Share your views to help develop the forthcoming 2019 GEM Report
[If you are not comfortable writing in English, you can post in any other UN language (русский, 中文, français, العربية, Español) and we’ll translate it for you].
The Global Education Monitoring Report (or GEM Report), formerly known as the Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR), is an editorially independent, authoritative and evidence-based annual report that monitors progress towards global education targets adopted by UN member states as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (September 2015). The GEM Report is funded by a group of governments, multilateral agencies and private foundations and published annually by UNESCO to serve the international community. It is widely recognized as an indispensable analytical and advocacy tool for ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning for all.
With a renewed mandate from the World Education Forum in May 2015, the GEM Report team launched a new series of internationally focused education monitoring reports in 2016. The 2016 GEM Report, Education for People and Planet: Creating Sustainable Futures for All, examined the links between education and major facets of sustainable development. It developed the framework to monitor progress towards the fourth global education goal (SDG4), as well as other global targets with an education focus. The second report, to be launched in October 2017, is tentatively titled Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments. It will examine the most common accountability approaches and whether and how they contribute to the aims of the global education goals: access, quality, equity and inclusion.
This concept note discusses the 2019 GEM Report on migration and education, as approved by the GEM Report International Advisory Board in June 2016.
Migration and education are multifaceted processes involving individuals, schools, communities, regions and countries. They invoke temporal, spatial and intergenerational dimensions. The 2019 GEM Report will enhance understanding of migration and education dynamics. It will give voice to educational challenges and opportunities facing both voluntary and involuntary migrants in host and home communities. It will draw upon wide-ranging evidence from both quantitative and qualitative studies, and the analyses, conclusions and recommendations will advance the aims of SDG4.
We would like to hear your views on the topic through this on-line consultation over the next five weeks. The GEM Report team is particularly keen to receive your thoughts on the issues noted above, including suggestions on relevant literature, data analysis and case studies. The views of researchers, academics, governments, non-governmental organizations, aid donors, teachers, youth and anyone with an interest in education and development are most welcome.
Please read the concept note and contribute to this online consultation before 31 May 2017. The concept note is available in: English, Français, Español, 中文 (中国), العربية.
Post your contributions as comments (below) to this blog, providing web links to research reports, policy papers, evaluations, and other documents or datasets that you think would be useful for the Report team.
If you would rather email your comments, or have attachments of documents or data that you would like to share with the GEM Report team, please send them directly to gemreport@unesco.org with ‘2019 Report Consultation’ as a subject heading.
Consultation 
Share your comments with us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The GEM should explore the quality of education provided to refugees. Many have ended up in the schools of host countries, where a series of issues have arisen. (Including language of course.) But many others are at the mercy of volunteers.
At least in the case of Syrian refugees, a European community of volunteers sprang up to educate them. Many are young people, looking for an experience like an international Peace Corps. They have online forums, volunteer time, start schools and very much want to help the refugees in Greece, Lebanon, and elsewhere.
The problem is that they want to give children education as they imagine it. (They are rarely teachers, and they practically never know Arabic.) Some are young women who are unemployed and who are interested in children’s safety, happiness, and cultural enrichment. So they emphasize art and music. Schools have musical instruments, arts supplies, computers, and donated story books. but basic skills are neglected. The children just don’t learn much math or science.
Refugee children who leave school quickly fall behind, so whenever they are enrolled again, they may be 3 years behind their peers and may have forgotten much of what they knew. Given the above, many will never catch up, despite the best intentions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True the GEM report should explore the quality of education provided to refugees but also to nationals as well.
In Uganda, education is free for refugees to access under the same conditions as nationals. However, the recent influx of over 700,000 South Sudan refugees in the country has not provided for quality education. Why? Classroom sizes have not been increased hence causing an overflow of pupils/student ratio in the classes as compared to the teachers whose number has remained the same. Teaching materials have also suffered the same detriment thus hindering access to quality education not only for refugees but also for the nationals.
The GEM report should take into consideration the challenge caused by lack of access to quality education due to overcrowded classrooms and inadequate resources for teaching and learning.
LikeLike
It seems then to me that what is required may be a professional development for educators to assist them in understanding the needs of second language learners and how this may impact their education. It is one thing to “learn ” a language for functional purposes. It is a vastly different paradigm when a child has to learn for academic purpose in a language that they are not familiar with and find success. The educator then has to develop ways to differentiate their lessons so that all students can access the curriculum. One of the ways to support educators is through professional developments.
LikeLike
La educacion es la base de una nacion que vive en paz y la naturaleza es parte de esa educacion que debemos trasmitir a nuestra niñez,respetando los valores y las tradiciones de cada grupo etnico,ya lo decia un gran heroe mexicano. EN LA TIERRA COMO EN LAS NACIONES EL RESPETO AL DERECHO AJENO ES LA PAZ,respetemos las tradiciones y el territorio de cada individuo sin afectar la dignidad y la salud de los niños y niñas con costumbres aberrantes, que dañan su integridad y su salud.
LikeLike
Please consider this important report The 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacements which reports that 2/3 displacements are caused by hazard impacts and 1/3 by conflict. http://www.internal-displacement.org/assets/publications/2016/2016-global-report-internal-displacement-IDMC.pdf also see: https://www.unisdr.org/archive/48819
LikeLike
Madame, Monsieur, Merci pour vos documents.
Veuillez trouver ci-après mes réponses brèves à vos questions
A. Les migrations sont-elles un facteur d’accélération ou une entrave pour les progrès dans l’accès à l’éducation ? Pourquoi ?
L’impact des migrations ont un double impact: “Grâce à la migration et à l’éducation, les individus peuvent développer des connaissances, des compétences et des capacités et de ce fait contribuer
au développement social et économique. L’élargissement de l’accès à et du
financement d’une éducation de qualité peuvent améliorer non seulement la vie des migrants, mais également le développement des pays hôtes. Toutefois, tant la migration que l’éducation peuvent également entraver le développement” indique à juste titre le rapport.
