enroll in schools in Kakuma camp in 2014—but also projected that 55 percent of them likely
would not be able to attend due to lack of resources (UNHCR Kenya Operations Report, 2014).
It is especially important to note that resources are a major issue even in contexts that permit
integration into national school systems. While students have access to educational infrastructure
and may not be responsible for school fees, they may not be able to afford secondary costs
associated with school uniforms and textbooks, thereby hindering regular attendance. An
important measure in Lebanon, for example, came when the Ministry of Education waived
school fees and provided free textbooks for Syrian refugees (UNHCR Lebanon Operations
Report, 2013). While this lifted a key barrier to access, it also constrained host schools, which
needed additional resources to support increased numbers of students. Even with host-
government support, therefore, material resources remain a constraint to the educational access
in nearly all settings (UNHCR: Ensuring Access to Education, 2011).
Host-country engagement in refugee education supports access to education.
There is evidence that host-country engagement in and commitment to refugee education can
increase educational access for refugee students in some contexts. In one such case, the
Government of Rwanda (GOR) has committed to ensuring that all refugees have access to
primary school through integration into the national system (characterized as close to “full
integration” in the Integration memo). While mere physical integration doesn’t always facilitate
linguistic or social integration (Chopra and Dryden-Peterson, 2014), Rwanda does boast high
enrollment rates for refugee students living within its borders. In 2010, 90 percent of primary
school-aged refugee children in Rwanda enrolled in school (UNHCR Rwanda Operations
Report, 2011). The GOR has recently expanded basic education for nationals to nine years,
which has meant that these extra years of schooling are available to refugees as well.
Similarly, as noted above, the Lebanese government has in general responded to the influx of
Syrian refugees by attempting to integrate learners into national primary schools (characterized
as “partial integration” in our colleagues’ Integration memo). UNHCR has provided support to
increase capacity, but still much more work will need to be done in order to ensure ongoing
educational access for refugees (UNHCR Operations Report, Lebanon, 2014).
The integration of learners into national school systems is not the only type of governmental
engagement that influences access to education for refugees, however. In Malaysia, for example,
the government does not acknowledge the approximately 9,500 primary school-age refugees,
much less permit their entry into the national education system (characterized as “no integration”
in the Integration memo). Despite this, UNHCR is permitted a continued presence, and thereby
works with local and international partners to support 126 ‘community learning centers’ for the
10,694 refugee learners in early childhood, primary and secondary schooling. This parallel
education system for refugees allows for 43 percent of primary school-aged students to attend
school (External Briefing Notes, Malaysia, 2015); a more active engagement by the Government
of Malaysia would likely result in increased access numbers.
Data collection is challenging, making it difficult to understand trends and plan for the future.
5
Collecting and updating data during armed conflict is incredibly challenging, especially on a
countrywide scale. It is particularly difficult to account for refugees in urban areas and/or those
living outside of official refugee camps. Resulting inconsistencies in the types of data that are
collected over time and across countries makes it difficult to interpret trends or evaluate the
success of programs over time. In the case of most countries, it is hard to answer the basic
question: is access to quality education increasing from year to year? While many countries
reported an increased number of refugee children enrolled in schools, it is often unclear whether
this is due to increased access, increased numbers of refugees and/or more complete reporting.
For example, UNHCR Chad reports on three refugee demographic groups: urban refugees,
refugees from Central African Republic, and Sudanese refugees. Primary enrollment for all three
increased from 2012 to 2014—but the numbers of refugees also increased. Primary access in
urban areas stood at 77 students in 2012, and increased to 98 students in 2013 for a percentage
increase in access of 27 percent. This falls incredibly short of the 140 percent population increase
from 2012 to 2014. Primary access to education for Central African Republic refugees in camps
in the south of Chad was 6,232 in 2012, and 7,896 in 2013, for a 26 percent increase in education
access, which is slightly higher than the population growth rate. Sudanese refugees in camps in
Eastern Chad had 61,926 students accessing primary education in 2012, with a total of 70,638 in
2013 (UNHCR Operations Reports, Chad, 2012-2013). This presents an increase in access of 14
percent, which is fairly similar to the population growth. With data only on numbers of refugees
enrolled in school, it is impossible to know whether the proportion of refugee children enrolled
in school changed. Consistent reporting on net enrollment rates would enable comparison over
time.
Last, almost all countries we analyzed used only school enrollment to measure access (see Table
2 in Appendix). In 2014, 21 of the 25 countries whose UNHCR Operations Reports we reviewed
included some data on the number of children enrolled, although they varied in how these
numbers were reported (some only included numbers for certain locations or grade levels, others
reported in percentages rather than total numbers). Only two countries (Cameroon and Uganda)
included some measures of retention rates based on attendance. Similarly, only two countries
(Cameroon and Kenya) attempted to track student completion of grade levels or
primary/secondary levels in any way. For example, Cameroon, the country with some of the
most comprehensive data, reported the number of children enrolled in primary and secondary
school in camps and urban areas, retention numbers for urban areas, and number of children
completing grade level in urban areas. The country team also reported an estimate of out-of-
school children, but not a total number of all school-age refugee children (making calculating the
percentage of children receiving education more difficult)
True access to education is much more than enrolling in school; students must be able to
continue to attend and complete grades and diplomas. Without data on these outcomes, it is very
difficult to present a true picture of educational access worldwide.
PART 2: WHAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE IN EDUCATIONAL
ACCESS AMONG REFUGEE CHILDREN?
The following section discusses progress related to refugee education. In some cases the broad
categories remain consistent with those above, while in others, categories have been consolidated
due to overlapping areas of intervention.
6
UNHCR increasingly cites education as a programmatic priority area in emergency responses.
