Mega Trends and Challenges in Refugee Education

A Guide Book for Trainers

by Dr. S.B. Ekanayke

 

About the Author

S.B. Ekanayake (PhD), presently serving as Technical Advisor to GTZ/BEFARe is an eminent educationist from Sri Lanka . He had been serving both UNESCO and UNHCR, Afghanistan from 1994-2002 as Basic Education Advisor. He is one of the well known educationist in refugee education today and has contributed nearly 15 books on teacher education, curriculum development, policy planning related to refugee education in Afghanistan . His premier contribution relates to the publication titled ‘Education in Doldrums: Afghan Tragedy'(2000), the only book on education on Afghanistan .

Dr. Ekanayake was also consultant to UNICEF in Bhutan , conducting a study and developing an educational policy for the Government of Bhutan in relation to issues related to drop outs, repeaters and non-enrollment. He had served as an evaluator of the UNHCR funded education projects. Prior to joining the UN, Dr. Ekanayake was a director Education in Sri Lanka and had been a Consultant on Human Rights Education at the Center of the Study of Human Rights, University of Colombo , Sri Lanka . He had also worked at UNESCO institute of Education , Hamburg as a Research Specialist on Life Long Education for developing countries. He had been responsible for a number UNESCO sponsored international projects on primary education in Asia . He has published over one hundred papers on education and development of disadvantaged groups, specially in the context of developing countries.

 

In Brief

Children learn from the time of their birth whether it is under normal circumstances or crisis situations. It comes to them naturally. When opportunities are provided in adverse environments the child is likely to learn better. The teacher can make the learning environment conducive and learner friendly . An efficient teacher can motivate the children and bring about positive changes in their behaviour. These initial steps would promote better participation and encourage the continuation of the learning process. Environments, which lack resources and a culture of learning along with other problems and complexities, do need innovative and pro-active approaches to promote learning among children. This is more true in the case of girls. This publication is intended to fill in this gap by presenting some key methods and strategies, which the teachers could use when working with refugee children living under adverse conditions.

International agencies promoting education and bringing new inputs to the systems are greatly concerned about the significance of the new trends and how these should be absorbed in the classroom operations. These institutions headed by UNESCO strongly feel that the objectives of education accepted in earlier decades have changed and new trends to meet the challenges of the changing society are emerging. These include the problems of disadvantaged groups and others living in adverse environments such as the refugee children. Education is expected to provide opportunities for improving self-esteem and enhance personalities, thus bringing out the best in them and to later serve their country. The focus of the international community for the development of the children, girls in particular, has increased greatly over the decades. However, funding has not kept pace with the demands.

In addressing as to how changes could be brought in the teaching learning situation in the classroom solving some of the complex issues such as trauma, conflicts etc. that these children face are discussed in greater detail in the ‘Mega Trends.' It is a training manual and a guide for trainers and is an outcome of a workshop conducted for trainers in GTZ Basic Education for Afghan Refugees (BEFARe) in Pakistan. The contents of the publication focus on three levels namely, on the global trends that have taken place over the years in the context of refugee education, application of these at the classroom level and the methodologies that could be used in the refugee schools, the management procedures and evaluation methods and the planning of training programmes for education personnel in refugee programmes.

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