B. Quelle influence les schémas migratoires exercent-ils sur l’éducation de qualité ?
En principe ils détériorent car retardent une éducation de qualité au moins au niveau de l’enseignement supérieur car ils demandent plus d’efforts humains et financiers. Mais comme on ne peut pas vivre en autarcie dans le processus de la mondialisation forcée, c’est un moindre mal – le pire c’est la confrontation pas tous les moyens entre pays d’accueils et pays bénéficiaires!
C. En quoi les politiques axées sur l’équité et l’inclusion de l’éducation améliorent-elles les résultats de l’éducation chez les migrants et les réfugiés ?
Si de telles politiques sont menées de façon réfléchie et équitable, elles peuvent améliorer le niveau de l’éducation et même la situation en générale des migrants et réfugiés y compris leur inclusion sociale
D. En quoi la voix des migrants peut-elle nous aider à mieux comprendre les liens mutuels qui unissent migration et éducation ?
De toute façon la vois des migrants et leur nombre croissant sans cesse, nous rendent en évidence que la migration et l’éducation sont intimement liées, pour le bien ou pour le pire!
Bien cordialement
Prof. Emile Karailiev IAE-Sorbonne,
Docteur d’Etat ès sciences économiques
Auditeur IFACI et the IIA (Institut of Internal Auditor)
Expert Administration et Organisation de l’enseignement
EmileKarailiev@yahoo.co.uk
TEL 00 33617364518 (24h/24)
LikeLike
In many countries, policies do not give proper opportunities for education to migrants. In a world where many conflicts are displacing people from their original homeland – usually not due to their own deeds – these displaced people need the empathy and protection from the civilised world. Unfortunately, many countries are becoming very nationalistic in their approach and do no welcome the displaced lot. IN THE LEAST, all countries that are members of the UN should endeavour to provide education to the displaced lot without any discrimination, as the process of education will allow these people to fend for themselves better in the face of adversities that they face. This should be an area that needs full discussion and agreement among the members of UN>
LikeLike
Migration could result in to a positive outcome or may turn in to a tragic experience depending on Who migrates? Where? What for?
If a child moves out from one zone to another place where medium of instruction at the school, textbooks etc are different from his/her own language, and then obviously child is going to miss the learning opportunity. If parents are economically sound, investment can be made to equip the child with new language but it depends on the age of the child and the plan of the family. In case of seasonal migration of the poor families, very often, children loose the substantial learning months and generally could not go beyond the elementary school cycle.
The scenario will be different at the higher education and migration may open doors of opportunities.
Seasonal migration, forced migration (natural disasters, armed clashes) hampers access and quality of education both. In most of the cases, teachers appointed to facilitate learning in the Camps, have not been trained to deal with migrant children, street children, children affected with violence. These volunteer, NGO supported teachers often get two to four days training and do their job, mostly helping young children. Getting competent teachers and paying a worthy salary appears as obstacles in case of migration.
Seasonal/migrant hostels must be having essential facilities along with competent teachers to teach. Library, learning materials and stationary must be in place. Textbooks in multi languages may also help students .
LikeLike
Based on researching the literature to inform a topic guide for DFID on Education for IDPs and refugees (available here: http://www.heart-resources.org/topic/education-for-refugees-and-idps/), key points to cover in the forced migration section in the GEM report could include:
1) The need for better data:- UNHCR has made strides in this area in recent years but there are still massive data gaps- especially around IDPs (see blog here: http://www.heart-resources.org/blog/right-education-refugees-internally-displaced-persons-data-gaps-challenges/.)
2) “grass roots” education initiatives: Much of the work in education for refugees/ IDPs is delivered relatively informally by refugees/ IDPs themselves, sometimes very good and innovative work, but goes on under the radar – (see http://www.ineesite.org/en/blog/education-and-displaced-populations-with-not-for ) Save the Children has been trying to capture and document some of this work (see https://blogs.savethechildren.org.uk/2017/03/refugee-education-shining-a-light-on-promising-practices/) – and it is often great work- but does not get the visibility of internationally led initiatives and is very hard to find any literature on.
3) Paying and retaining teachers remains a major hurdle- with both IDPs and refugees ( could also include for e.g. transferability of teacher accreditation, legal right to work for refugee teachers, systems that allow forcibly displaced teachers to stay with their forcibly displaced school populations and continue to receive a salary. etc etc)
LikeLike
The concept note is an excellent start for the GEM report 2019, as posing the right questions certainly point the way to the right answers! Migration and education are closely related, as both involve travelling in mind and body across time and space of political, economic, social and cultural systemic boundaries. Having read the concept note, especially from the perspective of the SDG4 in the context of massive urbanization, migration and refugee-engendering conflicts, and knowing that there will be many other suggestions and comments, I suggest inclusion of the following:
1. For impact of rapid urbanization and residential policies on equity and quality of education from primary school to tertiary education, see “Towards Equity in Education in China” (a multivariate analysis of a representative sample of 1.4 million respondents) by Ko-Chih Tung, showing the positive and negative impact of migration, one-child policies, etc. UN System in China. December 2015
2. The impact of policies on the medium/language of instruction on migrants, bearing in mind that many countries in Africa and Asia, in contrast to Europe, are actually linguistically very heterogeneous, in which education is the instrument for nation-building. Due to free migration within the EU, a similar situation has arisen on a massive scale even in Europe.
