Education

Anyone looking for inspirational examples of dedication, perseverance, resilience and strength of character should look no further than the students and teachers featured in this year’s report on refugees and education.
From Ecuador to Jordan, from Iran to Ethiopia, these young refugees and the adults who support them realize how much living a life in dignity and preparing for solutions depend on access to full and formal quality education.
The gap between refugees and their peers is still wide, especially at the higher levels of education. Given the continued rise in the overall number of the world’s forcibly displaced, keeping education enrollment rates steady is no small feat.

Whilst education is most often viewed as central to peace-building, it is important to note that it has two faces. Education can be a strong tool in exacerbating violent conflict whilst on the positive side facilitate peace building through addressing the drivers of a conflict. The review draws from academic research on literature from NGOs and donors showing the links between education, conflict and peace. Education has been considered as a salient feature in emergency response featuring on its role as a peace dividend and an entry point to conflict transformation and peace-building (Smith and Ellison, 2015). However, gaps exist in literature on evidence showing how to programme education to address the needs of refugees and populations in conflict areas. Much of the literature reviewed emphasises the need for context specific conflict analysis with a focus on education for understanding how and under what circumstances education can address conflict and instability.

This report examines child and forced marriage in South Sudan. The report suggests that child marriage has a significant negative impact on women and girl’s realization of key human rights, including their rights to health and education, physical integrity and the right to marry only when they are able and willing to give their free consent.

This report is part of the collection of publications on “Education, Conflict and Civicness in South Sudan”, which is the outcome of a collaboration between the South Sudan Studies Association (SSSA) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

If universities are to contribute to political transformation and civicness in conflict settings, they must foster gender equality. This is an exceptional challenge in the context of South Sudan, where female literacy was last estimated at under 30 percent and where universities have been affected by conflict and resource shortages. Societal dynamics arising out of a patriarchal society mean that the ratio of boys and girls enrolled in schools remains unequal. This persists at the university level, resulting in fewer females joining universities as students and academics. But even those who are admitted face complex challenges. This paper explores whether and how the University of Juba is promoting equality and inclusion in practice and assesses the implications. It examines the existence of formal and informal policies, attitudes towards teaching certain courses, attitudes of students towards female students and lecturers, and attitudes of non-teaching staff at the College of Law and at the Institute for Peace, Development and Security Studies. The research offers recommendations on how the prevailing situation could be mitigated and how the university can counter gender inequality to build on what has been achieved so far.

Basic education is a fundamental economic necessity, but circumstances such as armed violence often make its effective provision quite grim. This is particularly pertinent in South Sudan where the delivery of social services has been greatly undermined by a recent violence. This policy brief analyzes the impacts of South Sudan’s ongoing violence on education in the three states of Upper Nile. Our findings indicate that the war has led to pronounced reductions in educational activities and resources in the area, with school closure and mass outmigration as a result. We recommend to both the government and the humanitarian community to pay considerable attention to the educational priorities of the communities in question, paying teachers regularly, and supplying necessary inputs for continued learning in the area. Continued investments in education, even in the time of mass violence, reduce future social injustice and set stage for needed stability in the country.

Minimum quality standards for education are common in low and lower middle-income countries. However, the scope and use of these standards are determined by the country’s level of development. Therefore, some countries have advanced standards, whilst others have simple tools and frameworks to guide the quality of their basic education.
Minimum standards are used to monitor, evaluate and inspect the quality of education provision. As such they can also improve accountability in education. However, the availability of minimum quality education frameworks and tools in a country does not always mean they are effective as the availability of both technical and financial resources affects implementation.
Overall, minimum standards of basic education contribute to different aspects of quality education. For example, compliance to school infrastructure and environment might promote the safety, health and general well-being of the learners but if the standards of the teacher quality and teaching learning resources are not met then good students’ learning outcomes may not be achieved. Generally, there is an agreement and assumption that the use of minimum standards supports the harmonisation of education provisions and can contribute to quality education.