Division 43 Health, Education, Social Protection Basic education for refugees and displaced populations
Division 43Health, Education, Social Protection
Basic education for refugees and displaced populations
2
Published byDeutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH– German Technical Cooperation –Postfach 5180, 65726 EschbornInternet: http://www.gtz.de
Division of Health, Education, Social Protection
Sector Project “Education and Conflict Transformation”
ResponsibleDr. Rüdiger Blumör
AuthorsProf. Dr. Helmut Drechsler is professor emeritus for education with 20 years of professional experience in education advisory services in West, Central and EastAfrica. He was teamleader of a basic education programme for Rwandan refugeesin Tanzania. At present, he is professor cum university teaching position at the faculty of education, University Dresden on education in Africa.Holger Munsch, beeing an engineer and social scientist, worked for more than 25 years in Africa and Asia in development cooperation. Since 2000 he has workedfor GTZ in Pakistan to advise in vocational training/trade testing (Quetta) and tolead a basic education programme for Afghan refugees (BEFARe) into a self-sustaining and independent NGO. In spring 2005 he took part in a multi-donorcountry evaluation of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan(2001-2004), beeing responsible for the education sector.Jürgen Wintermeier has work experience abroad for many years with GTZ, DEDand international NGO (amongst other countries in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya,Bosnia, Pakistan) as programme leader and in project management. He has specialised in post-conflict situations and refugee education. Since 2000 he hasworked as freelance consultant and adviser for UNHCR and GTZ.
Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)Division 311
EditingBeate Wörner, Stuttgart
TranslationKevin Christian, Frankfurt
LayoutJutta Herden, Stuttgart
August 2005
5 Foreword
8 Part 1
8 The international response
8 1.1 Introduction
9 1.2 International framework agreements
10 1.3 The international response – policies, strategies and programmes
23 1.4 Challenges for the future
27 1.5 Conclusions
31 1.6 List of abbreviations
33 1.7 List of resource materials
35 Part 2
35 Case study: Basic education for Afghan refugees (1990-2004)
36 2.1 Introduction
36 2.2 BEFARe – From project to NGO
48 2.3 The education concept of BEFARe
54 2.4 The BEFARe concept for peace education and conflict management
56 2.5 Unintended effects
59 2.6 List of abbreviations
60 2.7 List of resource materials
61 Part 3
61 Case study: Basic education for children and young people in Rwanda and Tanzania (1984-2001)
61 3.1 Introduction
61 3.2 Overview of education assistance with Rwanda between 1984 and 2001
63 3.3 Rwanda – 1991 to April 1994
66 3.4 In the refugee camps of Tanzania – 1994-1995
73 3.5 The work in Rwanda continues
78 3.6 The STE-SMEP project – 1997-2001
81 3.7 List of abbreviations
82 3.8 List of resource materials
Contents
3
4
On 25 September 1940 Walter Benjamin crossed the
Pyrenees with a small group of refugees. The philoso-
pher had heart problems and at times had to be car-
ried up the mountains. The route taken by the group
was from Banyuls in France along an old smugglers’
path to the Spanish border town of Port-Bou, from
where Benjamin, who had a visa for the USA, intended
to travel on to Lisbon. Once the group finally arrived
in Port-Bou the Spanish border police refused them
entry. Overnight new instructions had arrived from
Madrid; not only were Spanish transit papers required
but also an exit visa from France. The next day the
group was deported to France – right back into the
arms of the Gestapo. Benjamin had a dose of mor-
phine with him. In the night of 25/26 September
he committed suicide in the Hotel Fonda Francia.
“No-one can take any form of control over a dead
man,” he wrote. The “late Benjamin Walter” was
issued with a bill by the hotel to the amount of two
hundred and sixty-three pesetas and sixty centimes
for five lemon mineral waters, four telephone calls,
four days hotel accommodation, clothing of the
corpse, whitewashing of the walls, service fees,
taxes and welfare payments.
This introductory description of a failed attempt to flee
a dictatorship is intended to be a reminder that refugees
have a name. When the articles by Wintermeier,
Munsch and Drechsler speak of a flow of refugees it
should not be forgotten that we are dealing with real
people. The three studies were commissioned by the
sector project Education and Conflict Management.
The sector project has been implemented since 2004
by Division 43 of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische
Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) on behalf of the Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
(BMZ). Among the tasks of the sector project is the
development of concepts and strategies for education
integration for disadvantaged children and young peo-
ple. With their focus on refugees and displaced per-
sons, the studies are an evaluation of the experiences
to date in technical cooperation.
Wintermeier provides an introduction to the subject
matter, swiftly and concisely outlining the challenges
to be taken up by the international community with
respect to basic education for refugees and displaced
persons. Against the background of the corresponding
international agreements – from the declarations on
human rights to the millennium development goals and
the “Education For All” initiative” – he describes the
fundamental strategies and programmes at the major
international organisations. He provides an excellent
overview of the international debate, and thus sets a
convincing framework for the two case studies.
In the first case study Munsch describes and analyses
the diverse education offerings for Afghan refugees in
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. The
project Basic Education for Afghan Refugees, BEFARe,
includes measures for in-school and out-of-school basic
education for children and young people in the ref-
ugee camps, as well as education programmes for
adults (e.g. literacy courses), and in particular for
women. In this respect innovative approaches were
tested and integrated into the education work with
refugees. One approach which has proved its worth is
the home school model for the integration of boys and
girls who have to date not attended school. The chil-
dren receive a more compact course offering from spe-
cially trained teachers in public and private buildings
in the neighbourhood. The home school model is an
alternative to attending school that has been accepted
by parents, and in particular for girls. The girls do not
go to school – the school comes to the girls.
As is made clear in this example, the education concept
of BEFARe closely intertwined school development and
community participation. Thus it was possible to mo-
bilise the self-help potential of the refugees. BEFARe
initiated and supported school committees, in which
the parents played a major role. The school commit-
tees made a decisive contribution to increasing the
trust placed in schools by parents, with the effect that
they were prepared to send their children, and above
Foreword
5
all the girls, to school. Moreover, the school committees
assumed the function of dispute mediators. Traditional
forms of conflict resolution could thus be integrated
into school development. Whether and how the eman-
cipatory power of the school committees, their “em-
powerment”, has had a sustainable impact would still
have to be examined in detail.
BEFARe emerged at the beginning of the 1990s from a
technical cooperation project for education assistance
in Pakistan, conducted since 1984, for areas affected
by an influx of refugees. Parallel to this there was a
second pilot project for Pakistani children and young
people in the Charsadda District of NWFP. In the mean-
time this has developed into a province-wide pro-
gramme for basic education assistance. Both BEFARe
and the projects for Pakistani target groups initially
combine the development of new teaching and learn-
ing materials (textbooks and teacher manuals) with
intensive further training of teachers in the use of these
materials, on the one hand, and the innovative didactic-
methodical approaches of pupil-oriented teaching, on
the other hand.
In numerous project phases the concept and objectives
of BEFARe were constantly adapted so as to meet the
education requirements of the target groups and at
the same time to comply with the demands of various
project partners and clients. This also necessitated
a complex organisational structure at BEFARe itself.
Munsch describes in detail the process of organisa-
tional development against the background of the
political situation in Afghanistan (security situation,
Taliban regime, developments after 11 September
2001), of the respective contract situation, and the
necessary organisational areas. In this respect Munsch
avails of his experiences as team manager for GTZ in
the final project phase through to the end of 2003. In
the meantime BEFARe has been transformed into a
non-governmental organisation (NGO) (AG-BASEd). It
offers its services to those Afghan refugees who have
remained in Pakistan and also to the Afghan Ministry
of Education in Kabul. As an NGO it no longer re-
ceives support from German development cooperation.
In terms of development cooperation it would indeed
be interesting to clarify whether the development of
BEFARe into an independent NGO could serve as a
future model.
For his description of education assistance in Rwanda
Drechsler elected to use a chronological format. He
is thus able to present a gripping description of the
continuity in education assistance, initially in Rwanda,
thereafter in the refugee camps in Tanzania and, after
the return of the refugees to their native country, in
Rwanda again. The original approach in Rwanda
within the framework of the education reform at the
beginning of the 1990s was geared to the introduction
of life-oriented teaching in primary school. The
Ministry of Education was advised and aided in the
development of the curriculum, as well as the teaching
and learning materials, for the new subject “Sciences
et Technologie Elémentaire” (STE). At the same time
pupil- and practice-oriented teaching methods were
introduced in teacher training. The school administra-
tion was qualified accordingly and the parents sensi-
bilised for the new subject and the teaching methods.
After the genocide and mass exodus of the population
to neighbouring countries, in the refugee camps it was
possible to build on the competencies of the teachers
and school administration. Furthermore, there was in-
tensive support for the self-help activities of the
refugees in the education sector. The “Ngara Model”
was developed and implemented in cooperation be-
tween UNHCR, UNESCO, UNICEF and GTZ. It met
with international acclaim. Drechsler describes in detail
the challenges and difficulties faced during the entire
process. Despite some differences in the detailed ap-
praisal and evaluation of the organisations involved,
Drechsler points out that the model as a whole was
successful. Ultimately, in an exceptional situation and
under the most difficult of conditions 80,000 children
and young people were able to avail of education
6
offerings. The decisive aspect of the education offerings
was the fact that they were oriented towards peaceful
coexistence in a functioning school community.
Back in Rwanda GTZ was one of the first organisations
to resume its work within the framework of develop-
ment-oriented emergency relief. In this respect educa-
tion assistance again played a major role. The original
project approach was resumed after long negotiations
with the new Ministry of Education and amended in
line with the new situation. Promotion of STE was now
oriented to the newly-designed decentralised further
training structures for teachers. The German technical
and financial cooperation above all aided the develop-
ment of decentralised centres for the further training of
teachers. Again the project made an important contri-
bution to defusing an education policy conflict smoul-
dering in Rwanda’s primary schools as these were out
of touch with everyday life and had an academic ori-
entation. The remarkable aspect of Drechsler’s study
is that he himself experienced all three phases of the
education assistance, including those in the refugee
camps in Tanzania, accompanying and shaping these
as the team manager for GTZ.
Not least of all, the case studies illustrate the necessity
for conflict impact assessment in education work with
refugees. Indeed, it is necessary to develop and apply
differentiated methods and indicators for impact assess-
ment and analysis with education assistance measures
and for the evaluation of peace education measures.
The case studies offer important stimulus for this.
Speaking with hindsight Drechsler believes academic
support for the education assistance in the refugee
camps of Tanzania makes sense. For some time now
the call for intensive education research in complex
emergency situations and post-conflict countries has
become ever louder.1 The two case studies by Drechsler
and Munsch not only contribute to the discussion on
education assistance for refugees, they also serve as an
important basis for the identification of issues which
can be dealt with in education research. The close
networking of education research and development
cooperation in the planning and implementation of
education measures for refugees is indeed something
to which we should aspire.
Port-Bou has not been spared modernisation with con-
crete and steel, yet the cemetery lies above the town
and the little bay is no different to what it was in
September 1940. Port-Bou is not only the last resting
place of Walter Benjamin, but – as the passage for
many a European exile in the past – is also predes-
tined to be a place of memorial which thematises the
topic of flight and refuge itself. “Passages” – the monu-
ment to Walter Benjamin – has been described by the
artist Dani Karavan himself as a homage to all those
who have attempted to escape barbarism. From the
area in front of the cemetery a narrow stairway set be-
tween three-metre high steel walls leads down the
steep incline to the sea, and the eye is drawn to the
waves as they crash against the rocks. When a visitor
turns around at the end of “Passages”, the glimpse of
sky that appears at the end of the narrow corridor tells
the rest of the story. The light at the end of the tunnel
– the light that Benjamin never saw.
The authorities, naturally enough, still have an ambiva-
lent attitude towards the failed attempt to flee. Shortly
before the official inauguration of “Passages” the en-
trance to the stairway was barricaded up with wooden
slats. Affixed had been a sign with the words: “No
unauthorised access”. This ironic touch could have
originated from Walter Benjamin himself – Passages:
No access.2
Rüdiger Blumör
August 2005
7
1 Cf. Christopher Talbot: Recent research and current
research gaps, in: Forced Migration Review, 22,
01/2005, p. 5-6.2 The anecdote on the unveiling of “Passages” comes
from an article by Andrea Köhler in: Die Zeit No. 21
from 20 May 1994.
Jürgen Wintermeier
The international response
1.1 Introduction
“Education is a human right with immense power to
transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of
freedom, democracy and sustainable human develop-
ment” (Kofi A. Annan, UN Secretary-General, 1999).
This statement shows the importance that the interna-
tional community places on education. Ensuring the right
to education is a matter of morality, justice and economic
sense. On a society-wide scale, the denial of education
harms the cause of democracy and social progress and,
by extension, international peace and security.
In recent years there has been an increased interna-
tional discussion on the role of education in emergen-
cies, in crisis situations, during transition from conflict
to peace and in early rehabilitation and reconstruction
scenarios. This increased awareness of education as an
important protection and assistance tool in the context
of humanitarian responses to crisis and disaster has not
been accompanied with adequate attention and funding
by the donor community. There is still an enormous
gap between international declarations and govern-
ment commitments to implement these commitments
in their respective national contexts. Although progress
has undoubtedly been made in the last ten years to
bolster international capacity and coordination to pro-
vide quality education programmes as part of the hu-
manitarian response, much remains to be done.
More children than ever have no access to education.
An estimated 50 countries are experiencing conflict di-
rectly or indirectly, and at least 12 million children are
refugees or internally displaced. These numbers do not
count the many children in conflict countries who,
while not displaced, may be missing out on education
due to the breakdown of basic social services. Thus,
despite the increase in international capacity, millions
of children remain out of school.
At the same time, there are millions of people return-
ing home after displacement and following the prom-
ises of peace agreements, but reintegration of students
and teachers into an education system more than often
to be rebuilt from scratch is another daunting task.
This challenge requires the combined efforts of all
stakeholders, national governments, transitional author-
ities, the international community and returnees alike.
It is important to strengthen their commitment with
additional resources and policies to ensure that all indi-
viduals and groups affected by war, conflict and also
natural disasters have access to quality education.
The international response involves a variety of actors
from within the UN system, bilateral and multilateral
agencies, national education authorities, civil society
and the displaced communities themselves and covers
both humanitarian and development organizations. The
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
(GTZ) implements technical assistance projects and
programmes on behalf of the German Government,
other governments and international agencies. GTZ’s
main funding comes from the Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which has re-
cently established a special Fund to support “develop-
ment-oriented emergency and transition aid” to address,
among others, issues related to refugees and displaced
populations. GTZ, principally being a development or-
ganization, but also equipped with a humanitarian man-
date that allows it to respond to emergency situations
worldwide, is in the process of revising the concept pap-
er for the strategic implementation of this special Fund.
The Fund is the contribution towards the German Gov-
ernment Action Plans 2015 that include crisis preven-
Part 1
8
tion, conflict resolution, peace building and human
rights activities. Development-oriented emergency and
transition aid has short-, mid- and longer-term dimen-
sions aiming primarily at the provision of immediate
infrastructure and social services, improvement of the
food situation, reintegration of refugees and capacity
building of lower and middle levels of society. At the
same time, it seeks to strengthen the competencies of
social groups and institutions in conflict transformation
and crisis prevention processes, thus systematically in-
tegrating concepts and mechanisms of peace building
and crisis prevention into planned activities of devel-
opment-oriented emergency and transition aid in a
holistic manner.
1.2 International framework agreements
Fundamentally, the right to education is an absolute
right, in all countries and in all situations, and should
be protected no matter what the circumstances. A
number of international declarations and framework
agreements seek to protect this basic human right. This
study has selected a number of the major ones; these
are supplemented by a series of regional agreements
like the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of
the Child where compulsory basic education is pro-
vided for in Article XI.
The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees and the 1967 Protocols guarantee refugee
children the right to elementary education in Article 22,
which states that they should be accorded the same
rights and opportunities as nationals of the host country.
Beyond primary school, refugee children are treated
just like other aliens, allowing for the recognition of
foreign school certificates and awarding of scholarships.
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
outlines in Article 26 the right to free and compulsory
education at the elementary level and urges that pro-
fessional and technical education be made available.
The declaration further states that education should
work to strengthen respect for human rights and pro-
mote peace. Parents have the right to choose the kind
of education provided to their child.
The 1966 International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) stresses the
right to free and compulsory education at the primary
level and accessible secondary education in Article 13.
The Covenant goes on to call for basic education to
be made available to those who have not received or
completed primary education. Emphasis is placed on
improving conditions and teaching standards.
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) calls for States in Article 28 to make primary
education compulsory and free to all, and to encour-
age the development of accessible secondary and other
forms of education. Quality and relevance is detailed
in Article 29, which mandates an education that builds
on a child’s potential and supports his/her cultural
identity. Psycho-social support and an enriched cur-
riculum for conflict-affected children are both empha-
sized.
In the 2000 Millennium Declaration Member States
of the United Nations made a very passionate commit-
ment to addressing the crippling poverty and misery in
the world by setting the date of 2015 as the date to
meet the eight goals agreed upon. While achieving
each goal is critical to development, two are consid-
ered to be central to all others – universal primary edu-
cation and the promotion of gender equality and em-
powerment of women. More immediate than the 2015
date, the goal of gender parity in primary and second-
ary education is set to be achieved by 2005. Not only
an end in itself but also part of the broader goal of
education for all, the 2005 goal is the first test of the
world’s commitment to breaking the stranglehold of
poverty. Entering 2005, we know how far we are away
from achieving this common goal.
9
The Education for All (EFA) global movement origi-
nated in 1990 in Jomtien where delegates supported
the World Declaration on Education For All. The World
Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, ten years after
Jomtien, reconfirmed its commitment by formulating
six major goals including free and compulsory primary
education of good quality by 2015, with special em-
phasis on girls and children in difficult circumstances.
To achieve the EFA goals and targets, each government
is expected to constitute EFA Forums at national, pro-
vincial and local levels as a truly representative body
for government, civil society, private sector, support
organizations and communities. The international com-
munity assists governments in the implementation
of EFA national plans of action. UNESCO is the lead
agency in monitoring the progress attained by Member
States, and publishes an annual EFA Global Monitoring
Report, with the last one from December 2004 focusing
on the “quality imperative”.
1.3 The international response – policies, strategies and programmes
International response mechanisms depend on the
mandates, policies and resulting strategies of stakehold-
ers, including their competencies, funding base and
existing field presence when it comes to education
interventions in situations of crisis and conflict. Basic
education services need to be provided right from the
onset of emergencies in the form of short-term human-
itarian assistance, during early recovery processes
following conflicts in the form of mid-term transition
assistance, and in the context of poverty reduction
strategies in the form of long-term development assis-
tance. The organizations listed below all play their
particular roles in these assistance programmes in
accordance with their respective mandates, policies,
strategies and implementation capacity. There are
many others in the public and private sector, but in
the present study focus is on those making substantial
contributions towards basic education programmes for
refugees and displaced populations.
United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees – leading the humanitarian response
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) is the mandated agency for refugee protec-
tion and assistance. In some instances, and with the
explicit approval of the Security Council, its mandate
is expanded to include internally displaced persons
(IDPs). UNHCR is a humanitarian organisation, relying
on funding from member states. Its main policy-making
body, the Executive Committee (EXCOM), has repeatedly
stressed the importance of providing basic education
as part of UNHCR’s assistance and protection mandate
with a view to finding durable solutions. Goal five of
the Agenda For Protection, UNHCR’s major policy doc-
ument, refers to education as a tool for durable solu-
tions (Goal 5, objective 7: “States to consider expanding
possibilities for education, vocational training, and
agricultural and other income-generating programmes,
benefiting men and women equitably”). Goal six refers
to education as a tool of protection (Goal 6, objective
2: “States to accord importance to primary and second-
ary education for refugees, including by providing
funding to host States and UNHCR, in recognition that
education is an important tool of protection”).
Within UNHCR’s Division of Operational Support (DOS)
and its Women, Children and Community Development
Section (WCCDS), the Education Unit is the responsible
body for assisting country and field offices in the im-
plementation of the Education Field Guidelines (EFG),
UNHCR’s main policy document on education. The or-
ganization has education programmes in 97 countries,
with over 200 implementing partners, both local and
international NGOs, government departments and
selected UN agencies. UNHCR defines a child as some-
one below the age of 18 and prioritizes access to qual-
ity primary education with emphasis on girls’ educa-
1010
tion. A scholarship programme provides tertiary educa-
tion through funding from BMZ Germany (DAFI), with
a few scholarship opportunities for secondary educa-
tion. Although UNHCR’s policy commitments cover the
entire cycle of education, from early childhood to adult
education, limited resources in terms of staffing and
funding forces the agency to focus on primary educa-
tion and some limited support to non-formal activities,
including vocational and skills training. Despite all the
declarations and commitments, the education sector
regularly suffers when it comes to the allocation of
funds as it is not regarded as a life-saving activity in an
emergency context. Moreover, donors see education
more as a developmental activity with funding coming
from development sources rather than from humanitar-
ian funds. In order to redress existing gaps, UNHCR
has recently embarked on a partnership initiative, the
Education Forum, that evolved in 2004 into the Inno-
vative Strategic Partnerships In Refugee Education
(INSPIRE) project. INSPIRE aims to improve coordina-
tion efforts at the operational level, increasing resource
mobilization and organizing joint planning and imple-
mentation. INSPIRE is presently piloted in East and
West Africa in the context of repatriation and reintegra-
tion in Liberia and South Sudan, with Afghanistan and
Colombia targeted in 2005.