Since UNHCR commissioned and published the 2011 report Refugee Education: A Global
Review, education has featured more prominently as an organizational priority (Dryden-Peterson,
2011). For most countries, the number of times that education is mentioned in the UNHCR
Operations Reports increases greatly from 2011 to 2014. For example, in 2011, the 25 country
reports mentioned education, on average, about 41 times per report—ranging from just two
references in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2011 report to 229 in the Uganda report. By
2014, however, the reports averaged about 209 references to education per country. The DRC
report included 132 mentions of education, and Uganda’s mentioned it 557 times.
In Rwanda, UNHCR lists primary and post-primary education as the two first priorities in its
2013 Operations Plan; education was not listed among UNHCR’s 2011 country priorities and
primary education was listed last among many in the 2012 Operations Report. The UNHCR
education operation in Rwanda also implements initiatives that aim to support its enrollment
goal, such as providing uniforms, pens and pencils, and school lunch to students, thereby
lowering families’ financial barriers of sending their children to school regularly. Rwanda
remains ambitious in its access goals, experiencing high enrollment rates of 90 percent in 2010,
and setting a new goal of a 97 percent enrollment rate for 2013.
Contextualizing the education strategy to local contexts allowed UNHCR to support some of
these increases in enrollment. In Lebanon, UNHCR supported increased enrollment rates by 19
percent from 2011 to 2014 by responding to community needs. The organization found that the
most common constraints preventing children from enrolling in school were arriving after the
registration date, unfamiliarity with the new curriculum (learning methods and foreign
languages), bullying in schools, security concerns, lack of transportation, and low parental
interest. UNHCR responded by increasing its outreach programs, as well as offering remedial
programs for children in schools, and vocational training for out-of-school children. In addition,
it covered enrollment fees and procured backpacks and school supplies for refugee students.
These various responsive measures supported increased primary school access (UNHCR
Operations Report, Lebanon, 2013).
Improved collaboration between host governments and UNHCR supports refugees’ access to
quality education.
Forging strong relationships with host country governments creates an avenue for UNHCR to
advocate for equal access to quality education for all refugee students, and a platform to discuss
pressing issues and potential solutions pertaining to refugee education. As discussed above,
UNHCR has actively cultivated a working relationship with the Government of Lebanon that has
enabled the contextualization of the Education Strategy and response to locally-identified needs.
In 2012, Lebanon’s Ministry of Education sought to make primary education accessible to Syrian
refugee students within the national system by waiving tuition fees and providing Syrian students
with free textbooks. By the end of 2012, it became clear that the public system was strained
given the rapid influx of students. In response, UNHCR sought to help the government increase
the physical capacity of its public school system. In 2014, the Ministry of Education started a
three-year strategy called Reaching All Children with Education (RACE) in partnership with
UNHCR and other donor agencies. RACE intends to provide learning opportunities for over
400,000 refugees and vulnerable Lebanese children by 2016 (UNCHR Operations Report,
Lebanon, 2014).
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In Chad, one of the most remarkable achievements to date is the inclusion of UNHCR as a
signatory party among the Partners Techniques et Financiers for Education for the SIPEA
(Interim Strategy for Primary Education and Literacy). This will allow for the inclusion of
refugees in all funding from the Chadian education system, and potentially allow eligible
candidates to take the grade 8 and grade 11 exams and thereby receive certification. UNHCR
predicts this will have very positive effects on school enrollment and attendance among refugee
students in Chad (UNCHR Operations Report, Chad, 2014).
Partnerships with NGOs or local communities can replace governmental engagement where
necessary.
While it has been highlighted that governmental engagement is most effective in ensuring
increased refugee access to education, in contexts where host government engagement is limited
or non-existent, or in situations where enrollment remains particularly low, partnerships with
non-governmental organizations can play an important role. For example, the collaboration
between UNHCR and the Education for All-led Educate a Child (EAC) initiative provides an
example of an effective partnership to increase access to education. EAC prioritizes free primary
education for all by 2015, and intervenes in 12 priority countries with particularly low primary
enrollment rates. This collaboration with a partner has proven to be an effective strategy for
increasing access to education among refugee learners (Educate a Child, n.d.).
The use of School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Associations in Kakuma and
Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya also provide an example of a promising intervention that
strengthens parental engagement through capacity building. Trainings, workshops, and exchange
visits for both groups facilitated by Save the Children led to increases in resource mobilization,
teacher recruitment, facility construction/maintenance, and most notably girls’ education.
Increasing the capacity of these organizations serves to increase community support and buy-in
for education, which may result in not just more children in school, but more children in well-
supported schools (UNHCR Good Practices, Kenya, 2015). A strategy to strengthen parental
engagement and involvement in the school community in order to support education systems and
increase access is a relatively low-cost initiative that could be implemented in almost any camp
or urban refugee education situation, as long as there was an implementing partner willing and
capable of facilitating the trainings and workshops.
Data and measurement have greatly improved.
UNHCR, like the rest of the United Nations and most international development organizations,
has put significant resources towards increasing monitoring and evaluation programs in recent
years. One of the most positive developments is the prominence of measurement goals in the
2012-2016 UNHCR Education Strategy. One of the four strategic approaches listed to achieve
the strategy’s educational goals is to “collect and manage data so that education programs are
monitored, evaluated for quality, inclusiveness and efficiency, and improved” (UNHCR, 2012).
UNHCR’s country operations reports reveal a shift towards better data collection, analysis, and
use over the span of just a few years. While only 28 percent of the reports published in 2011
provide specific data on enrollment, by 2014, 84 percent do (Table 1, Table 2 in Appendix). To
give two examples: neither Iran nor Ethiopia recorded information on how many children were
enrolled in school in 2011, but by 2014 both countries reported percentages of children attending
school (UNHCR Operations Reports, Iran, 2011, 2014; Ethiopia 2011, 2014). By 2013 and 2014,
most reports cited education as a major priority and reported more extensive education data, or
8
were making plans to do so. This indicates a shift toward fuller reporting and—one hopes—more
effective planning for education in refugee settings.