3. Political Resocialization of Immigrants (PRI), through formal, nonformal and informal education, see eg.,
a. The Political Resocialization of Immigrants, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1065912908314713;
b. Politisk resocialisation av invandrare (Political resocialization of immigrants), Tomas Hammar and Ko-Chih Tung, Stockholm University
c. The Political Socialization of Adolescent Children of Immigrants, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3904436/;
d. Civil Rights and the Sociopolitical Participation of Migrants. International Migration Review, http://www.jstor.org/stable/i323465
e. Education and the development of Turkish and Yugoslav immigrants’ political attitudes in Germany, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0964400042000287455?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=fgrp20
Roger Ko-Chih Tung, former UIS Regional Advisor and Coordinator of EFA Assessment and Policy Review in Africa, Asia and the Pacific
LikeLike
The Vietnam Association for Education for All (VAEFA) and its member the Center for Education and Empowerment of Women is conducting a survey on education of accompanied children of migrants workers in Hanoi (the capital of Vietnam). The report is expected to be done by 1st quarter of 2018. This report may contain information on Early childhood education and primary education of children of migrant workers (internal migration). In addition, Vietnam is also applying Hukou system which hinders access to education of migrants and their accompanied children. There are quite a number of studies about this.
LikeLike
En el sistema educativo mexicano se observan avances en lo que se refiere a cobertura, la atención en educación primaria es casi universal. Aún en este nivel, no todos los niños con edad para cursarlo, tienen acceso y posibilidades de permanencia hasta finalizarlo y continuar con el trayecto de la educación obligatoria. “Pero es en el terreno de los aprendizajes donde se tienen los menores logros, y aún en las entidades con mejores desempeños, los resultados no son satisfactorios” (INEE, 2016 b, p. 19).
Galeana (2016) realiza un estudio en el cual busca, entre otros objetivos, la identificación y caracterización de subpoblaciones de niños que en México no asisten a la escuela. Las subpoblaciones identificadas son niñas, niños y adolescentes (NNA); con discapacidad, trabajadores, indígenas, migrantes, en condiciones de embarazo temprano y maternidad, en conexión con la calle, afrodescendientes y adolescentes en conflicto con la ley. En sus resultados plantea que estos grupos tienen en común las condiciones de vulnerabilidad en las que se desarrollan.
En relación a la población conformada por NNA de familias jornaleras agrícolas migrantes, Galeana (2016) afirma que presenta falta de atención por parte de los sistemas educativos de sus lugares de origen, por la imposibilidad de atender alumnado fuera de la entidad y de sus lugares de destino, por no contar con presupuesto para esta población. A partir de 1976, en México se han establecido políticas educativas que buscan atender a esta población jornalero agrícola migrante. De manera reciente en el Diagnóstico del Programa S244 Inclusión y Equidad Educativa (SEP, 2014) se reconoce de manera explícita que las políticas públicas en el país, destinadas a atender los problemas de exclusión social y educativa no han sido suficientes.
La anterior afirmación concuerda con evaluaciones externas realizadas al Programa de Educación Básica para Niños y Niñas de Familias Jornaleras Agrícolas Migrantes (Pronim) que establecen que son escasos los recursos que se otorgan a las entidades federativas para su operación, con una reducción paulatina de montos asignados (Rojas, 2006 & Miranda, 2016), falta de criterios para una asignación equitativa de recursos financieros y un desfase en la oportunidad de entrega de recursos (Rojas, 2006).
LikeLike
Education needs a new approach. Students learn best when pursuing an area of interest. Exposure to all subjects and given the option to choose which course they’re most interested in before receiving advanced education in the area of interest. Cover the basics but give the individual the option to pursue what gets them excited.
LikeLike
Thank you for the opportunity to make comment.
Empirical research has been conducted in Northern Uganda regarding teachers’ conceptions of children’s learning, and the following findings were found to be publishing-worthy:
* The role that teachers play in overcoming the effects of stress and trauma on children’s social psychological development: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-014-9282-6
* Organic and institutional views of learning: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059316300591
Furthermore, the methodology of phenomenograhy – a study of the variations of lived experiences – proved efficacious as a cross-cultural methodology for educational research. The following article explains: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/F9EE8nFqPyVjAfgYVRCP/full
LikeLike
Immigrants both voluntary and non-voluntary are normally faced with challenges of culture and diversity which teachers teaching the migrants must address. Approaches include strengthening, cultural awareness, encouraging a global outlook, and promoting a safer learning environment among other.Because of different socioeconomic status of immigrants and the host communities it is sometimes distressing for the minority to realize that they are despised and looked down upon by their peers because of their poor communication skills or social background. This could low the self-esteem of the minority who end up joining drug abuse, prostitution and even robbery.
Refer Website: http://www.soeagra.com/ijert.html
LikeLike
Impact of Migration
Human resource is a foremost resource in an economy. If this resource’s majority is youth, then its the biggest assets for a nation. But in order to preserve this resource a country should be able to provide ample of opportunities and facilities to the youth, which will enable them to build up bright future for themselves.
Developing countries such as India, is rich with human resources but lacks to cater the required level of education to its entire population. For instance, due to high population and limited number of seats in good educational institutions, ,many aspiring students are enforced to go beyond territory for acquiring the desired standard of education. Secondly, also because of confined and non diversified courses, forces one to migrate from its country to access the desired courses to achieve ones goal. This emerging trend significantly results in major loss for the country.
.
Once a citizen migrates from its native territory for accessing education, eventually in future he or she will desire to earn living in migrated country. Similarly, initially a student acquiring education in host community is financially supported from its home community. Resulting again loss for a country in context of monetarily.
On contrary ,some educational institutions prevailing in home country might take the impact of migration optimistically. Those institutions might improve the quality of education and provide the basic requirements, to attract the aspiring students. But the chances of the improvement is likely exiguous.
Hence, the trend of migration of students for accessing education, adversely effect in the economy of the home community. To safeguard the interests of youth and future of the country, imperative standard and quality of education should be provided and also the later opportunities by the native country.
LikeLike
I would like to provide some important aspects to be considered concerning remittances.