UNHCR’s major constraints are the current lack of pro-
fessional staff, a generally low profile of education in-
house, not regarded as an integral part of the emer-
gency response, and the absence of sufficient funding
to implement its policies. The organization is commit-
ted to increasing access to primary education (up to
eight years of schooling) and achieving gender parity,
with assistance focused on camp populations. Support
to secondary and tertiary education is rather sporadic
and not seen as a priority by managers. Only limited
education assistance is received by the large number of
urban refugees as well as by refugees returning home.
The organization’s comparative advantage is an exten-
sive field presence, rapid deployment mechanisms,
good logistics and a large number of implementing
partners on the ground. UNHCR has emergency teams
ready to respond within hours to a crisis situation, but
these teams unfortunately do not include education ex-
perts. Education response is included in the responsi-
bilities of UNHCR’s Community Services Officers. In re-
cent years, NRC has maintained a roster of experts and
deployed a number of refugee education professionals
to UNHCR field operations. Within the UN family,
UNHCR is a member of the UNDG, plays an active role
in the CCA/UNDAF and Consolidated Appeals Process
(CAP), participates regularly in Joint Assessment Missions
(JAM) and is part of various working groups on educa-
tion. Its major partners alongside NGOs are UNICEF,
UNESCO and WFP. UNHCR helped to create the Ref-
ugee Education Trust (RET) with the mandate for post-
primary education and is on the Steering Committee of
the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies
(INEE). Building and strengthening partnerships with all
stakeholders in refugee education with emphasis on
refugee communities and national governments or tran-
sitional authorities is one of UNHCR’s major objectives
in the planning for 2005 and beyond.
United Nations Children’s Fund –
giving children a voice
The organization aims at to influence global strategies
in areas within its mandate for children and, with a
strong and active field presence, it also aims to shape
national policy by advising and supporting governments
on national models for successful implementation.
UNICEF makes great efforts to have its strategic opera-
tions reflected in all relevant international and national
planning documents, such as CCA/UNDAFs, PRSPs and
corresponding poverty reduction and development plans.
UNICEF’s core corporate commitments are in the areas
of humanitarian policy, global advocacy for child rights,
rapid assessment and planning, inter-agency coordina-
tion and programme commitments, including implemen-
1111
tation of MDGs and EFA. In its Medium Term Strategic
Plan (MTSP), UNICEF`’s five priorities concern EFA, in
the field of girls’ education and early childhood devel-
opment (ECD). Its “25 by 2005” initiative, an accelera-
tion strategy targeting 25 countries most at risk of not
meeting the gender parity goal by 2005, was launched
in 2002.
UNICEF focuses especially on early childhood and pri-
mary schooling, but may also support secondary edu-
cation, education for out-of-school adolescents and for
women, in accordance with local circumstances.
In post-conflict situations, UNICEF’s “Back-to-School”
campaigns have become a key component of its emer-
gency relief programmes, most recently in Angola,
Afghanistan and Liberia. The focus is on returnee situa-
tions with large displaced population groups, refugees
and IDPs, returning home. Teachers are trained or re-
trained under the programme, school supplies pro-
vided, and classroom activities started as part of the
reintegration process. UNICEF is very often the first
agency that governments call upon to provide educa-
tion assistance in post-crisis situations and is frequently
designated by the UN and line ministries as the lead
agency for water and sanitation, and also for primary
education such as that in Afghanistan. Here, UNICEF
is also leading the effort on mine-risk education and
has trained 25,000 teachers. At the same time, the or-
ganization is engaged in demobilization and reintegra-
tion activities for former child soldiers and has well-
developed projects for early childhood education.
UNICEF and UNHCR have signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) to increase cooperation in the
provision of education services to refugees, among
others. This MOU from 1996 is presently being re-
viewed and supplemented by a number of country-
based cooperation agreements.
UNICEF’s strategic advantage is its proximity to na-
tional governments as a development organization, a
strong and de-centralized field presence, and a solid
funding base. UNHCR recognizes the lead role of
UNICEF for primary education in the context of re-
turnee situations in accordance with its overall protec-
tion and assistance mandate for children.
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization – leading education for all
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) is the only intergovernmental
organization in the UN system with specialized compe-
tence in education, as its acronym conveys. There are
six specialized UNESCO institutes in the field of educa-
tion based in Paris, Hamburg, Bonn, Montreal and
Geneva. UNESCO is leading the international effort to
implement EFA goals at national level within the Dakar
framework, and regularly submits Global Monitoring
Reports (GMRs) through its Division of International
Coordination and Monitoring of Education for All
(ED/EFA), Education Sector. It is split into two teams:
a Coordination Team and a Monitoring Report Team.
Alongside the implementation of EFA, UNESCO plays
an acknowledged role in education quality issues, and
the most recent GMR for 2005 highlights the continuing
gap between international commitments and their prac-
tical fulfillment. The Division for the Promotion of
Quality Education includes a Section for Peace and
Human Rights and a small Unit for Emergency Edu-
cation.
The core purpose of UNESCO’s education programmes
is to achieve EFA in the broadest sense: education for
all, at all levels, throughout life. The organization is
also leading the international effort to support the
UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012) and the UN Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).
In its Medium Term Strategy (2002-2007), UNESCO has
laid down three major strategic objectives, e.g. to pro-
mote education as a fundamental human right, to im-
prove the quality of education, and to stimulate experi-
12
mentation, innovation and policy dialogue. The agency’s
five principal functions are seen as: laboratory of ideas
(1), standard-setter (2), clearing house (3), capacity
builder (4) and catalyst for international cooperation
(5). UNESCO’s programme focus is on: creating a good
learning environment, lobbying for and advocating ed-
ucation, defining strategies and goals as the UN spe-
cialized agency on education, reaching out and net-
working with others, working at all levels to reach
every age group, from early childhood to adulthood,
and working in partnership.
UNESCO’s Emergency, Crisis and Reconstruction
Support Unit within its Division of Policies and Strate-
gies, assists partner countries in institutional develop-
ment and capacity building, basic education, secondary
and higher education, teacher training, technical and
vocational training, promotion of non-formal education
for conflict- and disaster-affected populations, enhance-
ment of preparedness and conflict prevention, and the
development of a stand-by capacity for educational
reconstruction. UNESCO’s Field Offices Network of
Emergency Education (OFNET) is part of the Initiative
on Education in Situations of Emergency and Crisis.
UNESCO has published a list of “Focal Points” for
emergency education by region and country.
Unfortunately, it remains the case that UNESCO is
severely under-resourced and under-financed for the
role it has been asked to play in education. This is
in sharp contrast to the expectation that UNESCO
should play the role of lead agency and coordination
body. Limited resources and a rather insufficient field
presence naturally impact negatively on its capacity of
action. UNESCO tends to work “upstream” on policy
development and system building, particularly with
government ministries of education, finance and plan-
ning. It is seeking funding for earmarked activities
within its broader mandate for education, science
and culture, but is trying to increase the level of extra-
bud-getary funding to support education in emergen-
cies.
Despite this funding problem, UNESCO has played a
pro-active role in the Great Lakes region in East Africa
through its Programme for Education for Emergencies
and Reconstruction (PEER), currently based in Nairobi,
Kenya, piloting innovative strategies to address educa-
tional issues in areas of conflict, notably the Teacher
Emergency Package (TEP) and refugee environmental
education. The UNESCO Institute of Statistics in Montreal
compiles national government statistics, thus assisting
ED/EFA with global monitoring of progress towards
EFA. In addition, the UNESCO International Institute
for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris produces case
studies to document lessons learned related to plan-
ning and management of education in emergencies
and post-conflict reconstruction. Finally, the UNESCO
International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva
has undertaken studies on curriculum change and
social cohesion in specific conflict-affected societies.
UNESCO is presently housing the INEE Secretariat in
Paris and regularly organizes international conferences
on education.
World Food Programme – food for education
The World Food Programme (WFP), has for the last
40 years been the largest provider of school-feeding
programmes, as providing food to children at school
is regarded as an important incentive in fostering en-
rollment. WFP’s Global School Feeding Campaign is
therefore seen as an important contribution towards
EFA. However, it must be noted that these programmes
only reach less than 3 percent out of a total number
of almost 600 million school-age children in the devel-
oping world (in 1999).
Providing food for school meals and food-for-work
for activities such as teaching, attending teacher train-
ing sessions, rehabilitation and construction of schools
and classrooms, participation in adult education, liter-
acy classes, etc. has helped to increase access and
keep girls in schools.
13
UNHCR and WFP, close partners in refugee operations,
revised their MOU in 2002 and renewed their commit-
ment to joint action in the areas of refugee registration
and verification, joint needs assessments, nutrition,
HIV/AIDS prevention and supporting durable solutions
through programming food and non-food aid to assist
asset-building, training, income-generation and other
self-reliance activities. Under the UNESCO-WFP Co-
operative Programme, the two organizations work to-
gether to promote EFA, including in situations of emer-
gency and recovery. School-feeding projects have al-
ways been the cornerstone of WFP interventions in
education. While it is said to be an effective incentive
for poor families to send and keep their children in
school, feeding programmes have also come repeat-
edly under attack. However, WFP’s role will continue
in both emergency and post-conflict situations until
such time that communities are regarded as being
self-reliant.
World Bank – education as a tool
for poverty reduction
The World Bank (WB), in its submission to the Devel-
opment Committee in 2001 and 2002, initiated what
is most commonly called the Fast Track Initiative (FTI),
now referred to as EFA-FTI. As co-convener of the
World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien in
1990, and the World Education Forum, in Dakar in
2000, the WB has centered its education strategy on
EFA goals. Having pledged to be an active partner and
to take up the challenges posed by the Millennium
Declaration, it pursues the goal of Universal Primary
Education (UPE). In so doing it follows the logic of the
Comprehensive Development Framework and the PRSP
approach which center action on concern for true
ownership, partnership and inclusion of civil society.
According to its Education Sector Strategy, WB has
concentrated on yielding results in basic education
and education for girls with due regard to quality and
learning outcomes which are recognized as core ele-
ments. FTI received broad international backing,
notably from the Development Committee and the
G8 in 2002 and was consequently launched that
year. Focusing on UPE, which it intends to accele-
rate, the WB also advances three other Dakar goals,
namely gender equality, adult literacy and education
quality.
For the initial FTI phase, countries with a population of
more than a million had to fulfill two transparent eligi-
bility criteria: they must have a full government-owned,
poverty-focused and approved national poverty reduction
strategy, emanating from a national consultative process
that includes civil society, guaranteeing Government
commitment to education financing in an overall
medium-term expenditure, and a credible, sector-wide
plan for education. For FTI endorsement the primary
education component of the education-sector plan is
judged against assessment guidelines and benchmarks
of the indicative framework such as resource mobiliza-
tion, student flows, service delivery and construction
cost per primary school classroom. 18 countries with
an out-of-school population of 17 million were invited
to participate in the pilot phase and were later joined
by another five countries (Bangladesh, DRC, India,
Pakistan and Nigeria).
Led by WB, FTI also involves the European Commission
(EC), UNESCO, UNICEF, the multilateral development
banks and all the major bilateral donor agencies. But
strong criticism has been aired, mainly pertaining to
concentrating efforts only on primary education, thus
neglecting the broader EFA agenda, including gender;
the choice of the countries made, as only six belong to
the group of 28 countries identified as being countries
at risk; and the fact that the initiative puts too much
emphasis on the speed and the extent of domestic pol-
icy reform. The WB as a key actor is also perceived as
being too dominant and not trying sufficiently hard to
consult and seek advice from other partners, in particu-
lar from the UN, in areas of their respective strengths,
demonstrated knowledge and expertise.
14
The Education Program Development Fund (EPDF) is
a new multi-donor trust fund that intends to enable
more countries to access the FTI and its support mech-
anisms. EPDF will support countries in the preparation
of sound and sustainable education policies, strategies
and plans, and to manage the implementation process
by supporting knowledge generation through better
monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge sharing
across countries.
The WB, being the lead agency assisting national gov-
ernments on the implementation of EFA in the frame-
work of PRSPs and sector-wide approaches (SWAps), is
an important player when it comes to placing refugees
and displaced populations on national agendas and in-
cluding them as some of the most vulnerable groups in
national development programmes. This is an area which
needs to be more systematically addressed and educa-
tion opportunities explored through closer cooperation.
The role of the WB in post-conflict reconstruction is
being defined in its framework for supporting transi-
tions from conflict and includes rebuilding and main-
taining key social infrastructure in education and
health. Therefore, much of the Bank’s work has been
in rebuilding physical infrastructure under guidelines
for emergency lending. Recent responses have also in-
cluded financial support to basic education projects for
refugees, e.g. Afghan refugees in Pakistan, under the
Post-Conflict Fund (PCF), a grant facility set up in 1997.
The Bank has also played an important role in shaping
multi-donor investments in demobilization and reinte-
gration in Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Cambodia
and Sierra Leone, but direct involvement in reintegration
of displaced populations has been relatively limited.
The Education for the Knowledge Economy (EKE)
represents another central thrust of the organization’s
support for education next alongside EFA so as to
equip countries with the highly skilled and flexible
human capital needed to develop and manage educa-
tion systems. The conceptual framework for analyzing
EKE is being further developed at the moment by
the WB Institute and has produced some important an-
alytical work on new challenges for tertiary education,
strategic approaches to science and technology and
lifelong learning.
International Labour Organization – education
for employment and self-reliance
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the
UN organization with global responsibility for work,
employment and labour market issues, and its mission
is to promote opportunities for men and women every-
where to obtain decent and productive work in condi-
tions of freedom, equity, security and dignity. The link
between poverty and emergencies and the need for
a focus on development from the start are at the very
core of the ILO’s mandate, culture, experience and
strategy for intervention.
ILO developed an In Focus Programme on Crisis
Response and Reconstruction (IFP/CRISIS) in 1999 to
promote socio-economic reintegration and poverty
alleviation for crisis-affected groups – women and men
– through employment-intensive investment program-
mes, skills training, retraining, small enterprise devel-
opment, local economic development, social dialogue,
social safety nets, and protection and mobilization of
an increased volume of resources for such interven-
tions. IFP/CRISIS therefore is a programme that brings
the ILO’s basic values, principles and development
concerns to bear in the crisis context and advocates
the interests of crisis-affected people to the interna-
tional community in partnership with its constituents
and other UN system agencies.
Furthermore, ILO’s International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) recognizes that
mainstreaming children into formal education systems
remains important as this allows them to withdraw
permanently from work. Child labour is a key obstacle
15
to EFA since children who are working full-time cannot
attend school and, for those who combine school and
work, their educational achievement is affected and
their tendency to drop out of school is probably very
high. The majority of out-of-school children worldwide
are girls, and efforts to increase girls’ education must
therefore go hand in hand with efforts to progressively
eliminate child labour.
Several post-crisis technical assistance programmes have
been undertaken by IFP/CRISIS, including employment
recovery in the aftermath of the floods in Mozambique,
reintegration of demobilized soldiers, notably child sol-
diers, in countries of the Great Lakes region, an “employ-
ment for peace” programme in Sierra Leone, assistance
to UNMIK in Kosovo, an integrated area-based local eco-
nomic and social development programme in the Preservo
Valley in Serbia, and a current employment generation
and skills development programme in Afghanistan.
ILO has Area Offices in 40 countries and an established
Crisis Focal Points Network for its integrated response
work and is an active participant in the UN Disaster
Management Teams (where they already exist). ILO
contributes to the 30 organization-strong Conflict Pre-
vention and Post-Conflict Rehabilitation (CPR) network,
is a member of UNDG and the Economic Commission
for Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA), but is currently not
a fully fledged member of the Inter-Agency Standing
Committee (IASC).
ILO has in recent years increased its cooperation with
other UN agencies like UNHCR, UNICEF and UNESCO.
UNHCR and ILO work together in the framework of
finding durable solutions for refugees in care and
maintenance and returnee situations. The partnership
has been piloted in a number of countries, more no-
tably in what has become known as the Zambia Initia-
tive, and led to a MOU signed in 2004.
The challenge, however, remains for ILO to increase
and improve its cooperation with partners by working
in a close, interactive way, sharing and transferring
knowledge and experience with emphasis on liveli-
hood development and employment skills, including
micro-financing and income-generation. ILO is a well
placed partner in education for other agencies in en-
suring that employment opportunities are generated
during and after displacement as all education support
to displaced populations aims at achieving sustainable
livelihoods and self-reliance.
World Health Organization – health action in crises
The World Health Organization (WHO) has a disaster
preparedness and response programme, implemented
through its regional offices. In Europe, the secretariat
is based at the WHO/Europe office in Copenhagen,
Denmark, trying to ensure that Member States are
equipped to prevent and prepare for disasters and to
mitigate their health consequences. In Geneva, WHO
has established a Health Action in Crises department to
reduce the avoidable burden of disease and disability
in crises in an indicative list of 45 crisis-prone and
crisis-affected countries around the world. Key policy
documents do not include basic education, and health
education is mentioned as a cross-cutting training issue
rather than a programme response. Documents re-
viewed make no specific reference to refugees and
displaced populations except in the definition of emer-
gencies and crises when WHO states that crises can be
triggered by complex and continuing emergencies –
including violent conflicts with “associated displace-
ment” (see WHO website, health action in crises).
WHO has recently launched a three-year programme
to strengthen the organizational capacities for health
action in crises.
The Department of Child and Adolescent Health and
Development (CAH), however, includes “education and
access to appropriate information” (see WHO website,
Child and Adolescents Rights) in its list of eight funda-
mental child needs and rights, regarded as necessary
16
prerequisites in order to fulfill and protect the human
right of access to health and health services.
National governments – responsible
for education services
National governments are ultimately responsible for
providing quality education to their citizens in achiev-
ing the MDG and EFA goals to which they have sub-
scribed. Ministries of Education and de-centralized edu-
cation offices at provincial, district and community
level are government partners responsible for the devel-
opment and implementation of national education poli-
cies, strategies and resulting programmes as well as
monitoring adherence to MDG and EFA goals at all levels.
There appears to be a growing awareness that the co-
ordination role of national, or host, governments as
primary stakeholders should be strengthened and en-
hanced. Supporters argue that any emergency education
programme must acknowledge this lead role of national
governments and therefore incorporate capacity building
measures into these programmes. However, this goal is
more often than not complicated by the fact that the
government’s focal point for education may not neces-
sarily be the Ministry of Education. In refugee situations,
where coordination is normally led by UNHCR and the
host government, the education ministry may not be
involved at all or only play a secondary role.
During the transition from open conflict to a negotiated
peace and post-conflict development, transitional au-
thorities are usually in charge of education, assisted by
the international community through a series of need
assessments, planning processes and implementation of
assistance programmes. In such return and reintegration
scenarios, when large numbers of displaced people
from within a country or across borders return home,
rejoining portions of communities they had left behind,
governments and transitional authorities need to be en-
abled to rebuild the education system. This involves
strategies and programmes to strengthen and build na-
tional and local capacity to manage and oversee edu-
cation. Support mechanisms at national level vary from
the humanitarian Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP),
Joint Assessment Missions (JAM), Post-Conflict Needs
Assessments (PCNA) and the preparation of Country
Assistance Strategies (CAS) to Poverty Reduction Stra-
tegy Papers (PRSP). Within the UN family, the Common
Country Assessment (CCA) is a useful tool in the context
of the United Nations Development Assistance Frame-
work (UNDAF) process. National governments are ex-
pected to fully participate or even lead these different
humanitarian or development planning processes.
Education as a sector strategy and as part of social
services is included, but unfortunately, refugee needs
are usually not adequately addressed and targeted in
national assistance strategies and thus their support is
delegated back to the international community, led by
UNHCR. When refugees return home following peace
agreements, national support structures are either non-
existent or insufficient to provide the necessary assis-
tance, thus leaving the enormous task of reintegration
to the international community. This includes, of
course, the provision of quality education to refugees,
internally displaced persons and returnees.
Refugees and displaced persons – empowering
communities
Communities experiencing crisis commonly call for the
provision of education as a top assistance priority,
as recent examples in Afghanistan, Liberia and South
Sudan clearly demonstrate. Children and parents both
believe there is urgency in continuing schooling, but
when an emergency interrupts local education efforts,
already under-resourced communities can rarely cope.
Although communities often establish some kind of ed-
ucation on a small scale and in a self-help context,
they often struggle to maintain or enhance those efforts
without any outside assistance. When children them-
selves prioritize education as a part of the emergency
17
assistance, it becomes a powerful reason for including
them in a response. Article 12 of the CRC guarantees a
child’s right to participation – including the right to
freedom of expression and to express their views on
all matters affecting them.
Increased community involvement is now internation-
ally recognized as an important tool for improving the
quality of education in all contexts, and therefore also
in emergencies. Community Education Committees
(CECs), School Management Committees (SMCs), Village
Education Committees (VECs) and Parent Teacher
Associations (PTAs) have become important avenues
in helping to build the roles of the community as part-
ners in rather than recipients of education assistance.
When they work well, school committees therefore
represent a valuable interface between the school and
community. They can help to empower communities
in situations of dependency on aid, facilitate psycho-
social healing processes, develop practical skills in key
community members who will play a role in rebuilding
social structures, ensure that education provision re-
sponds to the real needs of children in a context of
rapid change, and establish participatory structures
needed for transition from emergency education to
long-term sustainable education.