PART 3: WHAT INFORMATION OR STRATEGIESARE MISSING THAT
COULD HELP ENSURE THAT ALL REFUGEE CHILDREN CAN
ACCESS QUALITY EDUCATION?
Many of the barriers to education for refugees overlap with barriers that exist in all middle- and
lower-income contexts worldwide: poverty, insecurity, gender inequities, and urban/rural
divides. And of course, limited funding for education programs, especially during conflict, make
achieving universal education access more difficult.
As discussed, there are several remaining challenges that persist in ensuring that refugee students
have access to education. These include: a) resources and funding; b) secondary schooling
opportunities; c) the inherent difficulty in planning for the realities of conflict; and d) gaps and
inconsistencies in the collection and provision of data related to refugee education. While these
are all important, a review of available documentation including the 2011-2014 Operations
Reports reveals that perhaps the most important element impacting school access for
refugees is the variation in the extent and type of host-government engagement. This
analysis also reveals that many of the challenges listed above are effectively addressed through
host-country engagement.
Seek to build constructive, mutually beneficial relationships with host governments.
In all of the reports and conversations we analyzed in producing this report, it was clear that the
political will of host governments to address refugee issues is often the largest factor in whether
refugees have access to education, be it through integration in national education systems or
simple acknowledgment of refugees and their needs. Of course, governments often have sound
reasons for a lack of full engagement. In many cases, their own resources and capacities are
strained, as in the case of Lebanon. Additionally, they frequently face political and public
pressure to repatriate refugees, as in the case of Kenya.
Despite these challenges, however, it is clear that institutional engagement is central to
improving educational access for refugees. During a recent conversation, the UNHCR Malaysia
team expressed a desire for a “mutually beneficial collaboration” between UNHCR and the
government (Personal communication, UNHCR Malaysia team, April 23 2015), but did not
insist that that take place through full integration into the national system. In our review of the
documents, we observed that there are many potential ways in which host governments can
engage with the important issue of refugee education. Furthermore, broader engagement by host-
governments in issues related to refugee education likely sets the stage for improvement in other
areas noted above, including teacher recruitment and training, appropriate infrastructure, post-
primary learning opportunities and consistent, usable data. To tackle these challenges and to
build on successes, host-country involvement is key.
Expand data collection to include measures of retention and completion, not just enrollment.
While improved data collection would likely be supported by increased host-government
engagement in issues impacting refugees, there are also a number of steps that UNHCR can take
to improve data collection regardless of governmental involvement. In particular, it is vital to
emphasize that access is more than simple enrollment; it matters, of course, that children have
9
the opportunity not only to regularly attend but also to complete school. Data on retention and
completion are especially rare: in our research, we only encountered two countries that attempted
to track retention in some way (Cameroon and Uganda) and two that attempted to report
completion (Cameroon and Kenya). We cannot have a full picture of what access looks like
without these indicators.
We recommend collecting, reporting, and using:
 Targeted global data on key outcomes. We recommend that all country offices include
the following:
 Data on refugee locations. For each of the four indicators above, it would be most useful
to disaggregate by camps, urban settings, and other areas.
 Additional context-specific data points. Some examples include percentage of school-
aged girls or language minorities enrolled in and completing school, depending on the
context.
 Consistent feedback loops such that data is used by the local teams to inform
programming, in addition to being shared with UNHCR Headquarters for global analysis.
Without focusing on the use of data, the data collected cannot be effective in planning to
ensure broad educational access.
We hypothesize that improved data collection and feedback loops can help to improve planning
for refugee education (particularly in settings of protracted conflict) and may even drive
improved host-government engagement. With a clearer picture of not only the challenges but
also the successes, host governments and international bodies may be better equipped to consider
the various routes to broad educational access for refugees.
CONCLUSION
While there are currently 955,467 refugee students enrolled in primary school, this number is
small relative to the 58 million primary school-aged children and 69 million adolescents who are
currently out of school (UNHCR Themes: Education, 2015) (UNESCO, 2015; UNESCO, 2013).
As this document highlights, there have been significant strides forward in ensuring quality
education access to refugees, including prioritizing education in UNHCR and national strategic
plans and collecting more data related to education. As we move into a post-2015 agenda, it will
1) Total number of school-age refugee children (primary, secondary, total)
2) Total number of refugee children enrolled in school (primary, secondary, total)
3) Total number of refugee children regularly attending school (primary, secondary, total)
4) Total number of refugee children completing grade level at year-end (primary, secondary,
total)
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be vital that 1) first, UNHCR build increasingly productive relationships with host-governments,
advocating for engagement in issues affecting refugees, including educational access; 2)
UNHCR continue to frame educational access as more than just enrollment but also include
completion, and that following completion students enter further meaningful experiences; 3) that
where needed, non-governmental partnerships also be continuously cultivated in addition to
these governmental collaborations; and 4) that data collection, reporting, and use reflect and
support the growing acknowledgment of education as a global priority. With these goals in mind,
UNHCR can lead a post-2015 education agenda, working together with host-governments to
support the millions of refugee children still out of school.
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APPENDIX
Table 1: Access indicators included in 2011 Country Operations Reports
Number of school-
age children
Number of children
enrolled in school
Total
retention
(any metric)
Total
completion
(any metric)
Bangladesh Yes (by gender)
Burundi
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Chad Yes (urban only) Yes
Djibouti
DCR
Egypt (2013)
Yes (by gender
and primary
/secondary)
Ethiopia Yes (by gender)
Iran Yes (by gender)
Iraq Yes (by gender)
Jordan
Yes (by gender
and primary/
secondary)
Yes (by primary/secondary)
Kenya
Yes (primary/
secondary, camps
only)
Yes (camps only)
Yes*
(estimate)
Lebanon
Yes (by gender
and primary/
secondary)
Malaysia
Niger
Pakistan
Rwanda
South Sudan
Sudan
Yes (primary only,
camps only)
Yes (primary only, camps
only)
Syria Yes Yes
Turkey
Uganda
Yes (primary only,
urban only)
Yes (primary only)
Yemen
Yes (primary/ secondary,
by gender)
Zambia Yes
% OF
COUNTRIES
REPORTING**
52% 28% 4% 0%
*Denotes that some or all enrollment data was reported as a percentage of children enrolled, not a total number.