Migrant remittances represent a major source of foreign currency influx for most developing countries. Today, this phenomenon has taken global dimensions, at a time when ODA is going through a crisis and is widely criticized as an instrument of political influence to serve the strategic interests of the great powers. Remittances are perceived as a new initiative of inter-governmental actors to foster sustainable development. For example, for a country like Tajikistan, migrant remittances are important financial inflows (more than 40% of GDP), leaving behind ODA. It was in 2004 that international community officially launched the Global Remittance Initiative, representing essential elements of international regime towards integrating remittances into the development architecture. Their role in achieving MDGs was not sufficient, even though it was an accepted notion that they might contribute to their achievements. New GEM report should clearly outline their possible contributions in achieving SDGs, focusing on SDG 4. Remittances can be used to close a funding gap for achieving SDG 4. In order to increase their contribution to the sustainable development, even “Addis Ababa Action Agenda for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development” agreed on reducing the transaction cost of remittances to 3% by 2030.
Nevertheless, there are positive and negative aspects of remittances to be taken into account in the context of development. Remittances have direct effects in short-term perspective, rather than long-term, and in local context, rather than in regional or global. For instance, remittances can allow families in the country of origin to invest in their children’s education, and provide access to quality education. The report should provide recommendations on possible global role of remittances in sustainable development, as well as ways to trace illegal ones or those sent by informal channels. Concurrently, remittances can also have negative effects, especially on families left behind, thus creating gender related problems, exacerbating poverty, as well as difficulties related to the education of children. For example, Tajikistan, a country that heavily depends on remittances, is known for being a country of abandoned wives. Most women whose husbands left the country with the main objective to earn money and to help families to overcome poverty ended up being neglected. These migrants quite often permanently dessert their families, thus creating illusions related to the expectations from remittances.
Even though remittances can be a new catalyst for achieving SDGS, all possible negative aspects should also be reflected upon to find out the best ways of their use.
Reference: https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-01140032v1
LikeLike
Publications that may be relevant for the upcoming GEM report:
1) Chankseliani, Maia. 2016. ‘Escaping Homelands with Limited Employment and Tertiary Education Opportunities: Outbound Student Mobility from Post-Soviet Countries’. Population, Space and Place 22 (3): 301–16. doi:10.1002/psp.1932. https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/gem-report/files/Chankseliani-2015-Population%2C_Space_and_Place.pdf
In this article I offer an empirical investigation and theorisation of student mobility from post-Soviet countries. Using secondary numeric data, I provide a snapshot of undergraduate student mobility differentials and examine whether particular characteristics of student home countries are associated with the proportion of their students studying abroad. The two variables of interest are the tertiary enrolments and the labour force participation of young people. The results show that countries with lower tertiary enrolments and lower labour force participation rates are more likely to have higher proportions of students studying abroad, when controlling for the population size and the GDP per capita. The regression model explains 77% of the variation in the outcome. The paper also examines the most popular destinations for students in order to show that their choices of destination countries seem to be somewhat limited and mainly revolve around countries within the region. I place the results in the context of scholarship on international student mobility and world-systems theory to discuss the implications for individual states and individual students.
Read more…
LikeLike
Please find attached two documents in reference to your request for contributions to the 2019 GEM Report.
The first is a draft working paper regarding the need to include data on forcibly-displaced adult women and their access to education.
The second is a research proposal describing research I will be undertaking over the next year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The nearly newly coined or branded term “Education for Refugees” is contradictory with the SDG#4. It implies approaching Education from an Aid and Humanitarian perspective and restricting Education response to access at the expense of quality, equity and inclusiveness.
More importantly, most of UN’s and INGOs adopted responses to Education crisis such as the Syria’ Crisis, have proved their inefficiency and un-sustainability because they follow short-cut and linear solutions.
In the context of a protracted emergency or conflict (7 years now in the case of Syria) causing one of the worse humanitarian crisis since WWII, there is no way that one single party, such as Formal Education and access to primary public schools in neighboring host countries, could solve the Education crisis. What about secondary enrollment which drops to 12% among refugees, and to higher education which drops further to 2% ? How does that solution addresse school retention and education continuum? And what about one of the most instrumental human capital in any education solution that claims to be providing a solution to Syrian Education crisis, which are the Syrian teachers themselves? How come not one single response addresses the engagement and empowerment of Syrian teachers as key players in any such solution during and post-conflict time?
What seems to be mostly lacking is addressing immediate needs as well as longterm needs, is looking at innovative and disruptive solutions such as leveraging on technology, e-learning and Non-Formal education as great complementary components to bridge the quality gap., and to start assessing learning instead of school enrollment ratio only.
LikeLike
Besides the migration because of armed conflicts, In India we have several pastoral communities who seasonally migrate, during winters come down and during summer as snow melts down move to upland pastures. In Indian Himalayan Region there are many such communities. Because of their seasonal movement, the education of their children is a particular challenge: to provide teaching and create learning opportunities, and design materials and methods that fulfil educational needs. The Government run education services can at best deliver a common methodology, however this is not sensitive to the tribal groups’ cultures, languages, ways of livelihood, traditional knowledge systems, skills, or the environment and biodiversity that they rely on.
While the governments have made efforts to address the education of transhumants by supporting seasonal mobile schools when they are up in the pasture lands from April to September, these are ill-equipped and often dysfunctional, lacking both context and the specially trained and motivated human resources needed to understand the ways of the transhumants tribal communities. The typical administration view of ‘education’, ‘school’, and ‘knowledge’ scarcely apply to these groups which is why the children and youth of the tribals find such schooling disconnected from the patterns of their community life, and therefore withdraw from even the mobile schools.
We are working on a project that aims to reorient learning material and delivery for these communities. Our objective is to widen what is meant as ‘education’ by the administration, and to bring within this meaning the essential aspects of the practices of the transhumant communities that lend them uniqueness. By doing so, aspects of the project will contribute significantly to state administrations’ understanding of tribal mountain communities and their embodiment of sustainable development practices.
