Countries must urgently protect the right to education of migrants and refugees in the Arab States

The first regional edition of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report published by UNESCO was launched this morning at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). The Arab States Migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls Report analyses the impact of these population movements on education systems in the region and presents a series of urgent recommendations to protect the education rights of those on the move.

The Arab States is the region most affected by displacement, which has slowed down its education progress relative to the rest of the world. The gap between the Arab States and sub-Saharan Africa in those enrolling in primary education has more than halved in the past 20 years, for instance. Over the same period, Central and Southern Asia has overtaken the Arab States in enrolment rates at the lower secondary level and the gap is rapidly closing at the upper secondary level too.

There is no doubt that these countries are facing a unique challenge due to these population flows. Regardless, displaced children and youth do not leave their right to an education behind. Policy makers must put themselves in their shoes. Expecting refugees to travel with school certificates is unrealistic, for instance. They must ensure their policies fairly reflect displaced persons’ needs.

Internal displacement: Five of the twelve countries with the highest percentage of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world are in the Arab States. A lack of paperwork, language challenges, and security risks are the largest barriers to their education.

In Iraq, for instance, 42% of internally displaced children and youth attended formal education, compared with 73% of non-displaced children. There are only a small number of Arabic-language schools and questions over the recognition of qualifications from schools they might have attended in the Kurdistan Region hinder access.

Teachers in internal displacement settings are often not paid nor effectively trained. In Yemen, in Houthi-controlled governorates, teachers have not received their salaries since 2016. Moreover, teachers also need training to learn how to deal with displaced children that require psychosocial support in their classrooms, such as 13% of Syrian internally displaced children in 2018.

International displacement: One third of the world’s refugees are in the Arab States, with 6.7 million from the Syrian Arab Republic alone. Despite an overwhelmingly proactive response in the five countries hosting Syrian refugees, however, 39% of Syrian children are still not in school.

The lack of birth or school certificates can be a barrier to school access. In Lebanon, Syrians have to prove their refugee status and that they have completed primary school to go to secondary school. Jordan and Iraq have dismissed this requirement and let all enrol without certification.

Despite an admirable commitment to inclusion, many refugees are still schooled in parallel systems, which are unsustainable in the long term, especially without better funding. Jordan and Lebanon adopted double-shift school systems as the only realistic immediate solution, but require funds to support teachers and prepare for its eventual end. Not enough is being done to share the responsibility of mass displacement.

Other refugee populations are in segregated systems. Sahrawi refugees in Algeria have a separate education system and curriculum. Malian refugees in refugee camps in Mauritania still follow the Malian curriculum.

International migration: Gulf Cooperation Council countries have the highest immigration rates in the world. However, in all countries but Bahrain, migrants have to pay fees to attend public schools. Private, parallel school systems are the norm, where students study their home country or some other international curriculum – but not their host country’s. The private education sector is expected to double its value within six years to US$26.2 billion by 2023.

To improve migrants’ sense of belonging, some countries in the sub-region have made moves to teach student migrants Arabic, but the effectiveness of these initiatives has not been assessed. In 2017, two-thirds of Arab youth reported speaking more English than standard Arabic in their daily lives.

Internal migration: The flow of migrants in cities often leads to residential segregation, slums being the most visible manifestation in low- and middle-income countries, where education is often lacking. In Iraq, 13% of the population live in 3,700 slums where there are almost 2,200 uncompleted schools. One quarter of households in Cairo’s informal settlements say that secondary schools are located too far away.

The Report has 7 key recommendations:

Protect the right to education of migrants and displaced people
Include migrants and displaced people in national education systems
Understand and plan for the education needs of migrants and displaced people
Accurately represent migration and displacement histories in education content
Prepare teachers of migrants and refugees to address diversity and hardship
Harness the potential of migrants and displaced people
Support education needs of migrants and displaced people in humanitarian and development aid.