The Ukraine Emergency Education Packages (UERP) for six to 15-year-old children by the Innovations Development Directorate at Education Above All has resulted in a 95% satisfaction rate contributing to 50% academic learning and growth.
The six-month-long packages include project based learning for Ukrainian and Polish learners to do together to foster empathy and intercultural understanding while covering academic concepts.
Positive Education Institute an independent NGO and EAA’s local partner in Poland implemented the modules in 100 Polish public schools with 6,000 Polish and Ukrainian children.
According to an article by Janhvi M Kanoria, director and innovations development, EAA, and Aishwarya Shetty, education specialist, EAA, published by the World Innovation Summit for Education, an initiative of Qatar Foundation, the success of the programme can be attributed to the involvement of four important constituents: learners, communities, teachers and civil society.
The article highlights “the influx of refugees can be an opportunity for the host community members to also learn and grow. This could include self-discovery and intercultural understanding for refugee and host communities; teacher capability building and strengthening of local civil society.
“Most of our focus as the education community has been on providing access to learning for refugee children and providing for their basic needs, without taking into consideration the emotional behaviours and attitudes of all learners and host communities.”
It noted that a targeted policy for programmes to work only with refugee children in schools can isolate them further and therefore there should be a shift from ‘integration’ to ‘inclusion’.
Qualitative research revealed that over 200,000 Ukrainian children reported feelings of alienation, stress, and language barriers when transitioning to new Polish schools. Through EAA’s UERP, Polish and Ukrainian children work in small groups on projects including making brand identities for each other’s countries and re-inventing traditional folktales together – representing, respecting, and appreciating each other’s cultures.
The programme also celebrated linguistic diversity, while appreciating the challenges in facilitating bilingual instruction in classrooms.
UERP was available in both Ukrainian and Polish. Children used visuals and keywords in the modules to learn key phrases in each other’s languages.
With families torn apart and the stress related to displacement, often Ukrainian mothers were unable to support their children. In conducting needs assessments, EAA discovered that the cultural contexts and the ongoing war prevented parents from engaging in socio-emotional activities with their children.
“We moved to developing a collection of bed-time stories to read together to promote deeper connections. This collection explored displacement, loss, and grief through age-appropriate and visually rich stories, giving parents a medium to discuss these complex issues with their children,” the article says.
By offering tailored materials to support children, teachers were given the necessary tools to help learners. Over 280 teachers participated in the educator training, which was extended substantially based on their needs to promote inclusivity in the classrooms.
The other aspect was working with local partners rooted in the child’s context which can bolster cost-effectiveness, personalise programming to cultural needs, respond better to local issues, and facilitate inclusion through staff who speak the language.
Positive Education Institute customised and translated UERP’s open-source content, co-developed the monitoring and evaluation tools, co-designed the teacher training modules, and took ownership of the project’s implementation and design.
“Today, we have 37mn children displaced worldwide, the highest number ever recorded. The primary agenda of the international community is meeting their immediate needs, along with access to education. However, our work does not stop at access – it is only the first step in the refugee child’s school journey,” conclude the authors.