The active involvement of communities also helps
to create a sense of ownership of their children’s edu-
cation, assists in monitoring learning outcomes and
school performance, enables the follow up of school
drop-outs and encourages families to send their girls to
school and give appropriate support at home. Respon-
sibilities of school committees range from involvement
in planning, resource identification, mobilization and
allocation, to improving what happens at school, and
ensuring accountability. Achieving this level of partici-
pation and partnership is challenging and probably
daunting to those involved in the process, but there
are a number of encouraging examples and good prac-
tices, with some of them documented in the case stud-
ies from Rwanda and Pakistan. In conclusion, educa-
tion programmes in situations of conflict, insecurity
and instability are increasingly using a community-based
participatory approach, with emphasis on capacity-
building and self-management. The empowerment of
refugee and displaced communities is therefore central
to achieving sustainability of education interventions.
NGOs – providing education services
The work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
is another central element of the humanitarian service
delivery system. Without NGOs, humanitarian assis-
tance, including assistance to refugees and displaced
persons, would be simply unthinkable. The NGO play-
ing field is large and the variety of institutional struc-
tures, capacities and mandates of NGOs is so broad
that it is difficult to adequately categorize those in-
volved in education in emergencies, including educa-
tion for displaced populations.
The primary distinction among NGOs is between inter-
national and national NGOs. The dominant international
NGOs in education during emergencies and reconstruc-
tion may be present in situations across the world. They
are, among others, the International Rescue Committee
(IRC), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), members of
CARE International and the International Save the Child-
ren Alliance (SCF), Academy for Educational Develop-
ment (AED) and Creative Associates International.
Others that have been involved in education sector
work include some faith-based organizations such as
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), Catholic Relief Services
(CRS), Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Christian
Children’s Fund (CCF), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA),
Aga Khan Foundation, some Muslim NGOs and various
national Red Crescent societies. Yet another type of
NGO are those with a particular specialization, such as
the Refugee Education Trust (RET), World University
Service (WUS), Windle Trust, also known after its
founder as the Hugh Pilkington Chari-table Trust
(HPCT), the Commonwealth of Learning and others.
18
Typically overshadowed by international NGOs with
comparatively high budgets, agendas and responsibili-
ties are national NGOs as part of the civil society of
their country. It is their role to complement the work
of their national governments. Working with interna-
tional organizations should enable them to build their
own capacity in order to take over education work
once the international community ceases its own assis-
tance. Thus, efforts in the education sector may move
from relief to development and become sustainable
with the help of national NGOs. The recent example
from Pakistan, where a refugee education project was
transformed into an independent local organization
(see Part 2), is a step in the right direction.
UN agencies usually work in close partnership with
NGOs and delegate the implementation of projects and
programmes to these partners. UNHCR alone chan-
neled some US$ 340 million – one third of its annual
budget – in 2003 to over 600 NGOs worldwide, assist-
ing the organization in achieving its core priorities of
advocacy, providing assistance and protection and
finding durable solutions. Ten percent was channeled
to partner NGOs in education. The number of UNHCR’s
local implementing partners (IP) has been rising steadily
in recent years in order to promote, use and build
local capacities and expertise. In the education sector,
UNHCR worked in partnership with 91 international
and 136 local NGOs in 2003. NGOs increasingly bring
their own resources and expertise into education
programmes and are becoming more and more impor-
tant as operational and strategic partners. Major NGOs
(NRC, IRC, LWF, JRS) are represented on the Reference
Group of the Education Forum/INSPIRE Initiative,
launched in 2004 by UNHCR and work closely together
in the INEE network. Some of them are characterized
in brief below:
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) works closely
with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA)
and the Norwegian International Development Agency
(NORAD). NRC has extensive experience of working in
various phases and circumstances of international
refugee protection and assistance. The organization
frequently enters into partnership with agencies in the
field and has more than 900 employees in 20 coun-
tries. NRC has over the years increased its activities in
all core areas related to emergencies and crisis, e.g.
shelter, education, distribution of food and non-food
items, counselling and legal assistance, as well as ad-
vocacy work. Basic education for children and young
people is one of NRC’s four core activities. In addition
to its own international staff NRC operates Norwegian
and African Standby Forces. These forces include some
400 persons within 30 professional categories, includ-
ing specialists in education. They are trained and pre-
pared for emergencies and may be deployed within
72 hours. Since the establishment of the emergency
preparedness force in 1991, more than 3000 persons
have participated in operations in more than 50 coun-
tries throughout the world. NRC has entered working
agreements with UNHCR, WFP, UNDP, UNICEF, UN-
ESCO, WHO, IOM, OCHA and OSCE. The “stand-by”
agreement with UNHCR on the deployment of educa-
tion experts was signed in 2001. This cooperation will
be jointly evaluated in early 2005. NRC is also a mem-
ber of the INEE Steering Committee and has deployed
an educationist to support its secretariat in Paris. The
organization has active basic education programmes in
Angola, Burundi, Sierra Leone, DR Congo and Pakistan
and implements human rights education in Armenia,
Georgia and Azerbaijan. In some countries, NRC is
both an implementing partner of a UN agency and at
the same time an independent actor running the same
type of education programme, in this way strengthening
the total effort. “Catch-up” programmes address the ed-
ucation needs of 10 to 13 year olds who have lost out
on schooling either totally or in part, and who are in
an age group more vulnerable to recruitment or abduc-
tion to armed service. The aim is to provide intensive
learning opportunities to enable these children to re-
enter mainstream schools, thus “building bridges” back
to formal schools. Another programme addresses the
seriously under-served group of illiterate youth aged 14
19
to 18, or older, through one-year “youth packs”, pro-
viding literacy, life skills and skills training. A third
NRC response tool are the Accelerated Learning Pro-
grammes (ALP), defined as a three-year programme
compressing six years of primary schooling. The Sierra
Leone ALP model – Complementary Rapid Education
for Primary Schools (CREPS) was developed jointly
with UNICEF and the MOE. NRC calls ALP a “stop-gap
measure”, not viable as a permanent or development
education mechanism.
The Save The Children Alliance comprises national Save
The Children Funds (SCF) in 27 states. SCF is basing
its education work on the five key issues of the impor-
tance of early years or pre-school informal education
as a way of increasing confidence and developing skills,
the quality of children’s school experience, providing
education for all children, including those that may
normally not have opportunities to go to school, for
example because they are disabled, female or because
they are from ethnic minority groups, persuading
donors to fund sustainable approaches to education
and the education of children in emergency situations.
In regard to the latter, SCF-UK published an “Edu-
cation in Emergencies Tool Kit” in 2003. In an emer-
gency, SCF tends to specialize in health, education,
child protection, including tracing families of separated
children, and emergency relief such as providing food,
shelter and clothes. National SCFs work all over the
world and are represented on the INEE Steering Com-
mittee. Their Global Impact Report 2004 mentions
SCF’s five dimensions of intended change, referring to
changes in the lives of children and young people (1),
in policies and practices (2), in children’s and young
people’s participation and active citizenship (3), in
equity and non-discrimination (4) and in civil society/
communities’ capacity to support children’s and young
people’s rights (5). Impact is highlighted by a number
of working examples and includes basic education
without particular reference to refugees or internally
displaced persons as a special target group. The Alli-
ance has decided on a 5-year plan, starting in 2005,
and focusing on Education for Children affected by
Conflict.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), based
in the US, has developed effective, targeted and rapidly
deployable programmes to meet urgent and special
needs of children affected by armed conflict in emer-
gencies and during post-war recovery. These include:
emergency and formal education, interim care and
family tracing for separated children, care, family reuni-
fication and community reintegration for former child
soldiers and psychosocial and vocational assistance for
war-affected adolescents. The IRC’s Program for Child-
ren Affected by Armed Conflict was founded in 1997
to respond to urgent psychological and social needs of
war-affected children and youth. The larger and better
known education programmes are in Sierra Leone,
Guinea, Liberia, Azerbaijan, Uganda, Afghanistan and
Pakistan. IRC works closely with other partners through
the INEE and is a member of the Education Forum/
INSPIRE initiative.
In 2002, UNHCR created the Refugee Education Trust
(RET) on the initiative of the former High Commissioner,
Sadako Ogata, in order to mobilize funds to support
post-primary education. Since then, RET has registered
itself as an NGO in Switzerland, organized a well-at-
tended international forum on post-primary education
in 2002, has established offices in Tanzania (2002),
Pakistan (2003) and Kenya (2004) and is presently fund-
ing some small-scale education activities in a number
of countries. The organization is still in the process of
establishing itself as a major service provider and con-
sults closely with UNHCR under an MOU signed in 2003.
RET is also a member of the INSPIRE Reference Group
and the INEE Working Group on Minimum Standards.
Other stakeholders
Other stakeholders include the donor community,
which has shown increasing interest in education for
20
conflict-affected populations. Many donors, however,
have separate sections concerned with humanitarian
and development assistance, and do not include edu-
cation in the former category. This bureaucratic divi-
sion is one of the main obstacles to donor funding for
education in emergencies. In broader terms, education
is not regarded as a major pillar of emergency aid, al-
though complex humanitarian emergency may last for
years or even decades. In the case of refugees, UNHCR
talks about protracted care and maintenance situations.
In general, bilateral and multilateral funding of educa-
tion for refugees and displaced populations remains in-
sufficient as stated in the UN Joint Inspection Team re-
port from 2003 on “Achieving the Universal Primary
Education Goal of the Millennium Declaration”: “The
gap between rhetoric and reality in support for educa-
tion seems to persist … Analysis of the most recent
data shows that overall support from both multilateral
and bilateral agencies has been declining in recent
years” (p. 30). Against this sobering background, it is
important to continue raising the profile of education for
displaced populations as an investment in their future
as productive citizens, end the artificial relief-develop-
ment dichotomy, and increase funding from both hu-
manitarian and development budgets. There are some
encouraging signs from major bilateral donors such as
the Norwegians, British, Swedish, US and European
Union suggesting a shift from reticence and even resist-
ance to more direct support of education during emer-
gencies.
The private sector and the business community are
increasingly playing an acknowledged role in the eco-
nomic health and wealth of countries and are therefore
important partners. In times of emergencies, their con-
tributions are enormous, but usually directed to provid-
ing food, shelter, water and medicines to conflict-af-
fected populations. This includes major trust funds set
up by wealthy individuals such as Bill Gates, George
Soros, the Hilton family, and many others. Only re-
cently have UNHCR and others started to partner the
private sector on education activities for refugees.
Thus, Microsoft supports Computer Technology
Learning Centers and Nike funds Girls Empowerment
through sports and education projects. Fundraising and
resource mobilization with private companies clearly
has a future and opportunities need to be explored
more systematically.
Among the UN agencies not mentioned above, but
with programmes related to basic education, are the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR), the agency with principal responsibility for
UN human rights activities. Specific responsibilities in-
clude, inter alia, the coordination of UN education and
public information programmes. Therefore, OCHCR is
the UN “watchdog” when it comes to raising regarding
human rights violations in the field of basic education,
such as sexual harassment and exploitation of girls at
school, forced military recruitment of young boys, and,
more generally, lack of access to education as a basic
human right.
Other UN agencies, with no direct education mandate,
but with sensitization, awareness and advocacy pro-
grammes in their respective field of specialization in-
clude the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), which suspended education programmes fol-
lowing a policy decision in the 1990s, the United
Nations Population Fund (UNPF), the UN Develop-
ment Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and UNAIDS .
There is also the group of network partners, with the
Inter-Agency Network on Emergency Education
(INEE), convened by UNHCR, UNICEF, UNESCO and
NGOs in November 2000, being the most prominent
one dealing with education. Having been created
as a network, INEE is not an operational agency but
regards itself as an umbrella body to improve commu-
nication and cooperation in educational responses,
sharing knowledge and experiences, making teaching
and learning resources widely available, and document
and disseminate best practices in the field. INEE is fa-
21
cilitating a consultative process designed to lead to
minimum standards and guidelines for emergency
education, similar to those prepared for humanitarian
response in other sectors (Sphere Project, 2000).
INEE may also give its endorsement to materials pro-
duced by members, and has already endorsed generic
materials for peace education in emergencies and re-
construction, jointly developed by UNESCO and
UNHCR. INEE keeps members up-to-date through its
list server and has a website containing suggestions for
good practice. The last consultations were held in
December 2004 in Cape Town. INEE is also supporting
the Education Forum/INSPIRE initiative and is repre-
sented on the global Reference Group. A coordinator,
based at UNESCO offices in Paris, is co-funded by
CARE and the Mellon Foundation. One of INEE’s major
achievements is the handbook on Minimum Standards
for Education in Emergencies (MSEE), developed
through a broad process of collaboration and based on
the recognition that education cannot remain outside
the mainstream humanitarian debate but must be seen
as a priority humanitarian response. Participants at the
December 2004 Global Consultation on Education in
Emergencies in Cape Town celebrated the launching
of MSEE and the development of a Teacher Training
Resource Kit, distributed on a CD-ROM. INEE’s lead
coordination and advocacy role was re-confirmed,
but the challenges remain enormous in view of inter-
agency cooperation, involvement of governments,
donor reluctance and funding gaps. However, Cape
Town brought a new impetus for networking and
partnership development among education agencies.
The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative
(UNGEI) was launched in April 2000 at the Dakar World
Education Forum by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to
promote gender equality with targeted action for girls’
education as an entry point. 13 UN organizations, led
by UNICEF, agreed to work together on this 10-year
initiative to help governments meet their commitments
to ensure quality education for all girls everywhere.
By 2002, all participating agencies had succeeded in
mainstreaming girls’ education within their organiza-
tional mechanisms and structures. Girls’ education is
now at the forefront of political and programming
priorities at the headquarters level, and agencies con-
tinue the implementation process “on the ground”.
UNGEI has developed a Guidance Note to UN Country
Teams in 2002, addressing the importance of including
girls’ education in national education plans, as well as
a Technical Booklet on Working for Gender Equality in
Education. UNGEI-NGO consultations were held in
June 2002 with support from ILO and DFID. UNGEI’s
work is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child and the UN Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women
and Children (WCRWC) was founded in 1989 as an
independent affiliate of the International Rescue Com-
mittee to improve the lives and defend the rights of
refugees and internally displaced women, children and
adolescents. One of the Commission’s projects was a
Global Survey on Education in Emergencies, published
in February 2004. This global review includes reports
from 11 countries in Africa and Asia with education
programmes. WCRWC runs the Children and Adoles-
cents Project, but the Commission is seen more as a
body to oversee and monitor the implementation of
policies and strategies referring to refugee women and
children than as an operational agency.
The Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Recon-
struction (CPR) Peace-building Network came to-
gether as a result of meetings initiated by the USAID-
Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in 1997 and the
World Bank in 1998 to better coordinate peace-building
efforts. Since then members have been meeting every
six months. The network brings together 30 organizations
operationally active in conflict prevention and maintains
an operational focus extending from the principles laid
out by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
Task Force on Conflict, Peace and Development
Cooperation as well as UN Executive Committees.
22
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC),
established in June 1992, serves as the primary
mechanism for inter-agency coordination relating
to humanitarian assistance in response to complex
and major emergencies under the leadership of the
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. Through an articu-
late mechanism of working groups and sub-working
groups, the IASC is in fact the main policy-making
mechanism of the humanitarian community. It is a
headquarter-based mechanism, and even though the
Working Group (WG) debates country or operational
issues, it does so not with the view of taking opera-
tional decisions to be implemented, but rather to pro-
vide policy guidance to the Resident/Humanitarian
Coordinator and to the UN Country Team (UNCT).
Although the IASC WG has not been debating basic
education as a separate issue during their task force,
reference group or sub-working group meetings, a
number of policy statements referring to education
as the fourth or fifth pillar of humanitarian assistance
have been made.
1.4 Challenges for the future
The main challenges for the future can be broadly
summarized as follows:
– to ensure that education is fully recognized as a basic
human right and an important pillar of the humani-
tarian response in times of emergencies and crisis;
– to ensure that refugees and displaced populations
have equal access to basic education services pro-
vided by national governments and assisted by
the international community, and become part of
national planning in host countries and countries
of origin;
– to convince the donor community of the above
and ensure that adequate resources are mobilized
to achieve the common goals of increased access,
improved quality and gender equality for refugees,
internally displaced and returnee populations.
In this context it is important to move away from the
concept of refugees and displaced populations being
first and foremost target groups for humanitarian inter-
ventions. Unrest and political instability, leading to
population movements in the first place, can take
longer than expected; peace agreements do not neces-
sarily lead to security and the resumption of normal
lives, and conflict may easily return even in times of
peace. Finding durable solutions for refugees and dis-
placed persons is at the heart of UNHCR’s mandate
and the challenge is how education can become a
valuable tool in achieving this goal.
The task is so enormous given the large numbers of
refugees and displaced populations in the world today
that no single organization can meet this challenge
alone. Building and strengthening partnerships in basic
education as well as increased coordination has be-
come a necessity rather than a luxury, and all efforts
geared at working together at all levels to improve
education services need to be encouraged and sup-
ported.
Finally, individuals and groups emerging from conflict
and crisis have special education needs and the inter-
national response needs to address these special needs
through tailor-made and targeted basic education pro-
grammes. The transformation process from crisis and
conflict to reconciliation and peaceful coexistence
needs to be accompanied by special life skills pro-
grammes such as peace education, environment edu-
cation, HIV/AIDS prevention, psycho-social support,
trauma healing and others aimed at providing coping
skills in times of emergencies but also in preparation
of return and reintegration.
Finding durable solutions for refugees
and displaced populations
In the terminology of UNHCR, there are three possible
durable solutions for refugees:
23
1. voluntary repatriation to the country of origin
and reintegration,
2. local settlement and integration in the host
country, and
3. resettlement in a third country.
Repatriation and reintegration is of course the pre-
ferred solution but in order to make it durable, a num-
ber of conditions need to be met. They are, among
others, security and political stability, allowing refugees
to return home, the rehabilitation and reconstruction
of social services, and economic opportunities and
prospects for sustainable livelihoods. Education is an
assistance sector well placed, both in care and mainte-
nance and in returnee situations, to provide protection,
skills and knowledge for refugees to become agents
of their own development and productive citizens. As
basic education refers to life-long learning processes,
starting in early childhood and including adult educa-
tion, therefore being a central element in a person’s
development, it is clearly well placed to link short-term
humanitarian and relief assistance to longer-term devel-
opment programmes. The challenge here is to bridge
the artificial gap, formerly described as a continuum,
and realize that basic education needs to be supported
right from the onset of an emergency, throughout
displacement and upon return home. To meet this
challenge, donor reluctance needs to be overcome
and adequate resources mobilized. All assistance pro-
grammes have to take into account the special circum-
stances of displaced populations and therefore it is
recommended to enrich both formal and non-formal
approaches with life skills development targeting their
specific situation, both in exile or at home. Many or-
ganizations have developed teaching and learning
materials on peace education, environment education,
conflict and crisis prevention, safety and health issues,
etc. There are a great number of good practices avail-
able, but unfortunately not known and not widely
disseminated among stakeholders. Learning from past
experiences to improve present and future interven-
tions in basic education therefore remains a central
task. Another challenge is to put education assistance
on national development agendas and ensure that this
sector is adequately represented in joint assessments
(JAMs, CCAs), joint appeals (CAPs) and sector-wide
approaches (SWAps) and poverty reduction plans
(PRSPs). Here, humanitarian organizations like UNHCR
need to link their education activities with national
governments and development organizations at all
stages and at all levels of planning and programming.
Building and strengthening partnerships
in basic education
Providing quality education to refugees and displaced
populations to achieve MDG and EFA goals requires
commitment and dedication from all stakeholders de-
scribed in chapter 1.3. Increased cooperation and coor-
dination needs to take into account existing mecha-
nisms, different mandates and programming cycles,
organization’s policy priorities and available resources,
both human and financial, the implementing capacity
and the field of specialization and proven expertise.
National governments as primary stakeholders need to
be supported in building up their own capacity to
manage and oversee education services, refugee and
displaced communities need to be trained in looking
after the education of their children, donors need to
be convinced that an investment in education is an in-
vestment in the future of a country, particularly in the
context of emergencies and crisis, the work of the
NGO community needs to be supported, with empha-
sis on local civil society organizations, and UN agen-
cies need to move towards improved coordination
according to their specialized mandates.
Partners usually fall into the four categories of
– implementing partners,
– operational partners,
– strategic partners and
– network and advocacy partners.
UN agencies and international NGOs work traditionally
24
with a large number of implementing partners who are
contracted and paid to implement projects and pro-
grammes on their behalf. UNHCR alone works in the
education sector with over 200 implementing partners
in 97 countries worldwide. The second group of oper-
ational partners refers to agencies who have commit-
ted themselves to working together in support of oper-
ations at the field level; these partnerships are usually
documented through binding agreements, like Memo-
randa of Understanding (MOU) or Letters of Intent
(LOI), targeting specific areas of cooperation or situa-
tions to be jointly addressed. In the education sector,
UNICEF and UNHCR, for example, have signed a num-
ber of cooperation agreements at headquarter and
country level in support of refugee education. A global
MOU dating back to 1996 is currently under revision.
Quite a number of UNHCR’s implementing partners
have in fact become operational partners by increasing
their own contributions, organizing joint trainings and
deciding together on education policies in emergen-
cies. The UNHCR initiated Education Forum/INSPIRE
initiative tries to pilot joint education activities; in 2004
the focus was on regional cooperation in West and
East Africa in support of repatriation of Sudanese and
Liberian refugees in the regions.