The project will use these to formulate not a syllabus and curriculum but the terms of community reference that lead to these, as a continuing consultation between the tribal groups and state (and local) administrations. A draft training module for a new cadre of teachers specialised in handling education for nomads will be formed. A set of recommendations will be prepared for state governments, especially the departments of education, on how to design and encourage education for the children of such groups in a manner that is culturally and ecologically rich.
As the project will document good practices based on indigenous and local knowledge, and the intangible cultural heritage of the transhumant communities, these will become valuable first-hand material that inform and help direct state action plans on climate change, disaster risk reduction, natural resource management and biodiversity conservation.
LikeLike
Migration, an age old feature of human history has been a focus of many cultures for many centuries starting with the earliest record of the famous Hebrew migration to Egypt. As people migrate for different reasons, new cultures are developed and influenced by external forces, exposing distinct people to different reactions.
People of a certain culture who were once proud of their origin, traditions, norms and distinguished values become vulnerable in an effort to keep their identity. Mixed reactions emerge to fight or to take flight of strong influences in their new environment. Values are reassessed as priority is given to fulfilling the reason for migration which could be for economic reasons, education pursuits, improving opportunities, family commitments, escape from war, forced exile or other surmising reasons. Experiences of migrants thus are influenced by their attained age at the time of migration, triggering strong emotional reactions.
For young people, migration could be viewed as a new opportunity to improve aspirations through education. Or so it seems. Education for such young immigrants is determined by the system available in host countries, particularly if a system has been designed to cater to the need of the emerging immigrant population. Vulnerable youths, after having experienced trauma take on a new attitude to embrace culture, perspectives and youth culture of their host communities. Depending on the cohort of the youths within their receiving communities, young immigrants are likely to succeed or fail in life. Participating in education emerges as a top priority for such youngsters, though appropriate but is impeded by the following factors:
• trauma
• language barrier
• physical health
• emotional instability
• loss of cultural identity
• changing perspectives
• re-evaluation of aspirations
• subjection to new legislations
• accommodation
• lifestyle choices
• weather patterns
• vulnerabilities
Whether a youth is escaping from a war torn country, natural disaster, epidemic or reuniting with a migrant parent, education remains a key part in the intellectual development of such one. An interrupted education must be rapidly recovered to support the growing cohort of youths by a worldwide legislation that must be signed up by all countries. The policy undertaken in each country must be implemented and monitored by a government organisation through quarterly reports in ensuring its effectiveness. All migrant youths must be fully registered and appropriately assessed to enter into the scheme to protect them, recover their education, fulfil their ambitions and holistically empower youths so as to be able to participate in economic development effectively and globally.
LikeLike
• Terminology and definitions are extremely important when discussing displaced populations, so we welcome the intention to distinguish among the various voluntary and involuntary displaced populations. One group in particular, internally displaced persons, seems to have been left out of the list provided on page 4 of the concept note. We encourage inclusion of IDPs when discussing forced migration.
• If possible, we encourage the GEM report to try and collect data on the global financing of education for migrant populations, in particular involuntary displaced persons. As advocates, it has been challenging to quantity the amount of resources dedicated to these types of programs.
• Monitoring and evaluation of education programs for forcibly displaced populations is another area that lacks resources and data. It would be valuable for the GEM report to take a look at current methods for M&E in these contexts and perhaps even highlight some successful interventions that could be replicated.
• The use of technology in educational contexts, for the forcibly displaced, has received increased attention over the past couple of years. This is an area that can be included in the report and, if possible, analyzed further in terms of its utility.
• In addition to a focus on access to formal education, we recommend also including mention of non-formal, vocational and livelihoods-focused training and educational opportunities, in particular in forced displacement settings. This could also include, “catch-up,” psychosocial and extracurricular activities, which are so important in these settings.
LikeLike
After May 15, so will keep it short and specific to the context I know – India. With 36 states and Union Territories with populations that most people are aware of and diversity some people can appreciate the migration issues within a country as diverse as India are as exciting if not more than inter-country ones. The complexities and challenges of new language, culture, socio-economic settings etc are the same for children, albeit slightly nuanced because it does not get as much donor, media or academic interest as it is happening within a country and often without the jingoism and cacophony of war. I can not acertain the number as I write this but I am confident the number of migrants is daunting enough. The last statistics I had that Delhi has around 1500 people coming in every day to live and probably have a better education, employment and better life for their children.
LikeLike
I have written a couple of things on this recently, which may be relevant. I have been doing research with migrant children in schools in England and South Africa, and am due to start more (funded by the British Academy):
https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2016/nov/22/five-ways-to-help-migrant-children-settle-in-your-class
https://theconversation.com/how-teachers-can-help-migrant-learners-feel-more-included-56760
http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/blogs/behind-the-research-dr-helen-hanna
Dr Helen Hanna
Leeds Trinity University, UK
h.hanna@leedstrinity.ac.uk
LikeLike
The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement working to end the global education crisis. As a global network, we represent the campaigns and views of our members at the international level; however, our model of campaigning has a heavy emphasis on national and local advocacy and mobilisation. We hereby present out critical comments and recommendations on the concept note for the 2019 GEM Report on Education and Migration. This submission draws on GCE’s consolidated global experience and specific inputs from some of our international and national members working on this issue.
Read more…
LikeLike
Thank you for the opportunity to read the “Concept Note for the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on Education and Migration.” You are to be commended for the breadth of the topics that will be covered in the report. Here are several issues for consideration:
1. How can educators improve their capacity to understand non-native language speaking learner’s subject knowledge and skills. We know that learners come to the US with prior learning but they may not be able to demonstrate this to us because they cannot show us in English. How can we tap into learner’s knowledge and look at them with positions of strength rather than with deficit view point because they do not yet have language capacity?
2. The training and professional development of the teacher and school administration workforce is also critical. It would be helpful if you could provide quantitative data or perhaps qualitative data on how school systems/countries are addressing this necessary skills set.
