Educational infrastructure

Not only does the arrival of a large number of refugees demand an increase in educational infrastructure in the host country, but also an increase in well-trained teaching personnel able to handle the additional classroom challenges.^[1] It is therefore of paramount importance to address the shortfall in funding for educational needs of refugees in host countries. The international community, as well as bilateral donors, should adequately fund schools, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and universities in host countries to enable national education systems to provide the schools and well-trained teachers necessary for all refugee children and their local peers to access quality education.

International funding of host-country educational infrastructure for refugees is often done through isolated, one-off projects, or in an uncoordinated manner by many different international organisations, bilateral programmes and/or NGOs. It is therefore of immense importance to develop more collective efforts and coordination among donors and institutions involved, externally as well as in the host country, in order to create predictable and more sustainable solutions.

Since refugee education is still largely dependent on external humanitarian funding and emergency assistance, it is difficult for host countries to plan for the long-term. Given the protracted nature of global conflicts today, education and skills development for children and youth affected by forced migration cannot solely be addressed by a humanitarian approach. The average time a refugee spends in exile is 20 years^[2]. Education therefore also needs to be addressed by development cooperation, both in terms of technical and financial assistance. In this context it is of paramount importance that refugee education becomes part of national development plans or education sector plans, as some of the major host countries have started to do: Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Pakistan and South Sudan have included refugees in multi-year education sector plans.^[3]

Policy recommendations – educational infrastructure

To ensure the adequate provision of infrastructure and other educational needs for refugee children and youth in host countries we propose the following:

• G20 leaders should underline the educational sector as a priority for humanitarian assistance and development cooperation with regard to forced migration. The G20 should clearly address the shortfall in funding for quality education for refugees. G20 leaders should direct additional funds, and redirect existing funds, to the educational sector in host countries.
• Host countries should better coordinate external assistance in the educational sector, and include their education ministries from the outset of a crisis, so as to help the transition from humanitarian aid to sustainable development of educational infrastructure. We encourage inclusion of education, skills development, and labour market access for forcibly-displaced youth into national development plans.
• G20 leaders should set up a meeting of education ministers to focus on educational services for refugees.
• G20 leaders should encourage international organisations and national governments to provide ways to recognise prior teaching qualifications of refugees. This will help them to integrate into the teaching profession of host countries and contribute to the much needed teaching personnel.

Inclusion of refugee children and youth into national education systems

Although the state has the primary obligation to provide education, NGOs, civil society, and refugee communities themselves make a vital contribution to non-formal and informal education and often are a valuable alternative for those not accessing formal schooling. For those still eligible, these services can prepare students to re-enter the formal school system. These alternative education settings are less bound to strict curricula, and thus can better adjust their timetables and content to the realities of refugee students. They are thus an important short term solution to quickly respond to a sudden influx of large numbers of refugee students. However, international organisations’ and NGOs’ efforts often create parallel structures which are much appreciated as short-term solutions but lack coordination and referral mechanisms to the local formal education systems in order to create sustainable structures that integrate refugees into the regular education systems in the long run.

Accreditation of certificates and recognition of learning attainments acquired in countries of origin are central to both continuing education and job-matching in local labour markets. This requires the development of comprehensive accreditation mechanisms and skills tests, so as not to undermine the quality standards of host countries’ professions and education systems.

To provide quality education for refugees, a more flexible and inclusive approach to curricula is needed. This also requires supportive structures, for instance additional language courses and psychological support, so as to fully integrate refugee children and youth, including traumatized and disabled children.