**Includes all countries that reported metric for at least some refugee populations; does not necessarily indicate
complete, countrywide data available.
12
Table 2: Access indicators included in 2014 Country Operations Reports
Number of school-
age children
Number of children
enrolled in school
Total
retention (any
metric)
Total
completion (any
metric)
Bangladesh Yes (by gender)
Burundi
Yes (primary/secondary,
camps and urban settings)
Burkina Faso Yes Yes (primary/secondary)
Cameroon
Yes (primary/secondary,
camps and urban settings)
Yes (urban
only)
Yes (urban only)
Chad
Yes* (primary/secondary,
camps and local settlements)
Djibouti (2013)
Yes (primary/secondary, by
gender, camps only)
DCR
Yes (primary only,
by gender)
Yes (primary only, camps
only)
Egypt (2013)
Yes (by gender and
primary /secondary)
Yes (primary/secondary)
Ethiopia
Yes (by gender and
primary/ secondary)
Yes* (primary/secondary)
Iran Yes* (primary/secondary)
Iraq Yes
Yes (camps and local
settlements)
Jordan Yes
Kenya
Yes* (primary/
secondary, camps
only)
Yes* (primary/secondary, by
gender, camps and urban
settings)
Some data on
exam passage
rates
Lebanon Yes Yes
Malaysia Yes (primary/secondary)
Niger
Yes
(primary/secondary)
Yes (primary/secondary, by
gender, camps only)
Pakistan
Rwanda Yes (primary/secondary)
South Sudan Yes (primary, camps only)
Sudan Yes (primary only)
Yes (primary camps and
total urban only)
Syria (2013) Yes Yes
Turkey (2013)
Uganda
Yes (primary/
secondary, urban
only)
Yes (urban only)
Yes (urban
only)
Yemen
Yes (primary/secondary, by
gender)
Zambia Yes
% OF
COUNTRIES
REPORTING**
52% 84% 8% 8%
*Denotes that some or all enrollment data was reported as a percentage of children enrolled, not a total number.
**Includes all countries that reported metric for at least some refugee populations; does not necessarily indicate complete,
countrywide data available.
13
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UNHCR. (2012). Education Strategy 2012-2016 - Summary. Retrieved from
http://www.unhcr.org/4af7e71d9.html
UNHCR. (2015). Malaysia External Briefing Notes - Education.
UNHCR. (2011). Operations Report, Chad.
UNHCR. (2012). Operations Report, Chad.
UNHCR. (2013). Operations Report, Chad.
UNHCR. (2014). Operations Report, Chad.
UNHCR. (2011). Operations Report, Ethiopia.
UNHCR. (2014). Operations Report, Ethiopia.
UNHCR. (2011). Operations Report, Iran.
UNHCR. (2014). Operations Report, Iran.
UNHCR. (2011). Operations Report, Kenya.
UNHCR. (2012). Operations Report, Kenya.
UNHCR. (2013). Operations Report, Kenya.
UNHCR. (2014). Operations Report, Kenya.
UNHCR. (2011). Operations Report, Lebanon.
UNHCR. (2012). Operations Report, Lebanon.
UNHCR. (2013). Operations Report, Lebanon.
UNHCR. (2014). Operations Report, Lebanon.
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UNHCR. (2012). Operations Report, Malaysia.
UNHCR. (2013). Operations Report, Malaysia.
UNHCR. (2014). Operations Report, Malaysia.
UNHCR. (2011). Operations Report, Rwanda.
UNHCR. (2012). Operations Report, Rwanda.
UNHCR. (2013). Operations Report, Rwanda.
UNHCR. (2014). Operations Report, Rwanda.
UNHCR. (2014). The Vital Link: Valuing and Supporting Refugee Teachers in Community
Learning Centres, Geneva. http://www.unhcr.org.uk/about-us/key-facts-and-figures.html
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http://reporting.unhcr.org/thematic
http://www.unhcr.org.uk/about-us/key-facts-and-figures.html
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from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/report-2013/mdg-report-2013-english.pdf
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http://popstats.unhcr.org/PSQ_DEM.aspx.

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Access Memo FINAL

  • 1. Improving Educational Access for Refugees Analysis and Recommendations for a Post-2015 Agenda by Ina Chu, Katherine Curtis, Claire Miller, Celia Reddick, and Mary Winters MAY 12, 2015 Submitted to UNHCR as a part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Refugee Education Policy Lab
  • 2. 2 INTRODUCTION: The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) defines access to quality education as “the opportunity to enroll in, attend, and complete a formal or non-formal education program” (INEE Minimum Standards, 2010). Since 2000, the number of children globally with the opportunity to enroll in and attend primary school has increased exponentially, as has the international focus in education in emergencies (UNESCO, 2015). Propelled by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All (EFA) commitment, governments have made great strides in expanding their education systems and increasing enrollment by building more schools, employing more teachers, and in many countries, abolishing school fees. As a result, the number of out-of-school children dropped by 42 percent worldwide between 2000 and 2012 (Millennium Development Goals Report, 2013). Data is less clear regarding the number of children who complete their formal education trajectories1. Unfortunately, despite increased overall enrollment, achievement of the EFA goals has been uneven. The most disadvantaged children are most often the ones left behind. In 2012, there were nearly 58 million primary school-aged children and 69 million adolescents out of school (UNESCO, 2013); today, 36 percent of out-of-school primary school-aged children and one third of out-of-school adolescents live in conflict-affected countries (UNESCO 2015). Rates are even lower for secondary school; while the global primary school enrollment rate for refugees is 76 percent, it falls to 36 percent for secondary school. Finally, gender impacts enrollment in many areas of the world; in East Africa for example, approximately half the number of girls attend school as compared to boys (Dryden-Peterson, 2011). UNHCR is mandated with the provision of education for refugees. It collaborates with other UN agencies, international and national NGOs, and international governments, and strives to ensure that all out-of-school refugee children have opportunities to learn. The upcoming 2015 World Education Forum provides an opportunity to further create and bolster global programmatic priorities that target refugee children. In support of the upcoming World Education Forum, this paper seeks to serve as a tool for advocacy and discussion. It outlines: 1) What is known about access to quality education among refugee children; 2) What progress has been made in access to quality education among refugee children; 3) What information or strategies might be missing that could help ensure that all refugee children have access to quality education. Central to this paper is a discussion of the vital role of host-government engagement in issues pertaining to refugee education. As our analysis highlights, host-government engagement plays a key role in making quality education accessible to refugee students. In exploring the relationship between host-government engagement and a variety of other factors related to educational access, this paper will present examples from diverse countries that host refugees, representing a spectrum of responses to refugees including full integration, partial integration, and no integration (please see the Integration memo), with implications for the education of refugees. 1 For the purposes of this paper we will use “access” to refer primarily to enrollment, noting where measures of completion are also available.