Thirdly, there is a group of strategic partners, mainly
oriented to joint assessments, planning and program-
ming, including joint monitoring and evaluation. At the
national level, governments, refugee communities and
local education authorities are naturally strategic part-
ners. These partnerships differ from situation to situa-
tion and have to be addressed in their country- and
region-specific context. The World Bank, coordinating
EFA-FTI and PRSPs, the United Nations Development
Fund (UNDP), coordinating the UNCTs and leading the
CCA/UNDAF process, UNICEF, with its mandate for
children’s education and accelerated strategy for girls’
education, and UNESCO, spearheading the EFA initia-
tive, all are important strategic partners assisting na-
tional governments to provide education to refugees
and internally displaced persons.
Finally, there is the group of network and advocacy
partners, including the INEE, based at UNESCO in
Paris, and working on the development on minimum
standards for education in emergencies. Others are the
multilateral financing institutions, including regional
development banks, and bilateral agencies who have
entered into bilateral agreements with national govern-
ments and can negotiate to include refugees, returnees
and internally displaced persons into funding propos-
als. Local NGOs, community-based organizations and
other civil society organizations can act as pressure
groups, advocating and lobbying for emergency
education, but they need outside support in their
efforts.
Emergency education is a newly emerging sector in the
international discussion and although partnership de-
velopment is one of the major commitments of all ag-
encies and stakeholders, more needs to be done to im-
prove coordination and cooperation in order to avoid
gaps and duplication and establish what Marc Sommers
calls in his study on Coordinating Education during
Emergencies and Reconstruction a “connective tissue
linking people … together” (p. 80). The author admits
that there have been successes and there is coordina-
tion, but “performance remains patchy” (p. 80). In gen-
eral, partnership opportunities are not systematically
explored and are rather sporadic and haphazard, de-
pending mainly on the goodwill of agency representa-
tives on the ground. The challenge is to overcome un-
derlying factors obstructing partnership development,
mainly those relating to power, trust, competition and
priorities, a resistance to cede authority to somebody
else, and a reluctance to give up control. Partnerships
therefore need to be built and developed on mutual
trust and respect, power-sharing arrangements, sover-
eignty and accountability, agreed upon division of
roles and responsibilities, and accepted leadership by
the national governments.
The challenge is to link humanitarian interventions in
education with medium- and longer-term development
25
assistance and to have refugees and returnee popula-
tions included in national education planning. However,
in order to meet this challenge, national ownership,
participatory approaches and increased in-country ca-
pacity-building at various levels have to be addressed.
Implementing more effective partnerships at the coun-
try level has to be a key consideration, with national
and transitional authorities leading this process to give
real meaning to the “ownership” concept. For the lead
agency for refugees, UNHCR, the challenge is to work
closer with Ministries of Education and relevant educa-
tion authorities at district and village level, to be in-
formed about national education planning and to par-
ticipate actively in the various development processes
outlined above. Partnership with international agencies
dealing directly with national governments is a neces-
sity for UNHCR therefore. Thus, the renewed focus on
increased cooperation through initiatives such as INEE,
Education Forum/INSPIRE and others need to be sup-
ported.
From crisis and conflict to peaceful coexistence
and reconciliation
The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
stated as early as 1998 that the prevention of conflicts
is a central development goal, referring to actions un-
dertaken over the short-term to reduce manifest ten-
sions and to prevent the outbreak or recurrence of vio-
lent conflict. Peace-building and reconciliation focuses
on long-term support for, and establishment of, viable
political and socio-economic and cultural institutions
capable of addressing the root causes of conflicts, as
well as other initiatives aimed at creating the necessary
conditions for sustained peace and stability. Building
blocks for peace-building and reconciliation are good
governance and a reinforced civil society. Through
support for education, agencies have a crucial, if sensi-
tive, role to play in furthering non-violent solutions to
inter-group conflict and breaking the cycle of hostility
and conflict along ethnic, cultural and sectarian lines.
This can range from support for the development of
non-partisan curricula and textbooks, to helping culti-
vate and disseminate shared values such as tolerance
or pluralism, to specific assistance for peace education
initiatives and programmes, designed to help create a
better understanding of the origins and history of soci-
etal relations and promote inter-group cooperation,
reconciliation and peaceful coexistence.
The effect that disrupted schooling can have on children
who witness brutality and the breakdown of social and
moral structures can increase societal instability. This
can inhibit learning processes on how to deal with dis-
putes without resorting to violence, and how to coexist
peacefully, thus reinforcing the conflictual history of
inter-group relations. The forcible displacement of peo-
ple is a clear indicator of conflict, social insecurity and
the inability of a government to protect its citizens and
continue to provide basic services, education included.
The presence of large numbers of refugees creates eco-
nomic and social burdens for host countries and often
leads to conflicts with the local population. Their rein-
tegration, following their return home after displace-
ment, is often the first major step towards national rec-
onciliation. This process must take place within legal
frameworks and without discrimination or victimiza-
tion. Needs must be addressed explicitly as part of
peace negotiations and resulting reconstruction pro-
grammes and the rehabilitation of the education system
and services is one of the reintegration priorities next
to the restoration of basic security.
The main role of education in crisis prevention and
conflict resolution is on peace education, both as a
preventive measure and as a means of reconciliation.
Education for peace has the main goal of creating
peaceful coexistence and comprises all activities which
improve attitudes, knowledge and capabilities for con-
flict management and resolution. Education is a key
factor for participation in the process of development
and learning how to live together even in times of
emergency and crisis. Peace education is a component
26
of a child’s right to education. But peace education is
not only an essential component of a child’s educational
experience but also an instrument for the promotion of
peaceful, responsible, tolerant, equitable, friendly and
free societies. The connection between teaching school-
children about peace and the cultivation of peaceful so-
cieties is one of the central assumptions of peace edu-
cation. Peace education programming takes many
different forms in the world of humanitarian and devel-
opment actors. UNESCO’s Culture of Peace Programme,
UNICEF’s many peace education-related initiatives,
UNHCR’s Peace Education Programme, recently
handed over to the INEE, NRC’s human rights-oriented
programming, and GTZ’s Basic Education and Conflict
Transformation Programme are examples of a large
number of current initiatives. UNHCR’s Imagine Coex-
istence Project, launched in 2000 in collaboration with
Harvard University, stopped short of the ambitious goal
of reconciliation, and focused instead on bringing di-
vided communities to a point of “peaceful coexistence”,
with the notion that coexistence is a more attainable
goal in countries where incredible violence at the com-
munity level has occurred. Activities include educational
activities at the community level, and an assessment
study in Bosnia and Rwanda suggested applying the
coexistence “lens” to all UNHCR activities.
The challenge is to evaluate these peace education
programmes in terms of their impact and learning out-
comes, to include communities and not to limit the
activities to schools, to integrate peace education into
national curricula, to organize joint trainings and to im-
prove coordination at headquarter, regional and coun-
try levels to avoid duplication of efforts and different
approaches, contents and methodologies.
In conclusion, peace education has to be an inte-
grated part of basic education for refugees and dis-
placed populations and existing approaches and pro-
grammes need to be properly documented, widely
disseminated, well coordinated, strengthened and
built upon.
1.5 Conclusions
It is high time that education in emergencies, including
education for refugees and displaced populations, oc-
cupied the deserved place in humanitarian policies and
resulting strategy formulation and programme re-
sponses. Education in emergencies has only hit the
humanitarian agenda in the last decade, and evidence
of its impact is often still anecdotal. Although its status
as an important pillar of humanitarian assistance has
gained legitimacy over the years and is often regarded
as a priority sector by displaced communities, there are
still those in relief agencies who think it a “luxury” or a
task best left to development agencies. The fact, that
basic education helps to protect the physical and psy-
chological well-being of war-affected and displaced
communities is beyond doubt and well documented,
however. Protection in conflict and post-conflict situa-
tions is emerging as a legitimate humanitarian and de-
velopment concern, so the role of education as a tool
of protection needs to be further embraced by all
stakeholders. It is our responsibility to ensure that all
have access, the services are of good quality, and that
girls and women are adequately participating. Although
the achievement of MDG and EFA goals to beat
poverty in a fixed timeframe seems to be far away, par-
ticularly with regard to education (UPE may not be
achieved before 2130 according to the January 2005
MDG report, commissioned by the Secretary-General),
the reappraisal of the position of education in emer-
gency programming needs to be continued.
1. All emergency responses need to include
basic education services right from the start of
operations.
The EFA movement has inspired many major donors
to become much more deeply committed to and in-
volved in supporting education in emergencies, given
the commitment of EFA signatories to increasing access
to education for all children, including those affected
by wars. However, some donors are restricted by inter-
nal regulations from supporting where conflict persists;
27
others prefer to wait until there is peace or are reluc-
tant to make investments until the democratic process
has yielded concrete results. This results in severe
funding gaps, significantly impacting on education,
more particularly when emergencies are prolonged
for years and even decades.
2. One of the major challenges is to start
closing the existing funding gaps.
Crisis and post-conflict situations, on the other hand,
offer tremendous opportunities for change, including
restructuring broken-down education systems, intro-
duction of new approaches and methodologies to
teaching and training, revision and enrichment of cur-
ricula as well as closer coordination among actors and
stakeholders. During transitional phases from war to
peace and conflict to post-conflict, governments are
usually disempowered, thus creating space for interna-
tional agencies and local organizations to fill the vac-
uum. Here, it is important to recognize the govern-
ment’s or transitional authority’s lead role and not
ignore and marginalize them further but rather help
them to create the necessary capacity needed for the
development and management of their education
systems and programmes.
3. The lead role of governments needs to be ac-
knowledged and strengthened through capacity
building measures built into all education re-
sponses.
In the context of refugees and displaced populations
it is paramount to include them in national education
plans upon return to start a sustainable reintegration
process. This requires linking humanitarian responses
in education at an early stage with development plan-
ning and integration of returnees as ordinary citizens
into the education system of their home country.
The WB, together with UNICEF and UNESCO and
other development partners, is best placed to initiate
this process at country level, while UNHCR and other
humanitarian partners are encouraged to coordinate
their activities closely with them and the government.
Bilateral and multilateral agencies, while planning for
reconstruction activities with partner countries, need to
put refugees and displaced populations on the agenda
on their negotiations and include them into projects
and programmes.
4. Education responses in post-conflict situations
need to include refugees and displaced popula-
tions into both short-term reintegration activities
and longer-term development programming.
Targeting girls and women and increasing their access
and participation in basic education needs to be a con-
tinued goal for the international community. Gender
parity in 2005 and gender equality in 2015, expressed
goals in the Millennium Declaration, seem to be utopian,
but focus and emphasis on accelerated strategies need
to be maintained now and efforts reinforced. UNICEF’s
lead role needs to be supported and strengthened by
all actors, and joint commitments need to be followed
up by joint action on the ground.
5. Gender parity and gender equity acceleration
strategies and programmes need to be adequately
reflected and funded in all future education re-
sponses.
Communities are the cornerstone of all education re-
sponses. Their empowerment and participation and
their specific role in overseeing, monitoring and man-
aging education of their children guarantees success
and sustainability of outside interventions. Building
community capacity, therefore, must be an expressed
goal of all education responses, and training School
Management Committees, Village Education Commit-
tees and/or Parent/Teacher Associations, etc. to fulfill
their role in education needs to be included in pro-
gramme design and project proposals. Projects must
be “owned” by the communities and, given the un-
avoidable differences in power between aid agencies
and affected communities, education programming
must not be “paternalistic”, but be based on partner-
ship principles like trust, respect and mutual accoun-
tability.
28
6. Empowerment of communities through training
and capacity building must be an integral part of
basic education programmes for refugees and dis-
placed people.
Inter-agency coordination for education during emer-
gencies and post-conflict reintegration and reconstruc-
tion seems to be one of the most difficult challenges
to meet. Although all agencies promote coordination
and cooperation and have policies developed on part-
nerships, the reality on the ground shows a lack of
putting these policies into practice. The reasons are as
varied as the organizations involved: funding shortfalls,
insufficient resources, lack of qualified manpower, dif-
fering programme cycles, specialized mandates, institu-
tional arrogance or competition among actors are some
of the constraints. On the other hand, there are some
encouraging examples, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Sudan, Liberia and other countries, but these good
practices are rather sporadic and lack a systematic ap-
proach. While cooperation in post-conflict scenarios
seems to be improving and a number of mechanisms
have been put into place (JAM, CCA/UNDAF, CAP,
PCNA, etc.) at the macro-level, cooperation at the im-
plementation level of projects and programmes needs
still to be improved. Similarly, in typical refugee set-
tings and protracted care and maintenance program-
mes, coordination takes place, usually under the lead-
ership of UNHCR and the host government, but is
more on information exchange than on joint planning,
implementing and monitoring. With very few excep-
tions, coordination frameworks do not sufficiently fea-
ture the lead role of governments and the de facto
education authority, although it is essential to work
together on curricular concerns, policies on paying
teachers and developing systems for implementing,
recognizing, validating and accepting teacher training
activities and certificates, student achievement and na-
tional examinations. Coordination work needs to be
funded like any other type of education activity, and
a lack of resources for meeting and training expenses,
transportation and translation costs, communication
and printing can seriously obstruct coordination.
7. Inter-agency coordination, cooperation and
partnerships should have a strong focus on opera-
tions, include all actors and stakeholders, recognize
the lead role of the government and its education
authorities, and take place at all levels, e.g. na-
tional, local and programme level.
Finally, coordination and cooperation can only be
translated into positive change for the target groups
if the roles and responsibilities of the various actors
and stakeholders described in the previous chapters
are clearly spelt out in binding agreements. In the con-
text of refugee and displaced populations, the primary
responsibility lies with the education authorities of na-
tional governments or transitional authorities. UNHCR,
being the lead agency for refugees, needs to be strength-
ened in terms of resource mobilization to meet its obli-
gation to provide quality education. Partnerships with
other agencies, particularly with development agencies,
can help the organization to achieve its goals of in-
creased access, gender equality and quality education.
UNICEF has a clear mandate for children and therefore
primary education, with a strong emphasis on girls’ ed-
ucation, and its lead role in post-conflict and reconstruc-
tion scenarios needs to be strengthened. UNESCO’s
role in spearheading EFA and promoting quality educa-
tion needs to be supported, in particular through ade-
quate programme funding. Their role in post-conflict
situations may be limited to secondary and tertiary ed-
ucation. Both organizations are well placed to ensure
that curriculum reforms include life skills education, in-
cluding peace education and other subjects. The World
Bank, in assisting governments to implement EFA-FTI,
PRSPs and SWAps, can ensure that refugees and dis-
placed populations are put on national agendas, that
returnees are included in education programmes, and
that area development programmes focus on major re-
turnee areas. Specialized agencies such as WFP, ILO,
UNPF, UNAIDS, UNEPI and others, who contribute to
specific aspects of education, need to be included in
coordination mechanisms, but are usually members of
the UNCTs. NGOs, both international and local, with a
proven education track record and expertise, need to
29
be adequately represented on all fora and are invalu-
able partners at the operational level. Strengthening the
leadership of local education authorities, communities
and civil society organizations through training and ca-
pacity building must form part of any intervention.
Cooperation must lead to joint action in the field with
clearly defined roles and responsibilities according to
agency mandates, competencies, expertise and resources
and should be documented in binding operational
agreements.
30
31
1.6 List of abbreviations
AED Academy for Educational Development
ALP Accelerated Learning Programme
BMZ Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung
(Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development)
CAP Consolidated Appeals Process
CAS Country Assistance Strategy
CCA Common Country Assessment
CCF Christian Children’s Fund
CEC Community Education Committee
CPR Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Rehabilitation Network
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
CREPS Complementary Rapid Education for Primary Schools
CRS Catholic Relief Services
DAC Development Assistance Committee
DOS Division of Operational Support
EC European Commission
ECD Early childhood development
EFA Education for All
EFG Education Field Guidelines
EKE Education for the Knowledge Economy
EXCOM Executive Committee
FTI Fast Track Initiative
GMR Global Monitoring Report
GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (German Technical Cooperation)
HPCT Hugh Pilkington Charitable Trust
IASC Inter-Agency Standing Committee
IBE International Bureau of Education
ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
IDP internally displaced person
IFP/CRISIS InFocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction
IIEP International Institute for Educational Planning
ILO International Labour Organisation
INEE Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies
INSPIRE Innovative Strategic Partnerships In Refugee Education
IOM International Organization for Migration
IP implementing partner
IPEC International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
IRC International Rescue Committee
JAM Joint Assessment Mission
JRS Jesuit Refugee Service
32
LOI Letter of Intent
LWF Lutheran World Federation
MDG Millennium Development Goals
MOE Ministry of Education
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MTSP Medium Term Strategic Plan
NCA Norwegian Church Aid
NGO Non-governmental Organization
NORAD Norwegian International Development Agency
NRC Norwegian Refugee Council
OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
OFNET Field Offices Network of Emergency Education
OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
PCF Post-Conflict Fund
PCNA Post-Conflict Needs Assessments
PEER Programme for Education for Emergencies and Reconstruction ((!))
PEP Peace Education Programme
PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
PTA Parent Teacher Association
RET Refugee Education Trust
SCF Save The Children Fund
SMC School Management Committee
SWAp Sector-Wide Approach
TEP Teacher Emergency Package
UN United Nations
UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
UNCT United Nations Country Team
UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Framework
UNDG United Nations Development Group
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNGEI United Nations Girls Education Initiative
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNHCHR United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNPF United Nations Population Fund
UPE Universal Primary Education
VEC Village Education Committee
WB World Bank
WCCDS Women, Children and Community Development Section
WCRWC Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children
33
WFP World Food Programme
WG Working Group
WHO World Health Organization
WUS World University Service
1.7 List of resource materialsPublications
CPR: A Compendium of Operational Frameworks for Peacebuilding & Donor Coordination,
CIDA Peacebuilding Unit, May 2000
DFID: Education, Conflict and International Development, A. Smith, T. Vaux, 2003
ECDPM: The EU’s Response to Conflict Affected Countries, European Centre for Development
Policy Management, Discussion Paper No. 31, International Alert, July 2001
FMR: Education in Emergencies, Forced Migration Review, January 2005
GTZ: Bildung und Konflikt, K. Seitz, November 2004
GTZ: Crisis Prevention and Conflict Management in Technical Cooperation, A. Mehler, C. Ribaux, 2000
GTZ: Developing Education and Youth-Promotion Measures with Focus on Crisis Prevention and Peace-Building, 2002
HPN: The role of education in protecting children in conflict, The Humanitarian Practice Network,
S. Nicolai, C. Triplehorn, 2003
ILO: Coordination in Crisis Response and Reconstruction, InFocus Programme on Crisis Response
and Reconstruction, October 2002
ILO: Employment intensive Reconstruction Works in Countries Emerging from Armed Conflicts,
Guidelines, December 2000
INEE: Handbook Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, January 2005
NRC: Education in Emergencies and transition phases: still a right and more of a need, E. Midttun, 2000
OECD-DAC: Conflict, Peace and Development Cooperation on the Threshold of the 21st Century,
Development Cooperation Guidelines Series, 1998
OECD: The DAC Guidelines – Helping Prevent Violent Conflict, International Development, 2001
RET: First Symposium on Post-Primary Refugee Education, September 2002; www.refugeeeducationtrust.org
SCF: Education in Emergencies. A tool kit for starting and managing education in emergencies, 2003
SCF: Education in Emergencies. Policy Paper, October 2001
SCF: Re-conceiving war-affected children: from passive victims to active survivors, S. Nicolai, C. Triplehorn, 2003
SPHERE: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, The Sphere Project,
Oxfam Publishing, 2000
UN: Achieving the Universal Primary Education Goal of the Millennium Declaration, Joint Inspection Unit, 2003
UNGEI: The Millennium Development Goals and the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative,
June 2002 – A Guidance Note to UN Country Teams
UNHCR: Education Field Guidelines, April 2003
UNHCR: Partnership: An Operations Management Handbook for UNHCR’s Partners, February 2003
UNHCR: Agenda For Protection, June 2003
UNHCR: Learning for a Future: Refugee Education in Developing Countries, December 2001
34
UNHCR: Education Forum/INSPIRE info-materials, Education Unit, May 2004
UNHCR: Developing & Strengthening Partnerships in Education (unpublished), J. Wintermeier, October 2004
UNHCR: Framework for Durable Solutions for Refugees and Persons of Concern, May 2003
UNHCR: Refugee Children – Guidelines on Protection and Care, 1994
UNHCR: Practical Guide to the Systematic use of Standards & Indicators in UNHCR Operations, January 2004
UNHCR: Handbook for Repatriation and Reintegration Activities, May 2004
UNICEF: Humanitarian Action Report 2004
UNICEF: UNICEF’s Priorities for Children 2002-2005
UNICEF: State of the World’s Children 2004
UNICEF: State of the World’s Children 2005: childhood under threat
UNICEF: Education in Emergencies and for Reconstruction – a Developmental Approach,
Working Paper Series, M. J. Pigozzi, 1999
UNESCO: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005: The Quality Imperative
UNESCO-IIEP: Planning education in and after emergencies, M. Sinclair, 2002
UNESCO: Guidelines for Education in Situations of Emergency and Crisis, EFA Strategic Planning, 2002
UNESCO: Education in Situations of Emergency and Crisis: Challenges for the New Century,
World Education Forum, Dakar, April 2000
USAID-BEPS: Education in Emergencies: Critical Questions and Challenges, M. Sommers, CARE, 2003
WCRWC: Global Survey on Education in Emergencies, February 2004
WCRWC/AED: The Education Imperative: Supporting Education in Emergencies, M. Sommers, 2003
World Bank: Children Education and war: reaching Education for All (EFA) objectives in countries affected
by conflict, M. Sommers, 2002
World Bank: Reshaping the future: education and post-conflict reconstruction, January 2005
World Bank: Post-Conflict Reconstruction – The Role of the World Bank, April 1998
Organizational Websites
Academy for Educational Development www.aed.org
CARE www.careusa.org
CRS www.catholicrelief.org
GTZ www.gtz.de
INEE www.ineesite.org
IRC www.theirc.org
JRS www.jesref.org
NRC www.nrc.no
RET www.refugeeeducationtrust.org
SCF www.savethechildren.net
UNESCO www.unesco.org
UNICEF www.unicef.org
UNHCR www.unhcr.ch
Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children www.womenscommission.org
Holger Munsch
Case study: Basic education forAfghan refugees (1990-2004)
Map of the refugee camps in Pakistan
Part 2
35
Source: UNHCR: http://www.unhcr.org, Geneva, 2004
2.1 Introduction
The invasion of Afghanistan by Russian troops in 1979
prompted several waves of refugees – primarily to the
neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Iran, yet also
overseas. Following the withdrawal of Russian troops
in 1989, the internal power struggles among Afghan
groupings meant that the flow of refugees continued,
with people continuing to seek a safe haven in the
neighbouring provinces of Pakistan. Shortly after the
Soviet invasion there were several hundred thousand
Afghan refugees in Pakistan’s North West Frontier
Province (NWFP). This number rose to 2.1 million
through to December 2001, when the country was
invaded by western troops headed by the USA. A total
of over three million people had fled to Pakistan dur-
ing the civil war.