Policy recommendations – inclusion into national education systems

• G20 leaders should address the need for inclusion of refugee children and youth into the formal education systems of host countries and thus provide them quality education, in line with SDG 4.
• G20 leaders should encourage international organisations to scale up their efforts to strengthen host countries’ education systems with regard to refugees, and redirect their development cooperation programmes accordingly.
• G20 leaders should call upon relevant international institutions and G20 member countries to enhance their efforts and support harmonisation of education systems worldwide (e.g., OECD’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes), to support international initiatives to improve flexibility in education systems in order to keep the door to education open for drop-outs, and to unlock the potential to gradually streamline national education systems to have a more internationalised approach to education and responsiveness towards refugees as well as local students.
• G20 leaders should support the development of internationally recognised accreditation mechanisms for informal education providers to allow quality educational interventions right at the onset of forced migration crises. (The G20 countries host the most renowned educational institutions, which could cooperate with the International Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) to develop an international accreditation format for education providers in crisis settings. The accreditation mechanism should be accessible to education providers without time-consuming bureaucratic barriers, and, at the same time, ensure quality education in crisis settings. Important keywords here are an enhanced recognition of prior learning, in order to bridge interrupted education pathways, and the improvement of the flexibility of education systems, including informal education mechanisms.
• G20 leaders should enhance international efforts for the development of accredited non-formal education, providing accelerated learning opportunities for youth who are not eligible for formal schooling.
• G20 leaders should encourage the establishment of efficient monitoring and steering tools to create a better understanding of the long-term effects of forced migration during childhood and youth on life perspectives, education levels, and skills development of refugees on the one hand, and labour market needs on the other hand, preferably on a global level.
• G20 leaders should encourage international organisations to fund and coordinate comprehensive studies on qualifications and education levels of forced migrant populations in host countries to better address educational needs and job matching opportunities.
• G20 leaders should support the creation of platforms of relevant institutions and think tanks to share knowledge on policies and best practices on how to provide quality education for refugee children and youth, including the matching of skills development of refugee youth with the local labour market. (The G20 encompasses several countries with different experiences on meeting the educational needs of refugees and migrants.)

Access to higher education

The improvement of access to higher education opportunities for refugee youth is one of the key objectives of UNHCR’s Education Strategy (2012-2016).[1] However, figures show that still only very few benefit from higher education programmes at colleges, universities and post-secondary technical institutions. Besides being a human right, access to higher education is of paramount importance for host countries, as well as for the reconstruction and recovery of conflict-affected states globally. Young refugees with higher education could act as a catalyst for the recovery of their home countries, not only by supplying the skills and knowledge needed to reconstruct shattered economic and physical infrastructure, but also by supporting the restoration of collapsed governance systems and fostering social cohesion.

Policy recommendations – access to higher education

• G20 leaders should call for strengthening efforts to provide equal access to higher education for refugees, in particular through scholarships. They should also support improving the capacity of higher education institutions to admit refugees, enhancing cooperation between universities and other institutions of higher education in enabling enrolment of refugee students, increasing e-learning opportunities, and establishing new universities in locations where many refugees live.
• G20 leaders should encourage G20 education ministers to establish closer cooperation channels (for instance ministerial meetings and working groups), and outreach to education ministers of host countries.
• G20 leaders should also encourage education ministers of the most heavily-burdened host countries to more closely cooperate with labour ministers so as to establish linkages between education and the labour market.
• International and national organisations as well as governments should increase cooperation in providing mobility programmes for forced migrants pursuing higher education, through scholarships and facilitated visa regulations.

[1] UNHCR (2015b), p.1

[1] UNHCR (2016a), p.4

[2] UNHCR (2016b), p.3

[3] UNHCR (2016a), p.5

This Policy Brief is the result of an extensive consultation process in the T20 Task Force on Forced Migration. This included discussions at the Task Force kick-off workshop in Berlin, Germany, and at an outreach event of the Task Force organized by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Amman, Jordan. We have also received detailed written comments from members of international organizations, political foundations, and think tanks. While these contributions account for the substance of this policy brief (and are most gratefully acknowledged), the coordinating authors Astrid Skala-Kuhmann (GIZ GmbH) and Ismael Nouns (GIZ GmbH) remain responsible for this summary. Special thanks go to Anna Lang (Education Consultant), who provided valuable expert and organizational support.