3. Socio-emotional learning – I did not see this area mentioned in the concept not. I would suggest that this be included if possible.
4. What is the role of technology in providing access to education for migrants?
5. Page 7 – the discussion of citizenship, naturalization and residency policies – are you able to access data on school attendance or tardiness? Some of the work that I did in the US with high school students overall showed that one of the major challenges is having students be in school and not being late.
Best of luck in your continued work. I look forward to reading the report.
LikeLike
Discourse and practice on the education of refugee children tend to focus on increasing access to education, improving quality, and safeguarding the accountability of workers providing these services. In emergency contexts, policies that seek to achieve minimum standards for the education of refugees need to be implemented immediately. Considering that most refugees are going to become permanent members of the countries they currently reside in, ensuring that every refugee child has access to quality education is crucial not only for preventing a “lost generation” but for the economic and social development of the communities hosting them.
Yet, educational policies targeting refugee children must to be contextualized within an “inclusive education” framework. Inclusive education in this sense refers not only to the inclusion of students with disabilities into regular classrooms but to restructuring the education system in a way that extends quality education to all students regardless of birthplace, gender, ethnic origin, health status, socioeconomic status, or other circumstances. It is only by making the education system more inclusive for all children, refugee and native alike, that we can accommodate all children whose educational needs vary widely.
A case in point is Turkey, which hosts more than 2.9 million refugees from Syria. With nearly 850,000 school-age Syrian students currently residing in the country, the Ministry of National Education of Turkey (MoNE) is in the midst of making systematic changes to ensure their integration into the Turkish education system. Some of the challenges Syrian children face in accessing education and once in the system are similar to ones that have been faced by other student groups in Turkey. One such challenge concerns the issue of education in mother tongue.
Since last summer, the MoNE is in the process of transitioning Syrian students who attend temporary education centers which provide education in Arabic into Turkish public schools in which students receive education in Turkish according to Turkish curricula. Those who work with students in the field report that majority of Syrian students who have already started attending public schools have little prior exposure to Turkish, and thus, are unable to follow what is going on in classrooms. Similar to refugee children, children from certain ethnic groups within Turkey, such as Laz and Kurdish, have long been deprived of the right to education in their mother-tongue. Thus, the immediate necessity of integrating refugee children into the Turkish education system provides an opportunity for implementing a sustainable mother tongue-based multilingual education program for all the children in Turkey whose mother tongue is not Turkish.
Rather than offering patch-up solutions to the educational needs of refugee children, adopting an inclusive education framework would 1. enhance the education system by serving Turkey’s multiethnic, multilingual student body more broadly and 2. ensure that all students in Turkey receive quality education. While ensuring that every refugee child has access to quality education is of the highest importance, “the refugee crisis” urges us to rethink the way that education systems in Turkey and other countries with refugee populations can best serve their diverse student bodies in more inclusive ways.
Although inclusive education is crucial for advancing cohesive communities and promoting peaceful co-existence, inclusiveness cannot be fostered in schools alone and must be confronted in all facets of communal living.
Inclusive education policies implemented at the macro-level, i.e., expanding access, improving curriculum and pedagogy, and strengthening education governance, can and should be supported by the relatively more flexible civil society actors, such as family and corporate foundations, both inside and outside schools. This requires sustaining the vision of inclusive education and engaging in complementary action which will ensure that future generations live in a society in which every child is treated equally regardless of ethnic origin, language, or religion. To this end, Education Reform Initiative (ERG)’s recently published report, Community Building through Inclusive Education outlines the mainstays of formulating a holistic paradigm and an accompanying frame of action for inclusive education.
For further articulation, see Education Reform Initiative’s (ERG) recently published report Community building through inclusive education https://indd.adobe.com/view/46316e2e-5eee-4528-928a-ccff039ec51b
LikeLike
Undeniably, migration could negatively the academic progression of the migrants accessing to education in the host countries. There are several factors that could represent these impediments : age, social status, and life traumas. As for age, children could not respond easily to curricular activities as result of changing the social milieus of their homelands. Some children may find language barrier is another issue, as children could not verbally communicate with their educators. Adolescents normally experience biological and ideological conversions, so when they adapt themselves to new societies, they might trap themselves into depressing environment.They might reject the circumstances of their novel societies, as they compare the lifestyles of their homelands with those in these societies. Some may possess nationalistic attitude , that they object belonging to new societies regardless of their cognizance of the temporary devastating circumstances of their homelands. Adults are tense, they feel that they have to get employed, and that necessitates following practicums and workshops, or even taking diplomas and certificates to be able to apt for the job markets of the host countries. This physiological tense takes place, as some may think that they could not make desirable success in these new education programs, and that means that their lives on these new lands are unstable. So eventually, they might reconsider their decisions of migration.
Education can be related to social statuses as well. Some of the migrants and have financial welfare that enable them and their children to get high education in the host countries they intend to live, so their opportunities of living on these new lands are expected to be profitable. On the other hand, some of the migrants lacking financial support do not get the opportunities of satisfactorily live on these new lands,taking into consideration that the United Nations bodies exert efforts to provide them with all the educational potentials. But the quality of education is indispensable if the migrants are seeking jobs related to their professional career in the job markets of the host countries. Therefore, job opportunities are not guaranteed for all migrants, and that can negatively affect their lives in general.
Some of the migrants may come from countries witnessing wars or revolutions. This creates traumatic problems if their lives.Accordingly, they need psychological treatment with sometimes long-term sessions. These circumstances definitely hinder the ability to get new education or acquire development skills.
These circumstantial stances are burden to the host countries and the United Nations bodies, since the expenses dedicated to assist these migrant in overcoming these traumas are limitless. Some migrants have temporary and permanent physical handicaps that make many of them divert from the idea of continuing their education on new lands.Consequently, the host countries and the United Nations bodies have to encounter these factual stances.