Following the collapse of the Taliban regime and the
resulting waves of repatriation in 2002 there were still
0.81 million Afghan refugees in NWFP; throughout the
whole country the figure was put at just under 1.2 mil-
lion. Data from the Commissionerate for Afghan
Refugees (CAR) indicates 1.2 million refugees alone for
NWFP at the end of 2002. The discrepancy of some
400,000 is probably due to the not inconsiderable num-
ber of returnees and commuters who could not be
recorded by UNHCR. CAR assumes that at the end of
2005 there will still be about half a million Afghan
refugees in NWFP.
The generally high number of nearly two million
repatriations from Pakistan should not mask the fact
that 85 per cent of these were urban refugees, the
majority of whom were not registered and who re-
turned to their native towns. In 2004 UNHCR estimated
the number of refugees remaining in Pakistani towns
to be as many as 2.4 million.
Of the registered refugees formerly living in camps
in rural areas of NWFP, the proportion of repatriated
refugees is only twelve per cent of the total number
of returnees. The some 1.2 million refugees remaining
in NWFP are not only a major challenge for the gov-
ernment of Pakistan, but also for the international
donor organisations and the NGOs, above all in terms
of the necessary aid. Thus it is estimated that 250,000
children and young people need basic education, but
that only about 150,000 children actually receive basic
and secondary education. In this respect further assis-
tance from abroad is required.
2.2 BEFARe – From project to NGO
At the beginning of the 1980s the global community,
and in particular the international donor community
and international non-governmental organisations,
recognised the necessity to provide the Afghan refugee
population with education (basic, secondary and terti-
ary education).
As early as 1984 a forerunner project began – “Basic
education in refugee-affected areas of NWFP” – with
the objective of improving basic education for the
Afghan and Pakistani populations in the refugee camps
and the neighbouring settlement areas of North West
Province. In 1990 it was necessary to split up this fore-
runner project, which led to an independent project in
education assistance for Pakistani children (Primary
Education Charsadda District). It was expanded from
being a pilot project into a province-wide sector proj-
ect (Education Sector Development Programme). The
other project component with the target group Afghan
refugees became the project “Basic Education for Afghan
Refugees” (BEFARe). BEFARe went through a total of
six assistance phases from 1990 to the end of 2004;
each of these phases generally lasted two years, and
towards the end of the project the cycles became shorter.
The objectives and orientations of the project changed
over the course of time. The tasks of the project were
continually expanded, their diversity increased.
36
37
Assistance phase 1: 11/1990-10/1992
Overriding objective: The living conditions of Afghan refugees are improved
Project objective: Basic education for Afghan refugees is improved
Results: 1. Teachers are given training in the use of pupil-centred and pupil-activating teaching materials and methods
2. Amended teaching and learning materials are made available3. Out-of-school education programmes are conducted4. Project management is established at various levels
Assistance phase 2: 11/1992-10/1994
Overriding objective: Basic education for Afghan refugees is improved
Project objective: Effective teaching and learning is taking place in the field of
basic education for Afghan refugees
Results: 1. Teachers are given further training in the use of existing pupil-centred
and pupil-activating materials
2. Pupil-activating teaching and learning materials are made available
3. Non-formal education programmes are successfully implemented
4. Teaching staff are prepared for tasks in Afghanistan
5. Management abilities of the project personnel are enhanced
at various levels
Assistance phase 3: 11/1994-10/1996
Overriding objective: Basic education for Afghan refugees is improved
Project objective: Effective teaching and learning is enhanced in the field of basic
education for Afghan refugees
Results: 1. Teachers are given further training in the pupil-oriented use of
teaching materials
2. Amended teaching, learning and further training materials are
prepared
3. Participants acquire the ability to read and write, as well as
numeracy skills
4. Participants acquire knowledge of health care for mother and
child (MCH)
5. Closer contacts established to Afghanistan to support basic education
6. Management abilities consolidated on various levels
Overview of the individual assistance phases (1990-2004)
38
Assistance phase 4: 11/1996-12/1998
Overriding objective: Self-regulating, self-dependent basic education is promoted
Project objective: Basic education (including literacy and basic health courses) for
Afghan refugees is improved in qualitative terms with a view to the
greater participation of communities and taking into particular
consideration women and girls and their life and work situations
Results: 1. Teaching and learning materials are completed and made available
2. Teachers are empowered to use various types of internal and external
project materials from the non-formal sector for teaching purposes
3. Children who do not attend school and adults acquire abilities and
knowledge in MCH und literacy and make use of these
4. Communities are mobilised to assume increasing responsibility for
basic education
5. AG-BASEd management competence and organisation consolidated
so as to utilize BEFARe’s know-how
6. Project know-how is secured on a sustainable basis by consolidating
the management during the processing phase
Overview of the individual assistance phases (1990-2004)
39
Assistance phase 5: 01/1999-09/2002
Overriding objective: Basic education aimed at repatriation and independence is promoted
and improved
Project objective:
Change in project
objective:
Basic education becomes more functional through the integration of vo-
cational measures and the participation of communities so as to better
meet the needs of the Afghan refugees, and in particular women and girls
Basic education becomes more functional through improvements in text-
book production, teacher training and further training, literacy, participa-
tion of communities and temporary vocational measures so as to better
meet the needs of the Afghan refugees, and in particular women and girls
Results: 1. Amended teaching and learning materials are developed, modified,
completed and made available
2. Instructors are empowered to work with the new approach
3. Children who do not attend school, as well as adults (women and
men) have acquired improved abilities and knowledge in the
non-formal basic education sector
4. Selected participants are familiarised with basic technical skills
and placed in a position to earn an income
5. Communities are mobilised and increasingly assume responsibility
for education activities
6. BEFARe’s know-how is promoted and disseminated by relevant
NGOs
7. Conditions are created and maintained for the effective implementa-
tion of the project activities
Overview of the individual assistance phases (1990-2004)
40
Assistance phase 6: 10/2002-12/2003; follow-up phase through to 12/2004
Overriding objective: Basic education aimed at repatriation and independence is promoted
and improved
Project objective: The independent organisation that has emerged from BEFARe
implements – on a sustained and independent basis – tasks in the
field of basic education for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and for
Pakistani target groups
Results: 1. BEFARe, as a new, legally independent organisation provides
economically sustainable basic education services for Afghan
refugees in Pakistan and for Pakistani target groups
2. The successor organisation to BEFARe acquires independent
contracts from international donors
3. The quality of formal basic education is further improved
4. Non-formal basic education for refugees and local communities,
which benefits women and girls in particular, is offered in an
improved form
Overview of the individual assistance phases (1990-2004)
Of particular importance is the focus of the project
in the final two years. The Afghan non-governmental
organisation Afghan German-Basic Education (AG-
BASEd) provided pedagogic support on the basis
of the BEFARe school concept in the eastern Afghan
provinces of Kunar, Nuristan, Nangahar, Khost and
Paktia. In line with the BEFARe concept it offered for-
mal and non-formal basic education in the provincial
and rural towns of these provinces.
During the first three years (1995 to 1998) AG-BASEd
was assisted by BEFARe with free teaching and learn-
ing materials, as well as further training for teachers.
After it had increasingly acquired project funds from
international donors and the project structure had been
established, AG-BASEd increasingly functioned as an
independent NGO. Whenever support was required,
however, AG-BASEd was given advice. It was regarded
as the implementation organisation for the BEFARe
concept in Afghanistan.
As an independent non-governmental organisation
AG-BASEd itself was now to acquire contracts for the
further care to be provided for the refugees, whose
numbers, incidentally, were only slowly dwindling.
In addition, basic education measures were to be im-
plemented, and in particular in the field of non-formal
basic education in the Pakistani communities bordering
on the refugee camps (“local host communities”). In
rural areas there was a lack of schools, and what few
there were, were so far apart that the Pakistani popula-
tion had difficulty participating in the public school
system. The illiteracy rate for men, for example, was
42 per cent, for women it was 73 per cent. The school
enrolment rate for girls in rural areas was lower than
five per cent.
The refugees in the camps came from different regions
and belonged to differing ethnic groups and social
classes. Nevertheless, the majority of refugee camps in
rural NWFP had a relatively homogeneous population,
as very often whole villages – primarily from eastern
and north-eastern Afghanistan – had emigrated to
Pakistan. Newly-established councils of elders partici-
pated in the camp administration in cooperation with
the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR)
and UNHCR. Furthermore, in most camps there were
committees which looked after health and education.
BEFARe succeeded in initiating such committees
for 320 schools with the active participation of the
refugees. These School Management Committees
(SMCs) took over the management and operation
of the schools. They were prepared to assume greater
responsibility.
One target group for BEFARe was refugees from rural
camps in North West Province. The formal, academic
basic education offerings were oriented towards boys
and girls in grades 1 to 6, the extracurricular education
offerings to men and women, as well as to boys and
girls. Another target group was formed by girls and
working boys, young people and women from the
Pakistani communities which bordered on the refugee
camps.
The brokers for the project at various levels were:
– Representatives of the School Management
Committees,
– Master trainers, field education supervisors, head
teachers of schools and teachers for the formal
basic education area,
– Trainers and literacy instructors for the non-formal area.
As BEFARe was also the recipient of services for the
organisation, personnel and management development,
its regional heads were the brokers at the higher level.
Project components and project organisation
BEFARe’s range of tasks and project components
developed in accordance with the changing objectives
over the years. They became more varied and exten-
sive; project activities increasingly had to be agreed
upon with other partners and organisations.
41
At the beginning of the project in 1990 the emphasis
was on further training for teachers, the development
of amended teaching and learning materials, and the
implementation of out-of-school education program-
mes. The next phase saw the development of basic
health courses for mothers and young women. In the
fourth assistance phase, which began in 1996, the
focus was on the further participation of school com-
munities with the commencement of the first reim-
bursable technical cooperation with UNHCR. The fifth
phase (1999 to 2002) saw the inclusion of the qualifica-
tion of school-leavers in the field of vocational and in-
come-creating measures. The production of teaching
and learning materials in the two national languages
Pashto and Dari took place on an ongoing basis over
the years, with the refugee communities increasingly
taking on responsibility for school matters. In coopera-
tion with other NGOs the materials that had been de-
veloped were distributed, and the know-how gathered
over the years disseminated. New reimbursable techni-
cal cooperations were concluded so as to utilize the
available project potential. The monitoring and evalua-
tion system was expanded, the finance management
system modernised.
The project had to orient itself to a long stay in
Pakistan, although its transfer to Afghanistan was not
excluded. Despite the presence of the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan, it was necessary to retain the perspec-
tive for returning refugees being able to use the
knowledge they had acquired so as to organise and
administer schools in their own country.
Cooperation with other organisations
UNHCR:
Whereas CAR, with the support of UNHCR, originally
coordinated the formal basic education for refugee
children, in 1996 this task was transferred by UNHCR
to BEFARe. BEFARe expanded its assistance to a total
of 320 camp schools. The large number of enrolled
pupils – initially 55,000 – could only be attained
through the active inclusion of community members
in the primary education offerings. This necessitated
the virtually complete reorientation and accentuation
in the Community Development and Participation field,
as new western interventionist approaches could not
ignore traditional Afghan values and standards.
In the school year 2003/2004 over 110,000 pupils,
of whom over 31,000 were girls, were taught in those
schools receiving this support. Thus the proportion
of girls rose to a total of 29 per cent. By the end of
2003 BEFARe had qualified over 2,850 teachers, of
whom some 550 were women, in the use of the teach-
ing and learning materials developed by BEFARe.
The gradual further training on the part of the “Master
Trainers” and “Field Education Supervisors” led to
improvements in the quality of teaching and in the
learning efficacy.
At the end of the 1990s a vocational component
over a period of several years was incorporated into
the ongoing reimbursable technical cooperation with
UNHCR. Graduates of the formal and non-formal
education system were to acquire vocational skills
so as to be in a position to earn a living in Pakistan
and also later, following repatriation, in Afghanistan.
This sub-component was suspended by UNHCR
after two years due to financial bottlenecks.
DFID:
From June 2001 to March 2004 the British Depart-
ment for International Development (DFID) promoted
BEFARe’s basic education measures. The contribution
by the DFID aided the development of personnel re-
sources and enhanced the implementation capacities
within the project. The aid was provided for formal
as well as non-formal education.
World Bank:
From January 2002 to the end of 2004 the World Bank
financed a package of services – within the framework
42
of the “Strategy for Afghan Education” formulated
by Save the Children (USA) and UNICEF – for the
implementation of an expanded teacher further train-
ing programme for primary, intermediate and second-
ary schools in remote areas of North West Frontier
Province and for improved education in refugee
self-help schools.
CIDA:
From May 2003 to the end of 2005 CIDA (Canadian
International Development Agency) supported a
project component, which, on the one hand, propa-
gated the significance and necessity of basic education
for girls through the SMCs; and on the other hand
promoted the further training in the gender sector.
Through the increased deployment of female teachers
(40 per cent) it was also intended to increase the
number of girls in selected refugee schools to 35
per cent.
Project organisation and implementation units
Control was the responsibility of the project office
in the provincial capital Peshawar. At the end of 2003
there were some 160 employees working in the eight
departments. The six field offices (resource centres)
were responsible for looking after the some 320
schools in the formal sector and the some 400 mea-
sures in the non-formal education sector. The extensive
scope of the tasks at BEFARe required a very complex
organisational structure. This structure often changed
therefore over the course of the individual project
phases in line with the development of the project
objectives and the results to be attained. Whereas the
structure in the first ten years was heavily hierarchical,
during the last phase there was a shift in line with the
planned organisational independence. The six resource
centres, which were controlled from the main office,
are not included in the following graphics.
43
Organisational structure of BEFARe during the first ten project years
Source: BEFARe/MIS
Graphic 1
Knowledge Center
Non-FormalEducation
FormalEducation
Programming &Development
CommunityParticipation
ManagementInformation System& Monitoring and
Evaluation
AdministrativeServices
Financial Services
Management Team9 members: CTA and TA plus all Project Managers
AdvisoryCommittee
Assigned to the resource centres in the formal basic
education sector were 320 head teachers, of whom
66 were women, and 2,523 class teachers, including
491 women. In the non-formal sector there was a total
of 341 literacy teachers, including 127 women, at the
end of 2003. In mid-2004, after the completion of the
reimbursable technical cooperations with DFID and
the World Bank and after a reduction in the reim-
bursable technical cooperation with UNHCR, due to
the return of a further 300,000 refugees from Pakistan
to Afghanistan, there were 78 employees in the main
office and 28 in the remaining five resource centres.
These were joined by 2,560 teachers. As an NGO
BEFARe had to fall in line with the economic situation,
just like a private company, and plan its number of
employees accordingly.
The specialist departments and their tasks
BEFARe had four service and four specialist depart-
ments. The operational and content tasks of the project
were controlled by the specialist departments.
Formal education:
A specialist department was responsible for all tasks
in Formal education. 23 master trainers and 59 field
education supervisors were responsible for taking care
of the more than 300 refugee schools in 21 districts of
North West Province, in which over 100,000 primary
school pupils were assisted each year during the final
phases. In addition to the provision of school materials
and textbooks, the department was also responsible for
the overall management of the school administration.
44
Organisational structure of BEFARe at the end of the project
Source: BEFARe/MIS
AG-BASEd
Graphic 2
ProgrammingDepartment
NF-EducationDepartment
F-EducationDepartment
CommunityParticipation &DevelopmentDepartment
FinanceDepartment
Administration & Human
ResourcesDepartment
MIS/M&EDepartment
Research &DevelopmentDepartment
Programming &Implementation
Division
Finance &Operations
Divison
Chief Executive
Board of Trustees
This meant it was responsible for the quality of the
lessons and for holding basic and refresher courses,
as well as subject-specific courses and “focal point”
activities as part of the training and further training of
teachers. Since 1990 some 7,000 teachers, including
around 2,100 women, were given further training in
general methodology and didactics as well as in the
use of pupil-oriented teaching and learning materials,
and offered further support through ongoing focal
point teaching consulting. The department was also
responsible in terms of content for the ongoing revi-
sion and completion of the curriculum, the textbooks,
as well as the relevant teacher manuals and supple-
mentary learning materials. Furthermore, it was
responsible for the examinations and certification.
Non-formal education:
From the very outset of the project the specialist de-
partment Non-formal education played a very im-
portant role with its programme approaches. For boys
and girls who – because they were refugees – were
not initially able to attend school and who due to their
age could not later be integrated into formal teaching,
the literacy measures were an adequate education
offering. In particular girls, who were no longer sent
to school by their parents once they reached puberty
for cultural reasons, were able to take part in lessons
again thanks to the special school model “Home
Schools”. The Home Schools offered lessons for
grades one to five in the private homes of refugees.
In the majority of cases the lessons were given by
mothers who had been given further training, based
on their own school education, as teachers. Given the
low number of approximately 20 pupils per class in
the Home Schools it was possible to cover the school
curriculum in two to three years rather than five.
Young people and adult men and women participated
in the staggered education measures alongside their
daily work; the lessons took place in private houses
or in buildings used for public gatherings. The courses
were followed up with simple, informal vocational
education measures so as to allow the graduates an
opportunity to improve their income.
Functional literacy courses were held for mothers and
young women on the topics of mother and child
health/family health. These included baby/child care,
health care and social matters within the family. These
non-formal education offerings were controlled by five
to six female master trainers and eight to twelve female
supervisors. The department was responsible for the
literacy measures. Basic courses for teachers were
generally conducted with a master trainer and trainers;
further training courses were often coupled with corre-
sponding courses in the field of formal basic educa-
tion. This department was also responsible for the
content of the textbooks, the production of the audio
cassettes in Pashto to accompany the courses, and for
other materials needed during lessons. The vocational
courses offered after the conclusion of the measure
also ranked among the responsibilities of this depart-
ment. On average, 400 measures with a total of 10,000
to 12,000 participants were conducted each year.
In the early 1990s the project recognised that the
Afghan refugee families from rural areas had an am-
bivalent stance towards the ongoing school attendance
of their children. Very often regular school attendance
was not possible in Afghanistan due to the lack of a
comprehensive education offering. Boys had to con-
tribute to the family’s income at an early stage. Girls
were no longer sent to school with the onset of pu-
berty. It was necessary to change this pattern in the
camps in Pakistan.
From the mid-1990s onwards, and in particular after
the take-over of the UNHCR schools, significance was
attached to greater participation in school life on the
part of parents and communities. This brought forth
Community Participation and Development, which to
this day still secures a great deal of the acceptance and
success of the basic education measures offered by
BEFARe.
45
46
Community Participation and Development:
One of the main tasks of the specialist department
Community Participation and Development was
the foundation and training of members of community-
based School Management Committees (SMCs) at each
individual school and with each literacy measure. The
work of the SMCs, with numerous, diverse community-
oriented information and mobilisation measures, not
only led to a noticeable decline in the drop-out rates,
but also to a significant increase in the enrolment rates
for girls. In 1996 some 6,000 girls enrolled for school,
by the end of 2002 this number had increased more
than five-fold to around 32,000. Thanks to the commu-
nity-oriented information work, women became aware
of their thirst for education.
Under the guidance of a local community development
expert the 16 motivators, as well as 23 assistants, estab-
lished a sustainable community development concept –
through training in awareness creation, as well as the
organisational development of school management
committees. In 2002 alone, more than 3,000 persons
were trained for 320 SMCs. The SMCs regularly partici-
pated in in-school and out-of-school activities, for ex-
ample construction measures and repair work in the
schools, the collection of donations for the repairs, tree
planting and cleanliness campaigns, as well as measures
to reduce the number of drop-outs and the amount of
time pupils were absent from school. Not least of all,
the SMCs were increasingly involved in decision-mak-
ing processes and the appointment of new teachers.