  • 3. 3 While each example is distinct, they each also include generalizable features, allowing for useful comparisons across regions and countries. PART 1: WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT EDUCATIONAL ACCESS FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN? Fluctuations in refugee populations make planning for education challenging. Across the world, refugee populations are in flux. In countries like Kenya, Lebanon and South Sudan, changes in the number, demographics, and locations of refugee populations have made strategic planning for school access challenging. The example of Lebanon is the most salient. In Lebanon, a large influx of Syrian refugees has made effective planning for schooling difficult. Approximately 450,000 Syrian children have entered the country since 2011. While the Lebanese government has done its best to accommodate Syrian primary school learners in the Lebanese national education system, the rapid influx of Syrians has thwarted efforts to extend universal access to all Syrian primary school aged learners. In 2011, 54 percent of Syrian school-aged children were enrolled in schools. By 2012, given the rapid influx of refugees to Lebanon, where the refugee population grew by more than 700%, primary school enrollment rates among refugees fell to 12 percent. As the country has made adjustments to accommodate these learners, enrollment rates have increased to 30 percent in 2014 with hopes for continued increases in enrollment numbers (UNICEF Syria Crisis, 2013; UNHCR Operations Plans, Lebanon, 2011-2014). Fluctuations in refugee populations are not limited to new caseloads. Rather, refugee populations also move and change within countries. In Kenya, for example, there are efforts underway to facilitate repatriation of Somali refugees where possible, but this has in large part resulted in departures from one camp in Kenya to another. This inter-camp movement has made education planning and provision difficult (UNHCR Operations Plans, Kenya, 2014). Few post-primary opportunities for refugee students can discourage primary school enrollment. There are few opportunities for refugee students to pursue post-primary education (secondary and tertiary) (Dryden-Peterson, 2011). The net secondary enrollment rate in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya is 2.3 percent (UNHCR Operations Plans, Kenya, 2014); in Lebanon 2 percent, and in Malaysia 0.5 percent (UNHCR Operations Plans, Lebanon, 2014; UNHCR External Briefing Notes, Malaysia, 2014). Despite the fact that there are few secondary school opportunities available to refugees, the need is clear: the UNHCR 2012-2016 Education Strategy states, “benefits of formal secondary education are greater than for any other level of schooling, especially for girls. Secondary school graduates become the professionals on which society depends,” (p. 6). Most relevant to a discussion of access is the fact that “education is a continuum. The possibility of going to college motivates young people to enroll in and complete secondary school, which has a similar impact on the demand for primary education” (UNHCR Education Strategy, 2012, p. 6). To increase demand for and enrollment in primary school, it is vital to create certified post-primary learning opportunities for refugees. Relatedly, while not a focus of this report, post-secondary employment and skills-development opportunities are key to this continuum in ensuring not only that students continue their education but also that post- primary education has meaningful results.
  • 4. 4 Funding and resources cannot meet educational access needs. Lack of educational resources remains a constraint. These resources go beyond school buildings—those buildings also require qualified teachers and quality educational supplies that support learning. For instance, UNHCR Kenya projected that 39,200 learners would be eligible to enroll in schools in Kakuma camp in 2014—but also projected that 55 percent of them likely would not be able to attend due to lack of resources (UNHCR Kenya Operations Report, 2014). It is especially important to note that resources are a major issue even in contexts that permit integration into national school systems. While students have access to educational infrastructure and may not be responsible for school fees, they may not be able to afford secondary costs associated with school uniforms and textbooks, thereby hindering regular attendance. An important measure in Lebanon, for example, came when the Ministry of Education waived school fees and provided free textbooks for Syrian refugees (UNHCR Lebanon Operations Report, 2013). While this lifted a key barrier to access, it also constrained host schools, which needed additional resources to support increased numbers of students. Even with host- government support, therefore, material resources remain a constraint to the educational access in nearly all settings (UNHCR: Ensuring Access to Education, 2011). Host-country engagement in refugee education supports access to education. There is evidence that host-country engagement in and commitment to refugee education can increase educational access for refugee students in some contexts. In one such case, the Government of Rwanda (GOR) has committed to ensuring that all refugees have access to primary school through integration into the national system (characterized as close to “full integration” in the Integration memo). While mere physical integration doesn’t always facilitate linguistic or social integration (Chopra and Dryden-Peterson, 2014), Rwanda does boast high enrollment rates for refugee students living within its borders. In 2010, 90 percent of primary school-aged refugee children in Rwanda enrolled in school (UNHCR Rwanda Operations Report, 2011). The GOR has recently expanded basic education for nationals to nine years, which has meant that these extra years of schooling are available to refugees as well. Similarly, as noted above, the Lebanese government has in general responded to the influx of Syrian refugees by attempting to integrate learners into national primary schools (characterized as “partial integration” in our colleagues’ Integration memo). UNHCR has provided support to increase capacity, but still much more work will need to be done in order to ensure ongoing educational access for refugees (UNHCR Operations Report, Lebanon, 2014). The integration of learners into national school systems is not the only type of governmental engagement that influences access to education for refugees, however. In Malaysia, for example, the government does not acknowledge the approximately 9,500 primary school-age refugees, much less permit their entry into the national education system (characterized as “no integration” in the Integration memo). Despite this, UNHCR is permitted a continued presence, and thereby works with local and international partners to support 126 ‘community learning centers’ for the 10,694 refugee learners in early childhood, primary and secondary schooling. This parallel education system for refugees allows for 43 percent of primary school-aged students to attend school (External Briefing Notes, Malaysia, 2015); a more active engagement by the Government of Malaysia would likely result in increased access numbers. Data collection is challenging, making it difficult to understand trends and plan for the future.