Group sessions are one of the most ideal solutions that could incite these migrants from relieving from the negative effects of either psychological or physical traumas. These sessions are not to heal negative effects, but they will also make the United Nations and host countries understand the actual needs of these migrants aspiring to start new lives on a novel land. These sessions can be organized by the United Nations bodies like UNESCO and host countries, but they have to planned under specific requisites: age categories, psychological stability, and language comprehension.Considering age categorization in these sessions will help in spotting the educational demands of these participants with regards to age groups and skills. Psychological stability among the precipitants is an element that decides the kind of education that is commensurate with the different categories of the participants. Language comprehension , as an element, contributes to make participants harmonize in an education with the active language that enable them to acquire information and knowledge.
LikeLike
The 2019 GEM Report seeks to explore how migration patterns impact education quality. However, the interplay between education and migration appears to be context specific, varying from country to country, and also within the country, depending on specific sub‐group patterns. CARE’s experiences from girls’ education programming in Somalia, where recurrent, prolonged droughts, economic hardship and conflict are shaping migration patterns, provide evidence in this regard. For instance, fluctuations in access and attendance were observed due to seasonal migration particularly among pastoralist communities. In rural schools, there is an increase of 48% in the number of female students present in class during the rainy season, compared to the end of the dry season. As a result, up to 42% of the female students in rural areas have missed three or more months of school since starting their education, reflecting the pattern of seasonal migration. During the recent severe drought, 28% of the households reported moving. A minority among them (17%) migrated to pursue better education opportunities; however, for most, migration is a coping strategy that is often associated with dropout. The migration of adolescents is a lesser known phenomenon, which also affects education. During 2016 only, 14 percent of the households reported girls under the age of 18 migrating; 17 percent of the households reported the same for boys. Migrant girls are much less likely to attend school than boys; 55% of the migrant girls are out of school, compared to only 35% of the migrant boys.
Read more…
LikeLike
Human Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report on migration and education. Human Rights Watch has conducted research on children’s rights, including the right to education of refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and migrants, for over two decades.
This submission includes an overview of the international legal framework protecting the right to education, factors contributing to children’s involuntary migration, and systemic barriers affecting education in host countries, as well as our recommendations. Examples included in this submission are based on Human Rights Watch’s interviews with children who find themselves in various countries, including Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Nauru, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sweden, and Turkey.
Read more…
LikeLike
I am a volunteer with Church World Service in Pennsylvania. I met with Maombi Isaac, a 20 year old refugee with her family here in the United States from Nyarugusu Refugee camp in Tanzania. Maombi was in Form 4, according to the Tanzania Secondary school system. That means she was not ready to sit her exams yet, she had 2 years to go. Her family was selected to come to the United States, so she couldn’t be left behind. Getting here was all merry for the family, after spending 20 years at the camp.
Unfortunately, education for Maombi and her siblings stagnated; they only speak Swahili, French and Kibembe. I am their official translator, coming from Kenya, with both Swahili and English. Maombi will not graduate from high school with her friends, which was heartbreaking news to deliver. She is very discouraged to learn that she has to take all her exams in English, which she barely understands. I hope this report gets to International Rescue Committee, a Non-Governmental Organization dedicated to refugee well-being and education.Although International Migration is a good solution for refugees, there has to be a clear channel of educational continuity.
LikeLike
It is gratifying that GEMR has undertaken an important and long-overlooked issue of education of refugees. As some have stated the onus is mostly on the INGOs and NGOs. Although their attempts are laudable and committed there are many lapses and gaps in the delivery systems vis-a-vis quality, reality, methods and vision.Hence a request was made for me to undertake a comprehensive study on a) to study available materials b) develop a curriculum for teacher trainers (TT) and c) detailed guidelines on methods for the TT. My experiences are in relation to the education of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan ( GTZ) and IDPs in Afghanistan from 1944- 2008.(ref, ‘Education in the Doldrums: Afghan Tragedy’ ISBN 969-8576-00-2, 2nd edition 2004) and the later publication of ‘Guidelines on Refugee Education in the World’ which included a curriculum for TT and detailed methods on issues in refugee education at the classroom level. These were based on a study of all TE materials developed by the UN agencies, INGOs and NGOs universally. The study was developed at the request of UNHCR, Geneva -2004-06.I also would like to refer to another publication titled ‘Mega Trends and Challenges in Refugee Education: Guide Book for Trainers’ ISBN-969-8720-00-6 -March 2003, GTZ
Briefly, the above publications deal with the issues of schooling for refugee children and the need for adopting unconventional methods to bring a reality to the TL in schools.Hence, innovative approaches were needed which are detailed out in the above publications.The writer himself conducted and adopted research-based programs for TT in Pakistan for example on ‘ Mangement of Primary Schools under Stress'(MOPSUS) in Dari and Pashtu still been used in refugee schools both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Most of the above were undertaken in collaboration with UNESCO, UNHCR and GTZ in Pakistan.
Dr.S.B.Ekanayake former Basic Education Adviser for Afghanistan UNESCO/UNHCR and later Chief Technical Officer (Education) GTZ Pakistan
LikeLike
Based on the UNESCO work and research activities that I was involved, I select some key issues related to the themes listed in the concept note. I would be very interested pursuing some of these areas of research, if GEM Report is planning to explore.
POLICIES TO RELAX FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS OF MIGRANT STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES
I don’t know if this is the right section to raise this issue, but it is important to include issues related to stateless people who may have a difficulty accessing education due to the lack of support from the states. For example, in West Africa, although it is not possible to have the accurate number of stateless people, it is certain that many hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of being stateless. They are either migrants and their descendants and returnees; border populations, including nomadic and pastoralists who regularly cross borders, as well as those affected by transfers of territory; and orphans and other vulnerable children. Underlying problem is the weakness of civil registration systems in the region. Five of 15 West African countries have a birth registration rate of less than 50%. For pastoralists, mobile schools do not seem to work well because mobile teachers may not have the understanding of the learners’ culture and needs. Instead, it would be good to provide boarding schools for children of pastoralists, who stay in school while their fathers and parents move, often cross national borders. At the moment pilot boarding schools exist financed by the donor community, but in a long run, to be sustainable, the cost of boarding schools should be covered by the government or the local community. Boarding schools schemes should be also expanded.