Ultimately the members of the SMCs, and in particular
the older ones, had acquired sufficient authority and
standing to settle disputes among the teachers, be-
tween teachers and parents, as well as between par-
ents and other parties. BEFARe strengthened the func-
tion of the SMCs as mediators in disputes.
The well dispute
SMC came into action in Gawaki refugee camp when the head of the primary school and the head of the
middle school found themselves at dispute over a well. The head of the primary school had the well dug
in the school compound, his colleague, the head of the middle school, was of the opinion the well should
be outside the compound, the reason being that it would be easier for the latter to get water for his own
domestic use. The community elders accused him of upsetting the entire camp, something which left him
totally unperturbed. The situation escalated, with the two head teachers ultimately threatening one another
with pistols. The district administrator intervened; the pair were thrown into jail.
The SMC and project staff discussed the dispute in detail in the search for a solution; after all, the conflict
had had a negative impact on pupils as well as on the camp community. The case was carefully analysed,
the interests of both parties weighed up. It was clear that the motive for the pair’s behaviour was personal
gain and not the well-being of the community.
It was decided to send a delegation of camp elders together with the community motivator to the IRC office
and obtain authority to dig a second well outside the school compound. This was granted. The inhabitants
of the camp helped with the construction of the well, which not only provided 400 pupils with water but
also 45 families in the neighbourhood. The following decision was taken with regard to the two disputing
head teachers: Both were relieved of their positions as head teachers and transferred to other schools. They
were also given a disciplinary warning.
Management Information System:
In reaction to the 1996 recommendations in the inter-
nal GTZ progress report by Glatzer and Frommer the
department Management Information System
(Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation) began
with the ongoing development of impact assessment.
The information system for the formal and non-formal
basic education sector comprised three components:
– Information about the individual camp schools in
the province,
– Personnel profiles of the schoolteachers,
– Data on the School Management Committees.
From 1999 onwards it became evident that parallel
to the existing Management Information System “soft”
data from the rest of the project environment also
had to be gathered so as to acquire information and
knowledge about the target groups and their conduct,
wishes and needs. In this context the “Participatory
Monitoring and Evaluation System” (PM&E) was intro-
duced, with over 900 persons receiving training.
Knowledge Center:
Among the most important tasks at the specialist depart-
ment Knowledge Center (knowledge management
and development of teaching and learning mate-
rials) was the development and ongoing development
of teaching and learning materials, as well as their
publication, in close cooperation with the departments
Formal education, Non-formal education, Community
Development and PM&E. This covered all textbooks
and the accompanying training manuals for teachers of
grades one to six in the two languages Pashto and Dari.
Moreover this specialist department was responsible for
the library, the procurement of new textbooks, for the
mobile libraries, as well as the mobile physics and
chemistry laboratory boxes. This also included their
provision with spare parts and their expansion. In the
final project phase and in the wake of the launch of
knowledge management, the department also became
familiar with electronic archiving of the teaching and
learning materials, as well as the additional learning
aids, developed to date. Great demands were placed
on the specialist department and its nine employees –
teachers, textbook authors, illustrators, calligraphers
and computer experts.
Programming and development:
For a long time the department Programming and
Development was only staffed by one employee. Later,
as BEFARe increasingly performed reimbursable technical
cooperation activities, the number of personnel was in-
creased by two. The department was primarily respon-
sible for the timely implementation of project tasks and
project components. In addition to its project manage-
ment tasks, it increasingly became a key point of con-
tact for coordination processes and clarification with the
local partners, with reimbursable technical cooperation
partners, as well as with other local, regional and in-
ternational aid organisations working in Afghanistan.
Furthermore, over the years the department was in-
creasingly involved in the acquisition of new project
measures (reimbursable technical cooperation compo-
nents). A marketing study was prepared in order to place
BEFARe in a position after the end of the project to con-
duct coordinated marketing of its products and services.
Finances:
The department Finances with four employees was re-
sponsible for the entire financial planning and book-
keeping. Its responsibilities also included taking care of
national income tax matters and the invoicing of proj-
ect components in accordance with the financial and
budget rules of the respective client.
Towards the end of the project the department began
with the establishment of an accounting system inde-
pendent of the German involvement, and with initial
work for the preparation of finance plans which re-
flected various financial bottleneck scenarios after the
end of the project. Ultimately, the department partici-
pated in the elaboration of a business plan for the new
BEFARe NGO.
47
Administration and Personnel Development:
The department Administration und Personnel
Development comprised 81 employees, who, along-
side general administrative tasks in the main office,
also had to take care of the administrative tasks for
the six resource centres. The logistics, repair and main-
tenance of 43 vehicles, the storage and procurement
of materials, the organisation of training courses and
planning workshops, the security tasks, building ad-
ministration and repairs and conversions were also the
responsibility of the department. The planned inde-
pendence of BEFARe made the establishment of a sub-
unit necessary two years before the end of the final as-
sistance phase; this unit was responsible for personnel
development, job descriptions, department-specific
“working profiles”, career planning for personnel, fur-
ther training and instruments for personnel evaluation.
In this context the sub-unit assumed a central role in
the revision of the entire body of rules for personnel
planning and administration.
2.3 The education concept of BEFARe
Previously teaching and learning materials produced
by bodies not directly involved in the project failed to
prepare pupils sufficiently for dealing with day-to-day
life and a later working life. Teaching with these peda-
gogically questionable materials (UNO book from the
University of Nebraska and Omaha) was also a source
of great difficulty for the teachers. In lessons the teach-
ers slipped into old-fashioned teaching patterns, as the
lessons generally only involved teacher-centred learn-
ing and learning by heart without any sustainable
learning effect. At over 20 per cent the drop-out rate
was very high.
This was compounded by the restrictive power of
political-traditional and religious leaders in the camps,
whose influence over all aspects of life was evident.
This meant that clear limits were placed on the partici-
pation of women and girls in activities outside the
home, with the effect that enrolment rates for girls
were extremely low and access to non-formal educa-
tion offerings remained difficult for women. There
was no modified education offering for girls in suitable
homes (home-schooling). Likewise there were no non-
formal education offerings for children who for various
reasons had had no access to basic education during
primary school age.
Shortcomings in school management and in the super-
vision of schools were the reason for quantitative and
qualitative deficits in the basic education sector, as was
the lack of participation and involvement of refugees
in the development of their schools. Moreover, there
was no concept for the integration of education pro-
grammes for refugees into sector-based development
programmes – be this in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Comprehensive framework conditions for Afghan
refugees securing an independent and sustainable
existence were totally lacking or were inadequate.
Overcoming prejudices and reservations
Over the years the reservations of the refugees towards
modern education were increasingly reduced. Educa-
tion programmes were no longer regarded by a rising
number of refugees as a danger from the west to their
cultural values and standards. Acquiring the basis skills
of reading, writing and arithmetic was increasingly re-
garded as a prerequisite for participation and career
progress in the alien environment. The existence of an
effective, and above all familiar, school infrastructure
was a basic prerequisite for many refugees (community
elders and patriarchs, parents, teachers, head teachers,
trainers etc.) being able to return to Afghanistan, so as
to be able to contribute to the re-development of the
education system there.
BEFARe’s methodical-didactic approach in the formal
and non-formal education sectors was based on teach-
48
ing materials which were qualified to equip pupils
to better cope with daily life. The extensive BEFARe
education model was so freely designed in terms of
curriculum that it could be integrated into the frame of
reference of an Islamic society. New knowledge was
treated so that it would tie in with existing knowledge.
In the non-formal sector the approach was restricted
to the expansion of skills and abilities with which
adults could permeate their own environment and
utilise these in economic terms, i.e. education and
employment. The primary objective here was convey-
ing the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic.
With the literacy courses and mother and child health
courses (MCH) this project area was aimed directly
at Afghan women. The woman’s programme was
geared to teaching and educating women, and sup-
porting their autonomy and independence. It was
able to contribute to improving and consolidating
their status within the family.
Formal and non-formal basic education
BEFARe’s offering of formal and non-formal education
took into account religious, national and cultural values
so as to preserve the identity of the refugees. The formal
education programme included the following aspects:
– Provision of basic education for grades one to six in
the subjects Pashto, Dari, Islamiat, arithmetic, physics,
chemistry, social studies, geography and in part English;
– Improvement in teaching and learning standards
through staggered training and further training for
teachers:
- Basic qualification (10 days),
- Revision courses (5 days),
- Further training at the place of work (ongoing),
- Subject-specific further training,
- Joint further training with other education projects,
- Teacher training and further training for middle
schools at the training centre of the refugee
commissioner (CAR).
In the period from 1996 to 2003 some 7,000 teachers
participated in the basic and revision courses; 370
teachers came from other NGOs or from the CAR
education department responsible for middle and
secondary schools.
– Provision of and consulting in formal school
management since 1996:
- Administration of 320 schools (190 for boys,
74 for girls and 56 mixed schools) with over
112,000 pupils, thereof over 29,000 girls (26.5%),
with over 2,800 teachers, thereof 567 female
teachers (19%) and 438 teacher’s assistants,
- In 28 schools there were double shifts, further
schools are scheduled for double-shift operation,
- Books, exercise books, pencils etc. were
provided for the pupils.
– The production of teaching and learning materials:
- Textbooks for mathematics, Pashto and Dari,
as well as teacher guides, are developed and
published for grades one to six,
- 16 different types of teaching materials such as
maps, charts, introductions to scientific subjects etc.
are developed and published for both national
languages.
In addition to the provision of and consulting in formal
school management, the non-formal education pro-
gramme included the implementation of teacher training
and further training, training for illiteracy instructors, as
well as the production of the requisite materials. The
following measures were conducted in the field of
non-formal basic education:
– Mother and Child Health (MCH) courses:
The measures were conducted in refugees’ quarters.
The courses for women offered basic education and
knowledge/aids to cope with daily life:
- Mother and Child Health,
- Precautions during pregnancy,
- Information to reduce infant mortality,
- Child growth and nutrition,
- Knowledge of the environment and hygiene,
- Awareness of the dangers of mines.
49
These MCH courses in the field of functional literacy
were integrated into the adult education programme and
lasted six months. Over 82,300 women have participated
in the Mother and Child Health courses since 1989.
– Literacy for adults:
- These courses with a duration of 19 months were
directly aimed at adult illiterates and comprised
reading, writing and arithmetic.
- The courses were offered in the national
languages of the participants.
- More than 71,200 participants, including 26,400
women and girls, successfully concluded over
3,700 courses in this programme since 1992.
– Home Schools for girls and boys:
- These courses – held in refugee accommodation –
were offered to boys and girls who, for cultural
and age reasons, were not in a position to
complete their education as originally planned.
- With this type of teaching the material normally
covered in five school years was dealt with in
a period of 30 months.
- The subjects were identical with those in formal
basic education.
- Each course had an average of 25 participants.
- The courses were offered in the national languages
of the participants.
- Since 1996 more than 31,100 children, including
over 10,900 girls, graduated in over 1,900 measures.
– Development of materials for non-formal education:
- NFE textbooks and teacher guides for lessons in
reading, writing and arithmetic in the national
languages Pashto and Dari;
- Additional learning materials in Pashto and Dari;
- Teaching materials for NFE textbooks;
- MCH books in the languages Pashto and Dari,
and MCH teaching materials, also in the two
national languages;
- In addition, 21 audio cassettes (Pashto) were
prepared for the MCH courses.
Moreover, there was a small volume of materials
for the income-generating vocational qualification
measures which had begun in the fifth phase
of the project.
The teaching and learning materials were designed
so that they were suited for use with pupil-oriented
teaching. In agreement with UNHCR, UNICEF, UNESCO
and other international organisations, as well as with
Afghan pedagogic staff from other regionally active
NGOs, the teaching areas which were considered
necessary for the education of Afghan children under
the prevailing conditions were laid down.
Among other things the teaching materials reflected
the following statements:
– Respect the culture of Afghan Islamic community
and protect its values.
– Arouse their sense of love, good understanding,
cooperation, solidarity, sentiments, brotherhood and
peace with own family members, classmates and
countrymen and act upon them.
– Recognize own responsibilities in the community as
true Afghan Muslim.
– Growth of their personality as a sound and active
member of the community and play their role in the
community.
– Be prepared to actively participate in the reconstruc-
tion of Afghanistan according to their age, knowl-
edge information and skills acquired.
– Learn the basic principles of speaking, reading
and writing and based on that, further develop
own future learning skills according to their age
and capacity so as to lead a successful daily life.
– Acquire knowledge concerning the cleanliness and
hygiene of their family and environment and to
apply it.
– Respect social values and law and observe them.
– Acquire knowledge concerning natural environment,
mine awareness, drug abuse and basic health.
– Get knowledge about the personal environment and
homeland.
– Develop their sense of aesthetics in life and enjoy
the beauty of nature, community and arts.
50
– Enjoy leisure time and in relation to growth, imple-
ment own decision.
Thus key content on peace education, human rights,
mine awareness, environment, health education, re-
construction, as well as reconciliation and the unity of
the Afghan peoples is to be found in nearly all the
books for the respective subjects and class levels.
Teacher manuals were prepared to accompany all the
text books in the individual subjects for all class levels;
the teachers were to orient themselves to these manu-
als when preparing lessons. Each guide book begins
with an introduction. This introduction provides a
guideline for the teacher on the correct use of materi-
als. It also helps the teacher, providing information
about the total number of units and their further divi-
sion into sub-units or daily lessons. It also underlines
the importance of relating previous knowledge to the
new material in each lesson.
For quality reasons the entire material was subject to
continuous internal evaluation so as to include the nec-
essary modifications and corrections that arose during
the course of a school year. External appraisals and
suggestions for improvements were facilitated through
feedback from those organisations which used the
BEFARe materials.
Materials and certificates
From 2001 onwards UNICEF propagated newly-created
textbooks for Afghan refugee schools in Pakistan as
well as schools in Afghanistan; these were based on
the “Competency Based Learning Approach”. On the
one hand, these were recommended for school use; on
the other hand, in Afghanistan at the beginning of 2002
those books in use were out-dated cost-favourable
books, reprinted in Pakistan, from the University of
Nebraska and Omaha, which the Ministry of Education
in Kabul favoured. NGOs in Pakistan and Afghanistan
however, who already used the BEFARe books, rarely
changed their materials and continued to use the
BEFARe books. In order to establish the value of the
BEFARe textbooks on both sides of the border, two in-
dependent experts prepared a study with the aid of the
UNESCO office in Islamabad. The BEFARe materials,
formal and non-formal, were given a positive evaluation.
BEFARe undertook measures to have school certificates
and teaching and learning materials recognised by the
Afghan authorities – initially without any success. The
shifting events in Afghanistan, associated with changing
power structures within the ministries, did not permit
this for a number of years. Decisions were not or could
not be taken by the Afghans, with the effect that school-
children and young people returning to Afghanistan
with the corresponding BEFARe certificates did not
have any legitimised documents. Schoolchildren who
attended the secondary schools run by CAR in the
camps or who wanted to attend secondary schools in
Pakistan were able to do so following a corresponding
test by the respective new class teacher. Pakistani
schools, however, long retained the right to only ac-
cept Afghan children when class sizes permitted this.
It was only in mid-2004 that the Afghan Consulate in
Peshawar, as the representative of the Afghan min-
istries of education and foreign affairs in Kabul, con-
firmed the recognition of certificates in compliance
with certain pre-conditions.
Ever since the creation of BEFARe the available teach-
ing personnel had been highly heterogeneous with re-
gard to pedagogic qualification. In addition to older
refugees from Afghanistan (with teaching certificates),
many younger refugees who had no prior training
were later also trained as teachers. These also included
Pakistani personnel, who – on the basis of a decree
from CAR – had to be deployed in virtual parity to the
number of Afghans.
The following objectives were set for the various
teacher training courses, divided into basic (10 days)
51
and refresher courses (5 days), as well as the voca-
tional and subject-specific further training measures:
– Consolidating and strengthening the pedagogic
knowledge of the teachers,
– Familiarising future and serving teachers with
BEFARe’s teaching and learning materials and the
corresponding teaching methods,
– Improving the teaching skills of teachers,
– Empowering teachers to plan teaching and learning
processes flexibly and in line with needs,
– Making teachers and head teachers familiar with
school and lesson management,
– Increasingly making teachers familiar with topics
such as mines, drugs, health, and peace education.
For new teaching personnel the basic courses included
general content on pedagogy, lesson preparation and
practical instruction (model lessons, micro-teaching).
From the mid-1990s onwards new content, for example
HIV/AIDS and environmental education, was integrated
into the further training for teachers.
In the 1996 project progress report Glatzer and Frommer
noted, however, that the teachers stuck too closely to the
BEFARe books in lessons (see also UNHCR-GTZ report
from 2002). This shortcoming could not be remedied to
full satisfaction by the end of the project. Many of the
Afghan teachers only had twelve years of school educa-
tion and had not completed their final teaching exami-
nations; thus they continued to require a narrow focus.
At the same time the “focal point” consulting established
by BEFARe in 1997 ensured a slow but sure improvement
in the confidence and professionalism of these teachers.
Above all it was older teachers who had difficulty in
shifting away from the traditional teacher-oriented
methods. “It is possible that the project has reached its
limits of improving the teaching methods, perhaps be-
cause of a deep-rooted contradiction between the per-
ceptions of learning and the objectives of learning in
Afghan and European education systems” (Glatzer und
Frommer 1996, 29).
From 2002 onwards – also in line with the recommen-
dations following the evaluation of the reimbursable
technical cooperation components conducted by UNHCR
– new pedagogic concepts with a specific orientation
to refugee children, were increasingly included in the
further training for teachers. In this respect particular
significance was attached to the psycho-social situation
of the children. The new content and further training
objectives were implemented in consecutive phases and
modules, and conveyed in a so-called cascade system:
1. Master Trainer,
2. Field Education Supervisors and head teachers and
3. School teachers for formal basic education as well
as teachers for non-formal education and literacy
measures.
Community mobilisation and development
The greater the extent to which the private sector,
NGOs, the department “Social Welfare Cell” within the
Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees, and the ref-
ugees themselves became involved in attaining qualifi-
cations for the establishment of capacities for the plan-
ning and implementation of basic education, the more
effective and sustained were the self-help activities on
the part of the refugees. As the communities helped to
determine the education and training needs and evalu-
ate the possibilities within the respective community
for the assumption of responsibility for some of the ed-
ucation measures, they were able to promote the im-
plementation of basic education. Active participation
and mobilisation enhanced the commitment of the
community towards realizing the desired objectives
and also encouraged them to demand education and
training services.
BEFARe’s main tasks in school-oriented community
mobilisation and development were:
– Ongoing further development and implementation of
the successful, sustainable community development
concept;
52
53
The phase concept of the new teacher further training
General Objectives
1. Provide education for all taking into consideration the interests of heterogeneous learning con-
texts and needs vis-à-vis economic, social, cultural and ethnic including cross-border demands.
2. Develop relevant values and attitudes in respect of the Afghan contexts both as refugees and re-
turnees.
3. Provide skills to enhance the full potential of the child especially of the girl child.
Specific Objectives
1. Develop skills related to learner-centred styles of teaching, focusing on problem-based approaches
emphasizing process skills related to divergent thinking.
2. Enhance the competencies related to holistic evaluation and analytical assessments.
3. Improve skills related to concept based teaching, learning and evaluation.
4. Develop stress management skills in refugee contexts and deprived environments amongst educa-
tional personnel.
Phase I
1. Mega trends in educational development: lessons to be learnt in refugee/deprived contexts,
2. Why refugee education? Issues and prospects,
3. Understanding the child in the refugee context.
Phase II
1. Positive teaching – positive learning in a refugee framework,
2. Direct instruction,
3. Effective teaching in a refugee context,
4. Concept approach to teaching – learning and why is it better for refugee children,
5. Problem based instruction and how it develops self-confidence amongst the deprived.
Phase III
1. Significance of evaluation under stressful conditions,
2. Stress management – role and functions of the head teacher.
Phase IV
1. Methods of identifying training needs,
2. Planning for practice in refugee schools.
– Motivation and mobilisation for the provision of re-
sources through regular visits, meetings, follow-up
meetings as well as periodical extra-curricular events
(Human Rights’ Day, Children’s Day, Refugees’ Day,
Teachers’ Day etc.;
– Community-related organisation development, capac-
ity building and support from SMCs.
As a consequence of these consultations and the posi-
tive example of the School Management Committees
the communities were prepared to
– Conduct improvements on the school grounds and
in the vicinity,
– Organize extra-curricular activities for the pupils
(sports, open day, music, poster and sports competi-
tions),
– Build classrooms and repair schools,
– Organize campaigns such as tree-planting and “anti-
litter/cleanliness days”,
– Drill wells for the schools and take care of the water
supply where necessary,
– Provide and create learning materials for lessons,
– Play a positive role in encouraging parents to send
their children to school on a regular basis.
By December 2003 functioning SMCs had been estab-
lished at all 320 schools; the SMCs had an average of
15 members. Thus it was possible to drastically reduce
drop-out quotas and the amount of time pupils were
absent from school. An internal BEFARe study from the
end of 2002 revealed that of the school drop-outs who
were not repatriated but remained in Pakistan, about
one sixth could be persuaded to return to regular
school attendance through the activities of the SMCs,
the Child-to-Child Groups, the “Old Student Groups”,
and not least of all through the CP&D department itself.
