Refugee children risk being left behind, with more than half of 15.5 million not in school. As the world’s largest partnership solely dedicated to transforming education systems, GPE supports refugee-hosting partner countries to strengthen capacities and resourcing for inclusive education.

Partner country governments ultimately decide how to use GPE funds based on their priorities for system reform that are identified through inclusive dialogue with education partners and stakeholders.

Recently, many refugee-hosting partner countries in East Africa have focused on supporting teachers in refugee contexts to ensure quality inclusive education for all. GPE highlighted some examples of this at the second Global Refugee Forum, notably from South Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia in the areas of teacher pre-service training, professional development, management and in unique circumstances, compensation.

South Sudan

South Sudan – the world's newest nation - hosts a significant number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are fleeing conflict within the region. Additionally, many South Sudanese refugees have returned home in recent months, with over 350,000 returning from Sudan since April 2023 (UNHCR data portal). The South Sudanese government has prioritized inclusive education so that all children, including refugees, have access to quality education in national schools.

The Building Skills for Human Capital Development in South Sudan Project, funded by GPE and the World Bank, has multiple interventions focused on refugee and host community teachers that will help support an inclusive education system in the country.

The program focuses on strengthening teaching and learning through pre-service teacher training and in-service teacher professional development. Untrained but practicing teachers of refugees will also have access to an accelerated secondary education program to complete secondary education—a necessary requirement for formal teacher certification.

Local refugee and host community teachers will be recruited for select schools in refugee-hosting areas, with GPE and the World Bank financing the salaries of these newly hired teachers for 2 to 3 years, after which they will be transferred to the government payroll.

As the first education program in over a decade for the World Bank in South Sudan, the program prioritizes the support of teachers, recognizing that they are key to ensuring refugee and host community children are learning.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia hosts over 800,000 refugees from South Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan. In 2022, 57% of refugees were children, of which 59% were out-of-school (UNHCR 2022). Ethiopia has a long history of supporting the educational needs of refugees and has committed to integrating refugee children into both national primary and secondary schools.

In support of this commitment, GPE approved a grant to Ethiopia in 2021 which mobilized co-financing from the World Bank and Denmark. The program contributes to the integration of refugees into Ethiopia’s education system by extending the activities and incentives of the General Education Quality Improvement Program for Equity (GEQIP-E) to refugee schools.

The program develops an improved in-service training for refugee teachers, with possible accreditation as qualified teachers within Ethiopia’s national system depending on past qualifications and educational background. The program intends to culminate with the transfer of all teachers employed by the parallel management system in refugee schools (the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs) to the national payroll.

Djibouti

Djibouti has one of the highest refugee population ratios in the world, with 1.8% to 3% of Djibouti’s total population being refugees in recent years (World Bank). The government of Djibouti has demonstrated openness and commitment to educating children living as refugees, signing the Djibouti Declaration of Education of Refugees in 2017.

Since 2019, GPE, alongside the World Bank and Education Above All, has supported the Expanding Opportunities for Learning Project that aims to increase equitable access to basic education, improve teaching practices and strengthen the management capacity of Djibouti’s Ministry of Education.

The project supports inclusion of refugees within the national education system, with the managing of schools in refugee camps, or villages as they are known in Djibouti, transitioning from non-governmental organizations or UNHCR to the Ministry of Education.

Teachers of students with refugee status who were previously untrained also now have access to specialized pedagogical training to improve their quality of instruction, in addition to coaching and mentoring. The financing for the project is supplemented by the Ministry of Education’s own contribution which will allow for multi-year planning and sustainability.

Making refugee-inclusive education a priority

All teachers play a vital role in providing education to children living as refugees.

What follows from policies will depend on many factors. Some national education systems may be ready to include all refugees with only slight modifications such as an additional language of instruction in primary schools or providing teacher training specific to the needs of students living as refugees. However, many countries at present do not have the capacity to welcome all refugees into national schools.

GPE stands ready to support refugee-hosting partner countries from the first steps of adopting inclusive education policies to strengthening education systems to build capacity, including facilitating teacher management in both refugee and host communities. The end goal is to give all children a quality education.

Read also how coordinated action to transform education for children living as refugees and in displacement can reduce duplication of efforts and achieve more cost-effective and sustainable results.