  • 5. 5 Collecting and updating data during armed conflict is incredibly challenging, especially on a countrywide scale. It is particularly difficult to account for refugees in urban areas and/or those living outside of official refugee camps. Resulting inconsistencies in the types of data that are collected over time and across countries makes it difficult to interpret trends or evaluate the success of programs over time. In the case of most countries, it is hard to answer the basic question: is access to quality education increasing from year to year? While many countries reported an increased number of refugee children enrolled in schools, it is often unclear whether this is due to increased access, increased numbers of refugees and/or more complete reporting. For example, UNHCR Chad reports on three refugee demographic groups: urban refugees, refugees from Central African Republic, and Sudanese refugees. Primary enrollment for all three increased from 2012 to 2014—but the numbers of refugees also increased. Primary access in urban areas stood at 77 students in 2012, and increased to 98 students in 2013 for a percentage increase in access of 27 percent. This falls incredibly short of the 140 percent population increase from 2012 to 2014. Primary access to education for Central African Republic refugees in camps in the south of Chad was 6,232 in 2012, and 7,896 in 2013, for a 26 percent increase in education access, which is slightly higher than the population growth rate. Sudanese refugees in camps in Eastern Chad had 61,926 students accessing primary education in 2012, with a total of 70,638 in 2013 (UNHCR Operations Reports, Chad, 2012-2013). This presents an increase in access of 14 percent, which is fairly similar to the population growth. With data only on numbers of refugees enrolled in school, it is impossible to know whether the proportion of refugee children enrolled in school changed. Consistent reporting on net enrollment rates would enable comparison over time. Last, almost all countries we analyzed used only school enrollment to measure access (see Table 2 in Appendix). In 2014, 21 of the 25 countries whose UNHCR Operations Reports we reviewed included some data on the number of children enrolled, although they varied in how these numbers were reported (some only included numbers for certain locations or grade levels, others reported in percentages rather than total numbers). Only two countries (Cameroon and Uganda) included some measures of retention rates based on attendance. Similarly, only two countries (Cameroon and Kenya) attempted to track student completion of grade levels or primary/secondary levels in any way. For example, Cameroon, the country with some of the most comprehensive data, reported the number of children enrolled in primary and secondary school in camps and urban areas, retention numbers for urban areas, and number of children completing grade level in urban areas. The country team also reported an estimate of out-of- school children, but not a total number of all school-age refugee children (making calculating the percentage of children receiving education more difficult) True access to education is much more than enrolling in school; students must be able to continue to attend and complete grades and diplomas. Without data on these outcomes, it is very difficult to present a true picture of educational access worldwide. PART 2: WHAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE IN EDUCATIONAL ACCESS AMONG REFUGEE CHILDREN? The following section discusses progress related to refugee education. In some cases the broad categories remain consistent with those above, while in others, categories have been consolidated due to overlapping areas of intervention.
  • 6. 6 UNHCR increasingly cites education as a programmatic priority area in emergency responses. Since UNHCR commissioned and published the 2011 report Refugee Education: A Global Review, education has featured more prominently as an organizational priority (Dryden-Peterson, 2011). For most countries, the number of times that education is mentioned in the UNHCR Operations Reports increases greatly from 2011 to 2014. For example, in 2011, the 25 country reports mentioned education, on average, about 41 times per report—ranging from just two references in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2011 report to 229 in the Uganda report. By 2014, however, the reports averaged about 209 references to education per country. The DRC report included 132 mentions of education, and Uganda’s mentioned it 557 times. In Rwanda, UNHCR lists primary and post-primary education as the two first priorities in its 2013 Operations Plan; education was not listed among UNHCR’s 2011 country priorities and primary education was listed last among many in the 2012 Operations Report. The UNHCR education operation in Rwanda also implements initiatives that aim to support its enrollment goal, such as providing uniforms, pens and pencils, and school lunch to students, thereby lowering families’ financial barriers of sending their children to school regularly. Rwanda remains ambitious in its access goals, experiencing high enrollment rates of 90 percent in 2010, and setting a new goal of a 97 percent enrollment rate for 2013. Contextualizing the education strategy to local contexts allowed UNHCR to support some of these increases in enrollment. In Lebanon, UNHCR supported increased enrollment rates by 19 percent from 2011 to 2014 by responding to community needs. The organization found that the most common constraints preventing children from enrolling in school were arriving after the registration date, unfamiliarity with the new curriculum (learning methods and foreign languages), bullying in schools, security concerns, lack of transportation, and low parental interest. UNHCR responded by increasing its outreach programs, as well as offering remedial programs for children in schools, and vocational training for out-of-school children. In addition, it covered enrollment fees and procured backpacks and school supplies for refugee students. These various responsive measures supported increased primary school access (UNHCR Operations Report, Lebanon, 2013). Improved collaboration between host governments and UNHCR supports refugees’ access to quality education. Forging strong relationships with host country governments creates an avenue for UNHCR to advocate for equal access to quality education for all refugee students, and a platform to discuss pressing issues and potential solutions pertaining to refugee education. As discussed above, UNHCR has actively cultivated a working relationship with the Government of Lebanon that has enabled the contextualization of the Education Strategy and response to locally-identified needs. In 2012, Lebanon’s Ministry of Education sought to make primary education accessible to Syrian refugee students within the national system by waiving tuition fees and providing Syrian students with free textbooks. By the end of 2012, it became clear that the public system was strained given the rapid influx of students. In response, UNHCR sought to help the government increase the physical capacity of its public school system. In 2014, the Ministry of Education started a three-year strategy called Reaching All Children with Education (RACE) in partnership with UNHCR and other donor agencies. RACE intends to provide learning opportunities for over 400,000 refugees and vulnerable Lebanese children by 2016 (UNCHR Operations Report, Lebanon, 2014).