The reward for the endeavours of the SMCs and their
information work was a constant rise in the enrolment
quotas for girls:
– In 1996 there were 40 girls’ schools; by 2002 the fig-
ure was 75;
– In 1996 there were no co-educative schools; by 2002
the figure was 62;
– In 1996 there were no girls’ schools in southern
NWFP; by the beginning of 2002 the figure was
twelve, although there were still no girls’ schools in
the neighbouring Pakistani tribal areas. In 2002 a fur-
ther 19 new schools were opened in the south, ten
for girls and nine as co-educational schools.
The efficacy of the SMCs may be measured in terms of
the school-related activities and the volume of dona-
tions from neighbouring refugee (school) communities,
as well as the fees voluntarily imposed by many schools.
These amounted to five rupees per pupil per year; this
approximates to about six cents; very poor families
were exempted from these fees, however. In this man-
ner it was possible to collect a total of 2.56 million
Pakistani rupees in 2003, or about 42,600 euros. This
money was used for the construction of 108 additional
classrooms, for 27 verandas affording protection from
the sun, for 47 shallow wells with pumps, 55 toilets,
for repairs at 225 schools, for connection to electricity
supplies so as to allow for lighting in various schools,
and not least of all for the rental and lease of 18
schools and school compounds.
2.4 The BEFARe concept for peace education and conflict management
At an early stage BEFARe identified peace education
and conflict resolution and management as being the
key to peaceful understanding between the Afghan
refugees in the camps and as a basic prerequisite for a
future non-violent co-existence in Afghanistan. Not
only the children in the refugee communities, but also
the adults, were to acquire skills and abilities to cope
with daily life (life skills), values, modes of conduct
and attitudes which would lead to the full develop-
ment of the potential for co-existence. For the formal
basic education sector there was a total of 66 small
54
peace education teaching units, each lasting 40 min-
utes, in the school materials of grades one to six. The
content was included in the Community Participation &
Development Programme (CP&D).
Benefits and impact of peace education and
conflict management
In September 2003 BEFARe conducted a study on the
impact of peace messages in formal education. In this
manner it was intended to record the impact of the
BEFARe textbooks on the attitudes of pupils. The
pupils were surveyed on conduct among peers, at
home in the family, and in their social environment.
The SMCs were also included in the survey. The study
does not allow for any conclusions to be drawn on
changes in conduct and attitudes, however, as no com-
parative analysis was conducted.
The study was conducted in three stages:
– Review of the textbooks for peace education content
(in the broadest sense),
– Categorisation of the recorded peace messages,
– Interviews using structured questionnaires.
A total of 166 persons participated in the survey. Of
these 64 were schoolchildren in formal basic education,
36 were street children who did not attend school, 30
young people and 30 adults in non-formal basic educa-
tion, and six adults as representatives of the SMCs. The
surveys were conducted in the predominantly rural dis-
tricts of Timergara, Hangu and Abottabad. Although
the survey was not representative, it was still possible
to record the impact of school lessons on the attitudes
and conduct of pupils.
Results of the survey of children and young people
1. The majority of children and young people who do
not attend school (78%) are interested in attending
school. A large proportion of these children (22%)
have to help in the home however and contribute to
the household income. 72 per cent of the boys
would welcome their sisters attending school; the
majority of these girls do not go to school. Among
the reasons stated for the girls not attending school
were compliance with strict tribal rules, disapproval
of school attendance by the parents, and a lack of
schools.
2. Without exception children and young people show
respect for their parents, and above all for the father.
3. In response to the question of living together with
members of other ethnic groups and mutual help
among different groups 61 per cent of the children
and young people who do not attend school stated
that they do not live together with members of other
ethnic groups in the camp. There was no other indi-
cation about the state of the relations and co-exis-
tence. About half of the pupils at formal schools
stated that they do not live together with other clans;
here too there was no further explanation on co-ex-
istence.
4. Less than 11 per cent of the children and young
people stated that there is any form of conflict with
other children, when playing for example. The chil-
dren and young people stated that conflicts are clari-
fied by the parents as a rule.
5. More than half of the children and young people re-
ported disputes within the family.
6. The majority of boys (56%) reported that they have
been hit by teachers for having repeatedly missed
class, because of teasing in the classroom or not
paying attention during lessons. Three per cent of
the girls reported that they have been hit. Violence is
repeatedly applied – despite intensive further train-
ing for teachers. It was noticeable that older teachers
in particular tended to use this form of punishment.
55
7. Forty-seven per cent of the schoolchildren and five
per cent of the children who did not attend school
were prepared to mediate in disputes between chil-
dren and young people amongst one another.
Without exception the participants acknowledged
the benefits of participating in non-formal education
measures. “Twenty six percent male and twenty one
percent female respondents confirmed that they can
read and write since they attended the literacy
course. Similarly, ‘respect for others’ ‘increase in tol-
erance’ and ‘improved behaviour and attitude’ were
results attributed to their participation in the literacy
course by twenty two percent male and thirty one
percent female respondents. (…) These attributes
connected to the literacy courses as outcomes of
their participation are encouraging and impressive,
which would certainly help to promote peace and
harmony in Afghan society, when they are repatri-
ated,” states the study on this issue.
8. Eighty-three per cent of the surveyed group said
they would mediate in the conflict among children
in dispute. The rest would, moreover, advise both
parties for a longer period.
9. Fundamentally all of those surveyed were positive
about neighbourly help. There were some minor
shifts in opinion, dependent on the individual eco-
nomic position, on assistance with helping the sick,
transport to the hospital, getting medicines, over-
coming money problems, preparing food for the
needy etc.
10.A number of methods were regarded as suited to
solving conflicts. The traditional Afghan/Pakistani
conflict solution institution “jirga” was regarded as
the responsible institution. A “jirga”, which can com-
prise acknowledged representatives of influential
clans in the community, province or region, and
which can be traced back through time and in terms
of culture, is seen as an institution with a mediator
function.
With respect to the SMCs the study wanted to find out
whether there was any possible impact from peace-
building measures which could be traced back to the
intensive community mobilisation on the part of
BEFARe. This was indeed the case: “(The) majority of
the SMC members have been trained in different skills
such as motivation, organization, realization of task,
problem identification and its solution within the avail-
able resources. The members of SMCs integrate these
skills and knowledge in their own area to resolve con-
flicts and bring peace and harmony in the camp. For
example ban on aerial firing and conflict resolution
among students has become possible because of the
SMC, alumni and child to child group. Many other
problems are also solved by consulting the community
elders. In addition, the members of the SMC discuss
peace elements in hujra, mosques and in other social
gatherings, resulting in the development of a sense of
brotherhood, coordination and responsibility among
the people”.
In the interviews over 90 per cent of the SMC members
stated that they had learnt to listen to the other mem-
bers, to cooperate with them, to jointly assume respon-
sibility, to work in coordination with one another – in
brief: having created a basis for joint work. Their con-
tacts to pupils, parents, teachers, patriarchs, community
elders and other community members have improved,
stated the interviewees. They also saw improvements
in their social environment.
2.5 Unintended effects
As a result of the decree by the Pakistani Chief
Commissioner for Afghan Refugees that bilateral proj-
ects and projects run by international NGOs were to
be filled by equal numbers of staff from both nations,
there were complex conflict situations that could not
be remedied by the projects themselves. At the begin-
ning of 2000, for example, a leading and highly quali-
56
fied Afghan BEFARe employee was deported to Afgha-
nistan under suspicion of being a spy.
For a long time this incident prevented Afghan project
personnel from contributing freely and constructively
to decision-making processes and the projects. A lot of
effort had to be put in by the project management so
as to include Afghans in strategic project decisions on
possible future cooperations with Afghan NGOs and
the newly-created specialist ministries.
Not least of all, this incident damaged BEFARe in
Afghanistan. Ultimately a large number of events and
several visits by employees of Afghan institutions
(NGOs, consulate, and Ministry of Education in Kabul)
were necessary to repair the standing of BEFARe.
Although the predominantly two-year assistance phases
of BEFARe, with the exception of phase 5 at nearly 4
years, seem adequate for projects with an emergency
aid character, these often led to problems in the project
planning (strategy, networking and quality) and in the
cooperation with the partner organisations and the re-
imbursable technical cooperation partners.
As BEFARe was not incorporated into the state educa-
tion system, there was not enough planning security
to realise a long-term, extensive scheduling. Major
developments in terms of content – such as the study
and inclusion of international pedagogic standards
for the education for refugees – could only be attained
at considerable effort given the main task of looking
after 320 schools with some 110,000 pupils. The new
project objectives that had been included over the
years and the desired results placed such a burden
on staff that creativity and the introduction of innova-
tions often fell by the wayside (see Johannessen et
al. 2002).
At the same time the partners were repeatedly con-
fused by the short project phases, and at meetings re-
garding joint, more long-term planning it was repeat-
edly necessary to persuade others that BEFARe was a
reliable partner for long-term cooperation.
BEFARe’s basic education services for refugees in
NWFP had an unintended impact on the swift repatria-
tion of Afghans. The Commissioner (CAR) stressed in
2003 that many Afghans whose children had received
a relatively good school education in the camps during
their asylum years in NWFP increasingly regarded
education as an important prerequisite for shaping an
active life. These families would then very carefully
consider whether they should return to Afghanistan
as long as the children were of school age. In addition
to worries about jobs, the security situation and the
accommodation situation, school attendance was
a further major element in their considerations (see
also Glatzer and Frommer 1996, and Johannessen
et al. 2002).
BEFARe was responsible for creating a database with
the pedagogic career profiles of some 4,500 primary
school teachers working as teachers in NWFP and
Balochistan. While this database, which was intended
as a planning aid for the Ministry of Education in
Kabul as well as for provincial facilities and other edu-
cation NGOs active in Afghanistan, was acknowledged
by all the facilities, it has to date not been used by
the Ministry of Education. Joint workshops on the use
of the database were conducted with the support of
UNESCO and GTZ-IS/Kabul in Kabul, yet were only
attended by staff from NGOs.
Kabul reacted extremely reluctantly in response to the
potential of thousands of teachers with many years of
training who could more or less be recruited on the
other side of the border to rebuild the Afghan public
education system. The Ministry of Education in the
Afghan capital initially endeavoured to employ gradu-
ate teachers for the country’s school system. It was not
possible, however, to meet the major need for some
56,000 primary school teachers alone in the year 2003.
From mid-2004 onwards teaching staff from Pakistani
57
refugee camps (“BEFARe teachers”) were then allowed
to apply for accreditation with the Afghan consulate in
Peshawar for a teaching post in Afghanistan. Returning
teachers, also from overseas, normally have to undergo
a qualification examination in Kabul.
There was a similar situation with the recognition by
Afghan education agencies of school reports and ex-
aminations taken by returning children. A correspon-
ding agreement between the consulate and BEFARe
was signed in mid-2004. Repatriated primary school
graduates who wanted to continue their education in
secondary schools have to first pass a performance
test. If they pass this test, they may attend a secondary
school.
58
59
2.6 List of abbreviations
AG-BASEd Afghan German Basic Education
AWRC Afghan Women Resource Center
BEFARe Basic Education for Afghan Refugees
BMZ Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung
(Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development)
CAR Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees
CDAP/UN Comprehensive Disabled Afghan Programme/UN
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
COPE Community Oriented Primary Education
CP&D Community Participation and Development
DFID Department for International Development
DG Drittgeschäft (Reimbursable Technical Cooperation)
EU European Union
FE Formal Education
FES Field Education Supervisor
GOA Government of Afghanistan
GOP Government of Pakistan
HRD Human Resource Development
INEE Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies
IRC International Rescue Committee
MCH Mother and Child Health
MIS/M&E Management Information System/Monitoring and Evaluation
MT Master Teacher Trainer
NWFP North West Frontier Province
NFE Non-Formal Education
NGO Non-Government Organization
PM&E Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
RET Refugee Education Trust (under UNHCR)
SCF-US Save the Children (USA)
SMC School Management Committee
SWC Social Welfare Cell (in CAR)
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
VUSAF Verein zur Unterstützung von Schulen in Afghanistan (Society for the support of schools in Afghanistan)
WB World Bank
60
2.7 List of resource materials
Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ):
“Pakistan – Länderkonzept”, August 2003
BMZ: Krisenpävention und Konfliktbeilegung, Gesamtkonzept der Bundesregierung
vom 07.04.2000, Bonn, August 2000
BMZ: Sektorkonzept: Förderung der basic education in Entwicklungsländern,
BMZ-Konzepte Nr. 106, Bonn, August 1999
Ekanayake, S. B.: Mega Trends and Challenges in Refugee Education, GTZ-BEFARe 2003
Ekanayake, S. B.: Education in the Doldrums – Afghan Tragedy, Islamabad 2000
Glatzer, B. u. G. Frommer: Report on the Project Progress Review for the Project Grunderziehung für afghanische
Flüchtlinge (Basic Education for Afghan Refugees) in Pakistan, GTZ, Eschborn 1996
Ropers, N.: Peace-Building, Crisis Prevention and Conflict Management – Technical Cooperation
in the Context of Crises, Conflicts and Disasters, Eschborn 2002
Johannessen, E. M., S. B. Ekanayake and U. Bude: Evaluation of GTZ – Basic Education for
Afghan Refugees (BEFARe) in Pakistan; prepared for UNHCR/GTZ, June 2002
UNHCR: Education – Field Guide, Geneva 02/03
Sinclair, M.: Planning education in and after emergencies, UNESCO/IIEP, Paris 2002
Save the Children: Education in Emergency – Save the Children Policy Paper
(download from homepage)
Sommers, M.: Children, Education and War: Reaching Education For All (EFA) Objectives
in Countries Affected by Conflict. Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction Unit – Working Paper 1,
June 2002
Helmut Drechsler
Case study: Basic education for childrenand young people in Rwanda and Tanzania(1984-2001)
3.1 Introduction
Rwanda is one of the world’s poorest countries. The
small state in East Africa has a population of approxi-
mately eight million, with a density of 310 persons per
square kilometre. The country has no noteworthy natu-
ral or mineral resources; the mainstay of the economy
is agriculture. The majority of the population lives on
subsistence agriculture. That is no different today than
it was in 1994, the year of the genocide in Rwanda.
“In fewer than one hundred days a million lives were
wiped out, while all stood silently by and displayed
total indifference. South Africa was celebrating
Mandela’s election victory. In Europe the Allies had
landed on the beaches of Normandy exactly fifty years
earlier, paving the way for victory over the Nazis, and
had aroused the quiet hope that ‘that’ would never
happen again.” This is how the Rwandan authoress
Esther Mujawayo describes the genocide which she
had survived in her book.
As long ago as 1990 a war was smouldering between
the Rwandan government and the Front Patriotique du
Rwanda (FPR), ultimately culminating in the 1994
genocide. Neither the Arusha Agreement nor the pres-
ence of UN troops was able to prevent the escalation
of the political conflict between the various parties and
groupings in Rwanda. Under the Arusha Agreement the
FPR were promised seats in the government and in
parliament, it had already established itself in the par-
liament building with a delegation under UN protec-
tion. Trucks with chanting, rampaging and rioting
masses, decorated in the colours of “their” party were
rolling through the streets. The extremists in the MRND
had at this point already prepared lists for the system-
atic murder of opponents and were just waiting for a
suitable excuse.
This came about on April 6, 1994. The shooting down
over Kigali of the aeroplane carrying the presidents of
Rwanda and Burundi triggered the mass violence, the
genocide began. The FPR stepped up its attacks, the
military conflict shifted more and more towards south-
ern Rwanda. All these events triggered a mass exodus,
some left Rwanda for fear of being arrested as perpe-
trators, others for fear of the war.
Education promotion within the framework of German
technical assistance began ten years before the geno-
cide. It was not suspended during the genocide, but
transferred to the refugee camps in Tanzania and then,
as the situation eased somewhat, it was continued
again in Rwanda itself.
3.2 Overview of education assistance with Rwanda between 1984 and 2001
The education assistance began in 1984 with the
establishment and development of a mobile pedagogic
consulting service (Service Mobile d’Encadrement
Pédagogique, SMEP) for the further training of teaching
staff for practical lessons in grades seven and eight.
These practical lessons included technical subjects, as
well as agricultural and domestic topics. At this point
in time the primary level comprised eight school years,
which were sub-divided into three stages: grades 1-3,
grades 4-6, grades 7 and 8. Within the framework of
the structural changes Rwanda was urgently advised to
restrict the primary stage to six grades. Education re-
form ultimately led to grades seven and eight being
abolished. Thus the basis had been removed for the
SMEP.
Part 3
61
At the same time there was the risk for those complet-
ing the primary stage that their knowledge would be
restricted to a small number of topics in biology and
hygiene as the practical lessons had previously been
part of the now non-existent seventh and eighth
grades. The consequence was that the school reform
also included a revision of the curriculum. A new
subject was created – ‘Introduction to technology’
(‘Initiation à la Technologie’).
The “new” SMEP
The mobile pedagogic consulting service SMEP, which
was equipped and qualified at great expense and
effort, and which had a decentralised structure that
allowed it to function at prefecture level, was given
a new task: the further training of primary school
teachers in the subject “Introduction to technology”,
later STE – Sciences et Technologie Elémentaire,
(Elementary Sciences and Technology).
In 1992 the SMEP began with the development of a
concept for the new subject “Sciences et Technologie
Elémentaire” (STE). Sections of the draft curriculum
were tested, a “Nouvelle Méthodologie” (new method-
ology) with active learning methods was submitted in
draft form, the authors and trainers were qualified dur-
ing the development and testing of the materials. This
phase of the project ended in March 1994, the new
phase was due to begin in April. The curriculum for
STE was to be developed and the teachers given train-
ing for its implementation. Genocide and military con-
flict brought this project to an abrupt end. The project
was suspended for 19 months.
The work in the Tanzanian refugee camps
The years 1994 and 1995 are characterised by parallel
projects in Rwanda and Tanzania – something which
is extraordinarily significant for the political valuation
of the German development assistance, for conflict
management, and the initiation of reconciliation
processes.
At the end of April/beginning of May 1994 there
was a mass exodus from Rwanda to Tanzania. Some
600,000 Rwandans from the prefectures of Kigali,
Byumba and Kibongo were accommodated in eight
refugee camps in the Tanzanian districts Ngara and
Kagera. Among the refugees were approximately
80,000 children and young people of primary school
age. The education projects in the refugee camps were
aimed at preventing social dilapidation and helping
to alleviate the effects and consequences of refugees
having to flee their home country. An agreement be-
tween the Tanzanian government, UNHCR, UNESCO,
UNICEF and GTZ formed the legal framework for
this project, which began in July 1994 and ended in
December 1995.
Emergency aid and rehabilitation in Rwanda
In the second half of August 1994 the service office
of GTZ in the Rwandan capital Kigali resumed its work
on a provisional basis. The emergency aid measures
also included components for the education sector.
The German emergency aid in the education sector
supported the establishment of orphanages, ‘Children’s
Villages’ and schools with a high proportion of or-
phans. The focus was on the provision of beds,
chairs, tables, and above all food.
As of February 1995 an extra component – “Promotion
of basic education” – was included in the rehabilitation
programme for Rwanda. GTZ implemented this com-
ponent from March through to September 1995. An
initial objective was that of ensuring that the Ministry
of Education and its specialist institutions functioned
again and that teaching could resume. Above all,
buildings were repaired and teaching equipment and
materials delivered during this period.
62
Probably the most important task in this transitional
phase was the coordination of all the measures on the
part of German aid organisations in the education sec-
tor and the implementation of workshops with the
Rwandan Ministry of Education. These were necessary
as preparation for the resumption of project work in
the primary school sector and in the technical second-
ary education sector.
In November 1995 SMEP-STE resumed its work. This
was possible as the project objectives fundamentally
corresponded with the orientation towards education
policy and planning on the part of the ministry in
Rwanda and, just like the activities themselves, merely
had to be adapted in line with the current situation.
The main focus was to be on support for decentralised
structures in the further training of teachers. As no de-
cision had been taken at ministerial level on school
structures, the subjects to be taught and other curricu-
lar elements, the formulation of the project objective
was an open one: programmes, as well as teaching
and learning materials for STE (elementary sciences
and technology), were developed for grades one to
six and merely awaited their introduction. The project
was completed in December 2001.
3.3 Rwanda – 1991 to April 1994
The reform of the education sector – which was
adopted in 1975 and gradually implemented from
1977 onwards – produced not just positive effects,
but also a number of serious weaknesses. An un-
doubted success is the strengthening of the national
language in teaching. Kinyarwanda is the teaching
language in primary schools; its position has been
consolidated in the post-primary and secondary school
sectors. This measure did come in for some criticism,
however. Above all, intellectuals and parts of the
bureaucratic elite advocated the predominance of
French. A further success was the positive develop-
ment in the degree of qualification in administrative
and academic areas and institutions in the education
sector. However, the main objective of the school
reform, the enrolment of all school-age children in
the primary level, could not be attained.
The education reform and its impact
While it was possible to reduce the drop-out quota and
regional inequalities, in the school year 1989/90 only
74.1 per cent of all 7-year-olds were enrolled at school.
The net enrolment quota for all children of primary
school age was 62.2 per cent. Of ten primary school
graduates a maximum of four were able to attend sec-
ondary school. This situation exacerbated social in-
equality. Those with no access to primary school had
very little alternative but to remain in the countryside.
Those who did not manage to make the secondary
stage were more or less excluded from the modern
business sector and state administration when it came
to the selection of a professional career.