Read more…
LikeLike
Overall comments:
1. We suggest to explore the role of education in contexts of heavy violence and migration. For example, Fe y Alegría has many popular schools in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Very frequently, students and their families wish/need to migrate internally or internationally (towards Mexico and U.S.A). Education is faced with significant challenges in these situations and it would be useful to analyze its possible role towards migration.
2. We believe that more focus is needed in IDP´s education and education of refugees living in neighbouring countries. The concept note mainly deals with international migration from poor countries to high income countries. However, most refugees live in camps or are “urban refugees” in countries not far away from their home country. These countries are usually poor countries with very high migrants´s figures and very weak public educational systems. Support of the international community to the educational systems of these countries is badly needed.
Read more…
LikeLike
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. JRS programmes are found in 50 countries, providing assistance to refugees in camps and cities, individuals displaced within their own countries, asylum seekers in cities, and those held in detention centers. The principal areas of work are in the fields of education, emergency assistance, healthcare, livelihood activities and social services. At the end of 2016, more than 725,000 individuals were direct beneficiaries of JRS projects.
The current document provides feedback on the Concept Note submitted by the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on Education and Migration team. As JRS’s expertise is in forced migration, our comments will focus primarily on this area of interest.
JRS agrees with the value of a themed report on education and migration, and welcomes the
opportunity to submit feedback on the Concept Note. We appreciate the comprehensive approach used in the Concept Note.
Read more…
LikeLike
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is grateful for the opportunity to provide input into the 2019 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, Migration and Education. The IRC welcomes the forthcoming report’s focus on the impact of forced displacement on education. Of the 50 million children who have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced within their own countries, more than half—an alarming 28 million–have been forced to flee due to conflict. The IRC has education programs in 20 countries affected by conflict and crisis; we are the only organization focusing solely on these contexts with education as one of our core programming areas. We know there are unique challenges to ensuring children in these settings are in school and learning which, if not overcome, can have a lasting impact on development goals and future generations. Without attention to the education of displaced children, we will fail at meeting Sustainable Development Goal 4.
Below we provide thoughts on how the GEM Report can address the specific needs of displaced children to access safe, responsive, quality education. This memo lays out critical barriers the IRC sees to achieving learning for displaced children and offers solutions that we hope are meaningfully reflected in the final report. Our suggestions address the questions raised in the concept note under “Forced and Involuntary Migration and Education” (pp. 10-11).
Read more…
LikeLike
I welcome the proposal to make migration and education the theme of the 2019 GMR and have read with interest the useful concept note. The following comments are based on my experience as a historian, with interests in international student mobility, and a career in international education. They argue that the report needs to look at issues about migration, about student mobility, and about the education of refugee children and young people. Lessons can be learned from current practice and from the historical record.
Migration
In much of the discussion it is important to distinguish between short, medium and long-term migration. This has a bearing on such issues as brain drain, touched on in p.1 of the concept note. In considering the consequences of foreign study it will be useful to consider, alongside the examination of remittances, the evidence on the patterns of foreign student movements. Some return home, some stay in their country of study, some follow careers with time in both, and sometimes in third countries, with important consequences for both education and the economy in their original home countries.
Read more….
LikeLike
Key Questions
A. Does migration accelerate or hamper progress in access to education? How?
B. Do migration patterns impact quality education?
C. In what ways do policies focusing on educational equity and inclusiveness improve educational outcomes among migrants and refugees?
D. In what ways can the voices of migrants improve our understanding of migration and education?
Reflection and Recommendations
Definitions & Terminology
We would recommend clarity and specificity related to key terms and definitions (such as ‘migration’ and ‘immigration’) – particularly when discussing if migration accelerates or hampers progress in access to education and if migration patterns impact quality education.
– The terms “migrant” and “immigrant” and “sending and receiving countries” may undermine the fact that many of these people are being forced to flee, and are, in many cases, not readily accepted into their host communities or amiably “sent” from their countries of origin.
– Given the politicized nature of the terminology for migration, and the references to different types of migrants likely to be discussed in the report, it would be useful to have clarity on terms and definitions (and addressing the connected issues) from the beginning of the GEM report – including a visual if possible. We would ask for political analysis of which terminology is most appropriate given the contexts.
– On the perceptions, we would like to see more of an exploration of how different refugee groups perceive their situations. For example, in Egypt there is a real difference between the members of the Syrian and African refugee communities having to do with financial stability, perceptions that their situation is temporary (Syrians) vs. long-term (Africans) and what it means for the ways they engage/interact with the local community.
Read more…
LikeLike
It would be very useful and necessary if the following issues are also addressed in the 2019 GEM Report:
– What must be done for educational assessment and diagnosis of migrant children with disabilities who need special education? What must be done in order to enrich existing practices in a cultural context?
– What is the level of readiness of teachers who are involved in the education of migrants? What are the precautions that can be taken in this regard?
– Are the teachers who will be involved in the education of migrant students trained to ensure the adaptation of students to school and to class environment?
– What can be done for migrant family members to create resources for themselves for their education? What kind of financial support can be provided?
– Is there a curriculum for class-based remediation for migrant students?
– Is there any briefing given to migrant students and teachers about the educational system and the educational program of the host country?
– What kind of activities have been carried out to increase the sense of belonging of migrant children, young people and families to the host country?
– What kind of activities have been carried out to enable effective participation of migrant families to the education of their children?
LikeLike