  • 7. 7 In Chad, one of the most remarkable achievements to date is the inclusion of UNHCR as a signatory party among the Partners Techniques et Financiers for Education for the SIPEA (Interim Strategy for Primary Education and Literacy). This will allow for the inclusion of refugees in all funding from the Chadian education system, and potentially allow eligible candidates to take the grade 8 and grade 11 exams and thereby receive certification. UNHCR predicts this will have very positive effects on school enrollment and attendance among refugee students in Chad (UNCHR Operations Report, Chad, 2014). Partnerships with NGOs or local communities can replace governmental engagement where necessary. While it has been highlighted that governmental engagement is most effective in ensuring increased refugee access to education, in contexts where host government engagement is limited or non-existent, or in situations where enrollment remains particularly low, partnerships with non-governmental organizations can play an important role. For example, the collaboration between UNHCR and the Education for All-led Educate a Child (EAC) initiative provides an example of an effective partnership to increase access to education. EAC prioritizes free primary education for all by 2015, and intervenes in 12 priority countries with particularly low primary enrollment rates. This collaboration with a partner has proven to be an effective strategy for increasing access to education among refugee learners (Educate a Child, n.d.). The use of School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Associations in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya also provide an example of a promising intervention that strengthens parental engagement through capacity building. Trainings, workshops, and exchange visits for both groups facilitated by Save the Children led to increases in resource mobilization, teacher recruitment, facility construction/maintenance, and most notably girls’ education. Increasing the capacity of these organizations serves to increase community support and buy-in for education, which may result in not just more children in school, but more children in well- supported schools (UNHCR Good Practices, Kenya, 2015). A strategy to strengthen parental engagement and involvement in the school community in order to support education systems and increase access is a relatively low-cost initiative that could be implemented in almost any camp or urban refugee education situation, as long as there was an implementing partner willing and capable of facilitating the trainings and workshops. Data and measurement have greatly improved. UNHCR, like the rest of the United Nations and most international development organizations, has put significant resources towards increasing monitoring and evaluation programs in recent years. One of the most positive developments is the prominence of measurement goals in the 2012-2016 UNHCR Education Strategy. One of the four strategic approaches listed to achieve the strategy’s educational goals is to “collect and manage data so that education programs are monitored, evaluated for quality, inclusiveness and efficiency, and improved” (UNHCR, 2012). UNHCR’s country operations reports reveal a shift towards better data collection, analysis, and use over the span of just a few years. While only 28 percent of the reports published in 2011 provide specific data on enrollment, by 2014, 84 percent do (Table 1, Table 2 in Appendix). To give two examples: neither Iran nor Ethiopia recorded information on how many children were enrolled in school in 2011, but by 2014 both countries reported percentages of children attending school (UNHCR Operations Reports, Iran, 2011, 2014; Ethiopia 2011, 2014). By 2013 and 2014, most reports cited education as a major priority and reported more extensive education data, or
  • 8. 8 were making plans to do so. This indicates a shift toward fuller reporting and—one hopes—more effective planning for education in refugee settings. PART 3: WHAT INFORMATION OR STRATEGIESARE MISSING THAT COULD HELP ENSURE THAT ALL REFUGEE CHILDREN CAN ACCESS QUALITY EDUCATION? Many of the barriers to education for refugees overlap with barriers that exist in all middle- and lower-income contexts worldwide: poverty, insecurity, gender inequities, and urban/rural divides. And of course, limited funding for education programs, especially during conflict, make achieving universal education access more difficult. As discussed, there are several remaining challenges that persist in ensuring that refugee students have access to education. These include: a) resources and funding; b) secondary schooling opportunities; c) the inherent difficulty in planning for the realities of conflict; and d) gaps and inconsistencies in the collection and provision of data related to refugee education. While these are all important, a review of available documentation including the 2011-2014 Operations Reports reveals that perhaps the most important element impacting school access for refugees is the variation in the extent and type of host-government engagement. This analysis also reveals that many of the challenges listed above are effectively addressed through host-country engagement. Seek to build constructive, mutually beneficial relationships with host governments. In all of the reports and conversations we analyzed in producing this report, it was clear that the political will of host governments to address refugee issues is often the largest factor in whether refugees have access to education, be it through integration in national education systems or simple acknowledgment of refugees and their needs. Of course, governments often have sound reasons for a lack of full engagement. In many cases, their own resources and capacities are strained, as in the case of Lebanon. Additionally, they frequently face political and public pressure to repatriate refugees, as in the case of Kenya. Despite these challenges, however, it is clear that institutional engagement is central to improving educational access for refugees. During a recent conversation, the UNHCR Malaysia team expressed a desire for a “mutually beneficial collaboration” between UNHCR and the government (Personal communication, UNHCR Malaysia team, April 23 2015), but did not insist that that take place through full integration into the national system. In our review of the documents, we observed that there are many potential ways in which host governments can engage with the important issue of refugee education. Furthermore, broader engagement by host- governments in issues related to refugee education likely sets the stage for improvement in other areas noted above, including teacher recruitment and training, appropriate infrastructure, post- primary learning opportunities and consistent, usable data. To tackle these challenges and to build on successes, host-country involvement is key. Expand data collection to include measures of retention and completion, not just enrollment. While improved data collection would likely be supported by increased host-government engagement in issues impacting refugees, there are also a number of steps that UNHCR can take to improve data collection regardless of governmental involvement. In particular, it is vital to emphasize that access is more than simple enrollment; it matters, of course, that children have
  • 9. 9 the opportunity not only to regularly attend but also to complete school. Data on retention and completion are especially rare: in our research, we only encountered two countries that attempted to track retention in some way (Cameroon and Uganda) and two that attempted to report completion (Cameroon and Kenya). We cannot have a full picture of what access looks like without these indicators. We recommend collecting, reporting, and using:  Targeted global data on key outcomes. We recommend that all country offices include the following:  Data on refugee locations. For each of the four indicators above, it would be most useful to disaggregate by camps, urban settings, and other areas.  Additional context-specific data points. Some examples include percentage of school- aged girls or language minorities enrolled in and completing school, depending on the context.  Consistent feedback loops such that data is used by the local teams to inform programming, in addition to being shared with UNHCR Headquarters for global analysis. Without focusing on the use of data, the data collected cannot be effective in planning to ensure broad educational access. We hypothesize that improved data collection and feedback loops can help to improve planning for refugee education (particularly in settings of protracted conflict) and may even drive improved host-government engagement. With a clearer picture of not only the challenges but also the successes, host governments and international bodies may be better equipped to consider the various routes to broad educational access for refugees. CONCLUSION While there are currently 955,467 refugee students enrolled in primary school, this number is small relative to the 58 million primary school-aged children and 69 million adolescents who are currently out of school (UNHCR Themes: Education, 2015) (UNESCO, 2015; UNESCO, 2013). As this document highlights, there have been significant strides forward in ensuring quality education access to refugees, including prioritizing education in UNHCR and national strategic plans and collecting more data related to education. As we move into a post-2015 agenda, it will 1) Total number of school-age refugee children (primary, secondary, total) 2) Total number of refugee children enrolled in school (primary, secondary, total) 3) Total number of refugee children regularly attending school (primary, secondary, total) 4) Total number of refugee children completing grade level at year-end (primary, secondary, total)
  • 10. 10 be vital that 1) first, UNHCR build increasingly productive relationships with host-governments, advocating for engagement in issues affecting refugees, including educational access; 2) UNHCR continue to frame educational access as more than just enrollment but also include completion, and that following completion students enter further meaningful experiences; 3) that where needed, non-governmental partnerships also be continuously cultivated in addition to these governmental collaborations; and 4) that data collection, reporting, and use reflect and support the growing acknowledgment of education as a global priority. With these goals in mind, UNHCR can lead a post-2015 education agenda, working together with host-governments to support the millions of refugee children still out of school.
  • 11. 11 APPENDIX Table 1: Access indicators included in 2011 Country Operations Reports Number of school- age children Number of children enrolled in school Total retention (any metric) Total completion (any metric) Bangladesh Yes (by gender) Burundi Burkina Faso Cameroon Chad Yes (urban only) Yes Djibouti DCR Egypt (2013) Yes (by gender and primary /secondary) Ethiopia Yes (by gender) Iran Yes (by gender) Iraq Yes (by gender) Jordan Yes (by gender and primary/ secondary) Yes (by primary/secondary) Kenya Yes (primary/ secondary, camps only) Yes (camps only) Yes* (estimate) Lebanon Yes (by gender and primary/ secondary) Malaysia Niger Pakistan Rwanda South Sudan Sudan Yes (primary only, camps only) Yes (primary only, camps only) Syria Yes Yes Turkey Uganda Yes (primary only, urban only) Yes (primary only) Yemen Yes (primary/ secondary, by gender) Zambia Yes % OF COUNTRIES REPORTING** 52% 28% 4% 0% *Denotes that some or all enrollment data was reported as a percentage of children enrolled, not a total number. **Includes all countries that reported metric for at least some refugee populations; does not necessarily indicate complete, countrywide data available.
  • 12. 12 Table 2: Access indicators included in 2014 Country Operations Reports Number of school- age children Number of children enrolled in school Total retention (any metric) Total completion (any metric) Bangladesh Yes (by gender) Burundi Yes (primary/secondary, camps and urban settings) Burkina Faso Yes Yes (primary/secondary) Cameroon Yes (primary/secondary, camps and urban settings) Yes (urban only) Yes (urban only) Chad Yes* (primary/secondary, camps and local settlements) Djibouti (2013) Yes (primary/secondary, by gender, camps only) DCR Yes (primary only, by gender) Yes (primary only, camps only) Egypt (2013) Yes (by gender and primary /secondary) Yes (primary/secondary) Ethiopia Yes (by gender and primary/ secondary) Yes* (primary/secondary) Iran Yes* (primary/secondary) Iraq Yes Yes (camps and local settlements) Jordan Yes Kenya Yes* (primary/ secondary, camps only) Yes* (primary/secondary, by gender, camps and urban settings) Some data on exam passage rates Lebanon Yes Yes Malaysia Yes (primary/secondary) Niger Yes (primary/secondary) Yes (primary/secondary, by gender, camps only) Pakistan Rwanda Yes (primary/secondary) South Sudan Yes (primary, camps only) Sudan Yes (primary only) Yes (primary camps and total urban only) Syria (2013) Yes Yes Turkey (2013) Uganda Yes (primary/ secondary, urban only) Yes (urban only) Yes (urban only) Yemen Yes (primary/secondary, by gender) Zambia Yes % OF COUNTRIES REPORTING** 52% 84% 8% 8% *Denotes that some or all enrollment data was reported as a percentage of children enrolled, not a total number. **Includes all countries that reported metric for at least some refugee populations; does not necessarily indicate complete, countrywide data available.
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