The abolition of the seventh and eighth primary school
grades had far-reaching consequences not just for the
primary level curriculum but also for post-primary
teaching. The disappearance of grades seven and eight
not only brought about a reduction in the number of
school years, but also led to lessons being less life-
and practice-oriented. The 1977 school reform had
shifted the practical lessons to grades seven and eight,
rather than orienting the entire curriculum towards the
real world, agriculture and technology from the very
first grade onwards. SMEP was located right at the
heart of this problematical situation.
A further education policy decision had to be taken
with regard to post-primary education, and in particu-
lar the CERAIs (Centre d’Enseignement et Artisanal
Intégré). In 1989/90 over 26,000 schoolchildren and
over 2,000 teaching staff in two to three centres per
commune were affected by this. The CERAIs were in-
63
stitutions with an academic character, reporting to the
Ministry of Education. One third of the curriculum in
the CERAIs was accounted for by general education
subjects, two thirds by subject-specific topics and prac-
tical vocational education. Girls were offered classes in
cookery, clothes-making, knitting and crocheting,
health and child care, as well as housekeeping; boys
were able to acquire skills as carpenters, bricklayers,
plumbers, electricians and welders, as well as in en-
gine repair and iron-working. All in all these facilities
were oriented towards the needs of the rural popula-
tion. Approximately half of the school-leavers remained
in rural areas, yet the innovations in agricultural pro-
duction were rarely initiated by these school-leavers.
With the abolition of grades seven and eight the
CERAIs were left up in the air.
A project audit on behalf of the BMZ led to a decision
not to support the CERAIs but to promote the develop-
ment of the curriculum for the first six school years
at primary level. The emphasis in terms of content
was to be on the subject of basic sciences, overall re-
sponsibility was to be with the further training unit
SMEP (Hanf, 73/74).
In 1991 the Rwandan government decided to transform
the CERAIs into CAPs (Centre d’Apprenntisage Pro-
fessionnel) with the aim of offering apprenticeships
in technical and industrial trades. This idea was later
discarded.
Essential components of the SMEP/STE project
During a workshop1 in September 1991 a general defi-
nition of the concept of “Introduction to technology”
was elaborated, and the general and specific objectives
drafted. To adapt the concept in line with Rwandan
primary school education, it was recommended that
the introduction to elementary technology be anchored
in terms of content as well as an integral methodologi-
cal approach.
The essential components of the project in the period
from January 1992 to March 1994 were:
– Revision of the character of the new subject
“Introduction to technology”, of the Profil de sortie
(description of the targets for graduates of primary
school), the objectives, the general education con-
tent, the range of subjects necessary for the primary
level, and ultimately the elaboration of the syllabus
and didactic materials;
– Elaboration of a concept for a “nouvelle méthodolo-
gie” in the primary stage and the further training of
teachers;
– Testing of the materials for STE, sensibilisation of the
school administration, teachers and parents, as well
as the general public.
Elaboration of the curriculum and didactic
materials
The directors of the DPEPERAI and SMEP gathered in-
formation together with a number of staff in Tanzania,
Kenya, Uganda, Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso on
how elementary technology was taught in schools in
these countries. The results of these studies and the
evaluation of additional materials formed the basis for
the discussion and elaboration of documents with a
proposal character.
Two results are of particular significance for the reform
of primary schools:
1. In line with international tendencies and taking into
account the target of lowering the number of teach-
ing hours per week at primary level, and of harmon-
ising and disencumbering the teaching schedule, it
was possible to create an integrated combination of
subjects. The original idea, namely that of adding a
subject “Introduction to technology” to the 13 sub-
jects already in the schedule, was discarded. Instead
it was proposed that the subject STE (Elementary
Sciences and Technology) be created, covering the
former disciplines “Etude du milieu”, “Hygiène”,
64
1 The French description “seminar atelier” is indica-
tive of the working character of this workshop. The
objective was always the development of a product.
“Sciences” (only biology topics – environmental stud-
ies, hygiene and sciences/biology) and “Travaux
manuels” (manual labour) as well as content to be
integrated from the spheres of physics and chem-
istry. It was also examined how topics from the for-
mer practical lessons in grades seven and eight could
be simplified in didactic terms so as to include ele-
ments from handicrafts, agriculture and housekeep-
ing. An integrative subject was also proposed and
was ultimately included for a period of three hours
weekly in the teaching schedule for all grades.
2. Extensive problems were identified in Rwanda and
the area around the Great Lakes, for example en-
ergy, electricity, firewood, water, cleanliness, irriga-
tion, agriculture, seeds, soil, erosion, forests, popula-
tion development, family planning, disease, malaria
and AIDS. Proposals were developed taking into ac-
count these topics within the framework of STE
teaching and submitted to the ministry and relevant
specialist institutions for their comments.
This phase proved to be an education event for the au-
thors of the programmes and other didactic materials,
as they were invited to viewings and information events.
A number of committees sent their representatives di-
rectly to the events, which had a seminar character and
which were organised by SMEP and DPEPERAI.
Elaboration of a concept “nouvelle méthodologie”
The second essential component of SMEP/STE concerned
the elaboration of a “nouvelle méthodologie” concept
and the further training of teachers. In the run-up to
a seminar on the new methodology in April 1992 staff
from various school facilities observed some of the
elements of teaching methodology in 247 schools in
339 lessons and eight teaching subjects. Among other
things it was observed whether the teachers preferred
a very one-sided teaching methodology and which
methods were most successful in allowing teachers to
prompt pupils to actively learn. The evaluation of the
observations permitted a realistic insight into teaching
practice. Again it was staff from DPEPERAI and SMEP,
along with a number of teachers, who attempted to
define a “nouvelle méthodologie”.
This process was continued in July 1992 with a further
seminar on didactic concepts of pupil-activating teach-
ing. This formed the basis for adding the finishing
touches to the brochure “New methodology for pri-
mary school teaching in Rwanda”. The new methodol-
ogy was published in the SMEP magazine and then
tested in teacher training courses.
Testing of the didactic materials and
sensibilisation of the general population
The third essential component was the testing of the
STE materials (curriculum, didactic materials, teaching
aids, drafts of teaching plans), sensibilisation of the
school administration, teachers, parents as well as the
general population. In November 1992 two primary
schools were selected in each prefecture as pilot schools.
In agreement with the Inspecteur d’Arrondissement a
well-equipped urban school with qualified teachers
and a rural school were selected.
From April 1993 onwards five chapters from the teach-
ing aids and the corresponding didactic materials for
the STE subject were tested in grades one and four.
Generally the visits to the schools were associated with
meetings with the local mayor and parents’ representa-
tives. The latter frequently participated in the lessons.
The subject was received with interest; in a number of
schools pupils and teachers demanded more lessons of
this kind. Yet at the same time the lack of qualified
training on the part of the teachers became apparent.
Moreover, for some subjects there was a lack of didactic
materials, and some parents were worried that the new
subject was a return to the – now abolished –practical
lessons. Many of the parents had always had reserva-
65
tions about the bias towards agriculture and practical
lessons. The response from the test phase led to many
proposals and hints for the revision of the materials.
The qualification of the syllabus authors and trainers
led to the responsible elaboration of school policy doc-
uments. The objectives, the Profil de sortie (description
of the targets for graduates of primary school), the
range of subjects, the draft syllabus and the methodol-
ogy could be comprehensively substantiated. There
were, therefore, working instruments adapted to the
Rwandan school situation as the basis for ministerial
decisions. Primary school was to be oriented towards
life and work, and be of practical relevance for the real
world. Reform, with the methodical reorganisation of
teaching towards pupil-activating teaching methods,
was initiated.
The participative approach was important. Authors,
teachers, trainers, parents, school administrators, as
well as other ministries and environmental projects,
were involved in the elaboration of the documents.
In this respect it was not a question of ethnic or reli-
gious origin; the decisive factor was conscious and
open-minded participation. Likewise all the regions
of Rwanda were included, as were over-crowded city
schools and remote rural schools. No peace education
or crisis-preventive elements in the narrower sense
were anchored in the curriculum, but an education
policy conflict, namely the remoteness from everyday
life of primary schools, was defused. Significant devel-
opment problems in Rwanda were included in the
teaching materials, which were elaborated with the
participation of diverse population groups.
3.4 In the refugee camps of Tanzania –1994-1995
In April 1994 whole communities from the prefectures
Kigali, Kibongo and Byumba fled to Tanzania, above
all over the bridge at the border crossing point in
Rusomo. The first major column of refugees crossed
the bridge over the Kagera River on April 28 and 29,
1994. At this point in time the Rusomo border crossing
point was no longer manned by the Rwandan army
(Forces Armées Rwandaises, FAR). According to esti-
mates, between 100,000 und 200,000 refugees crossed
to Tanzania on these two days. After April 29 the
bridge was controlled by the FPR, but the exodus of
the Hutus did not come to a standstill. South and north
of the bridge the masses crossed the Kagera River in
pirogen, the boats typical of the area.
Benaco, a Tanzanian town 16 kilometres from the bor-
der at Rusomo, experienced a catastrophic situation
over a period of two months, caused by a continuous,
yet unpredictable, flow of refugees. On June 7, 1994
the official count was 230,000 refugees. In the course
of 1994 this number rose to 437,000 in the Ngara dis-
trict and to 160,000 in the Karagwe district in northern
Tanzania on the border to Uganda. In September 1994
the UNHCR put the number of Rwandan refugees in
Tanzania at 599,000.
It was not the first time that refugees had flooded
into Tanzania from neighbouring countries. Refugees
had arrived from Burundi as long ago as 1972.
Mozambicans sought refuge in 1980, and Rwandans
had earlier fled there in 1990. The Tanzanian govern-
ment knew how complex the planning would be
for these camps: international agreements, human
rights, environmental protection and the provision
of supplies had to be taken into account, to name
but a few points. In negotiations UNHCR secured
the temporary placement of the Rwandan refugees
in three camps in Ngara district (Benaco, Lumasi,
Musuhura Hill) and in 5 smaller camps in Karagwe
district.
UNHCR reacted very quickly. The immediate creation
of material and personnel structures was eased by the
fact that UNHCR and a number of NGOs had already
66
taken care of some smaller refugee camps in Rwanda
itself before the genocide, as well as in Lukole refugee
camp in Ngara district, which accommodated refugees
from Burundi.
As early as the beginning of July 1994 UNHCR signed
an agreement with the Tanzanian government on a
project for the provision of firewood. The GTZ was
commissioned with implementing the project in Ngara
district. This also ensured the protection and rehabilita-
tion of the savannah and the forests. With the partici-
pation of the Tanzanian population the GTZ also as-
sumed responsibility for the transport of firewood and
instructed the refugees in the construction and use of
improved stoves for cooking.
In July 1994 UNHCR, UNESCO, UNICEF, the Tanzanian
government and GTZ also signed the “Memorandum of
Understanding on Emergency Education for Rwandese
Refugee Children in Tanzania”. A “Management Unit”
was commissioned with the implementation of this
school programme in the three refugee camps. The
five refugee camps in Karagwe were taken care of
by a unit of the Irish NGO CONCERN.
The fact that a number of communities as a whole had
left Rwanda eased the commencement of education ac-
tivities since teaching staff as well as the pupils were all
to be found in the camps. This affected some 80,000
children of primary school age and 700 teachers. The
majority were familiar with SMEP-STE and some of the
materials from the project were also available.
In its work in the Tanzanian refugee camps GTZ was
able to avail of the specialist personnel working in
Rwanda. The relationships and contacts established
with the administration of the schools prior to the
genocide alleviated the inclusion of education assis-
tance into the emergency measures in Tanzania.
In the care provided for refugees in Tanzania education
promotion has proved its worth as a basic strategy. Ob-
viously it is necessary to provide shelter, food, suitable
hygiene conditions and medical care. But education of-
ferings should also be provided in the refugee camps
for children and young people so as to promote mutual
understanding, peace and tolerance, partnership-based
help in conflict situations, an enhanced attitude towards
the environment, social cohesion, maintaining health,
reconstruction of the economic viability of the family
and the community. Taking care of children and young
people of primary school age in the refugee camps
should be regarded as a humanitarian and cultural value
and considered a human right and indispensable task.
Essential components
Less than two months after the signing of the Memoran-
dum of Understanding, in September 1994 over 45,000
children were amalgamated in learning groups outdoors,
were encouraged to participate in sports and games, and
invited to participate in language classes. In December
over 77,000 children and young people were receiving
some three hours of daily lessons in Kinyarwanda,
arithmetic, hygiene (including biology and environ-
mental topics), games, sport, singing, dancing and
French; these lessons took place in tents or relatively
stable hangars and used simple teaching materials. This
pleasing set of circumstances was the result of a large
number of activities and major efforts on the part of
the Management Unit as well as the self-help groups.
In the following two components are to be analysed
in particular.
Component 1: Creating project implementation units
in each camp, initiating self-help groups, developing
infrastructure appropriate to the actual situation
Effectively initiating such a project means balancing
out the administrative processes and creative self-help,
and enhancing the independence of the self-help
groups as the project progresses.
67
UNHCR and UNESCO initially practised a demanding
and dominant management style. Obviously this was
a result of the general situation in the camps. The
Benaco camp was over-populated. Musuhura Hill was
systematically developed through the resettlement of
refugees from Benaco in compliance with the old
community structures in Rwanda. Furthermore, UNHCR
was forced to make a move. According to the Memo-
randum of Understanding, UNHCR was obliged to pro-
vide, in line with an education programme with emer-
gency aid character, tents for teaching purposes, but
their delivery was delayed.
UNESCO, in turn, wanted to organise the teaching on
the basis of the Teachers Emergency Packages (TEP)
which it had already developed. TEP is a blue box
which provides a pedagogical and teacher guide for lit-
eracy in Kinyarwanda and arithmetic (first and second
grade level) in book form. It also includes slate boards,
charts with the alphabet and the numbering system up
to one hundred, books, pens and chalk. The produc-
tion of these was also supported by GTZ in the form
of financial aid, UNICEF assumed responsibility for the
entire distribution of TEP. Although TEP had already
been presented in mid-September 1994 at the further
training courses for teachers, the materials could not be
supplied to the schools until much later.
The agreements between UNHCR and the respective
NGOs, which each laid down the management respon-
sibilities for one camp, were concluded at differing
points in time, and in the case of CONCERN for the
camps in Karagwe district not until October 1995. This
impacted on the work of GTZ, for only thereafter was
it able to conclude the agreements on the management
of the education measures with the NGOs concerned.
After all these prerequisites had been fulfilled, the fun-
damental resolutions adopted by the Management Unit
headed by UNHCR could be implemented. This unit
bore responsibility for the political, technical and coor-
dinative management of the education programme. A
Comitée de Coordination discussed the practical issues
of project implementation. The NGOs responsible for
the camp management were also represented on this
committee.
The consulting services of the GTZ focused, in close
cooperation with the NGOs, on the technical and or-
ganisational empowerment of the self-help groups.
This was necessary for four reasons:
– Firstly, in each camp a project implementation unit
had to be initiated by the Rwandans themselves and
brought to a working level.
– Secondly, the lessons could not solely be based on
the TEP, but had to include activities such as singing
and dancing, and topics such as ethics and hygiene.
– Thirdly, the participation of the refugees in the de-
velopment of the school infrastructure was indispen-
sable.
– Fourthly, in the creation of the Rwandan project im-
plementation unit one of the assumptions in the
Memorandum of Understanding had to be corrected.
In July 1994 the Memorandum had assumed there
would be about 40,000 school pupils, and it had also
been assumed that the infrastructure would be devel-
oped in an orderly manner with a uniform settlement
of the camps. This was not the case, however. In
September 1994 there were already over 45,000
pupils alone in the Benaco, Lumasi und Musuhura
Hill camps, distributed unevenly over the camps.
All the four tasks were to be mastered by initiatives and
proposals from the Rwandan administrative structures
in the camp and from the parents, and through the
bundling of the specialist competence of the teachers.
Originally it had been assumed that 10,000 pupils
would have to be taken care of in each camp. For this
reason ten schools were to be established in each
camp, with eight classrooms in each school. The per-
sonnel comprised a head-teacher, a psychologist, 16
teachers, a health advisor and two security staff. In co-
operation with the respective NGO, the school unit
68
was headed by a Programme Development Officer
(PDO) and his assistant at camp level. An implementa-
tion unit of ten schools employed 212 Rwandans there-
fore, who received remuneration from the project. In
working groups the job characteristics were elaborated
for each function on the basis of previous experience
and then put into effect as a binding working base by
the Comitée de Coordination.
GTZ concluded an implementation agreement with the
NGO Christian Outreach (COR) and UNHCR, as well as
with the Tanzanian government. In this agreement the
GTZ agreed to assume the financing of the entire logis-
tics and all the workers for the establishment of the in-
frastructure, including latrines and water supply, in the
schools, as well as the production of the blackboards.
UNHCR had difficulty providing the tents at the agreed
time, as one supplier was unable to deliver, and UNHCR
had to find a new source. When the tents had finally
been erected in Benaco, it turned out that they were
not suited to their purpose as they collapsed when it
was windy, thus making them a danger to the children.
For this reason it was necessary to switch over to sta-
ble hangars. The 400 hangars each comprised eight
easy-to-assemble parts with open sides, for which
Rwandan women had woven mats. The roof was made
of stable sheet metal. The hangars were relatively easy
to assemble, disassemble and transport under the guid-
ance of an expert. After the repatriation of the refugees
they could be used in Tanzanian and Rwandan villages
as mobile classrooms, quarters for women’s and chil-
dren’s groups, as workshops or sales stands.
The hangars were assembled by the parents of the
children and young people, who also took care of the
digging of latrines and levelling off the school area. A
school comprised eleven hangars. Each school had ten
classrooms, a room for the teaching staff and the di-
dactic materials, which were guarded at night by a
watchman, and a latrine complex.
By June 1995 six such school complexes had been
established in Musuhura Hill, eleven in Lumasi and
ten in Karagwe. In Benaco the replacement of the 13
tent complexes with hangars was not completed until
December 1995.
The establishment of the school complexes was
very time-consuming and there were not always
enough volunteers to hand. On the days on which
firewood and food were distributed the work had
to be suspended.
69
Camp Number of schools/teacher groups
Number of pupils
Benaco 13 21,252
Lumasi 11 18,505
Musuhura Hill 6 11,342
Karagwe1
10 21,253
total 40 77,352
1Note: The implementation units in Karagwe were comprised as follows: Kyabalisa 5, Omukaliro 1, Kagenyi 2, Rubwera 2.
Distribution of the 40 implementation units to the camps (as of 31.12.1995)
Component 2: Pedagogic care of children and young
people of primary school age
After protracted and in part controversy-ridden debates
the original plan of two-shift teaching was transformed
into a three-shift system. The number of pupils had dou-
bled from 40,000 to 80,000, yet there were neither teach-
ers nor didactic materials available in sufficient numbers.
The three-shift system meant that a pupil had 15 hours
of lessons per week, with three hours per day. One
day had to be kept free for the distribution of fire-
wood, food and water, and for other activities in the
camp, such as registration of the refugees and vaccina-
tion campaigns. Three teachers taught six classes with
at least 50 pupils each in two classrooms. In this man-
ner it was possible for each school unit to provide les-
sons for at least 1,500 children and young people. With
a two-shift system it would only have been 1,000.
Another matter of some controversy was formed by the
subjects to be taught. In an initial phase through to the
end of September 1994 the thematic activities outdoors
were somewhat sparse and haphazard. Yet coming to-
gether as a group to do sport, play games, sing, dance
and discuss behaviour and health created a relaxed
and pleasant atmosphere, which contrasted with the
monotonous and tough life in the camp and the bar-
barous events in Rwanda and whilst fleeing the geno-
cide. For this initial stage UNICEF provided various
materials such as balls and ropes.
At the beginning of September the PDOs began devel-
oping provisional lessons in ethics, hygiene and French
with experienced teachers as a supplement to the TEP.
The high percentage rate for TEP (nine and a half
teaching hours of a total of 15) in grades four to six
was controversial. The pedagogic concept of TEP was
only suited for the early school years as its main point
of focus is reading and writing. Nevertheless TEP was
also used in grades four to six. The teachers often
never opened the TEP box in the classroom, however.
The provisional teaching programmes, in contrast,
included topics suited to the situation facing each of
the grades, and had been amended in line with camp
life by the teachers themselves on the basis of the
Rwandan curriculum. In the subject hygiene this
meant, for example, that the organisation of hygiene in
the camp, in the school and in the family was dis-
cussed, as was bodily cleanliness, clean water and the
environment, common diseases in the camp, and the
use of the latrines. The subject ethics dealt with prob-
lems and conduct in the camp, in the school and in
the family, relationships to neighbours, human rights,
70
TEP (reading and writing inKinyarwanda, arithmetic)(as % of total lessons)
EthicsFrenchHygiene(as % of total lessons)
GymnasticsSingingDancing(as % of total lessons)
1-3 school year 70 20 10
4-6 school year 60 30 10
The teaching programme in the second phase (September 1994-December 1994)
international organisations in the camp, the meaning of
life, conduct towards people in the camp and towards
the environment, as well as pedestrians on the camp
roads, to name but a few topics.
Within the framework of further training the teachers
were introduced to diverse and varied methods: allow-
ing children to give reports, discussing behaviour, role
games, letting children draw and write, group discus-
sions, compiling and putting forward arguments, prac-
tising being tolerant, collecting material in the hospital,
inviting organisations to participate, and much more
besides. In general it was recommended that active
methods be preferred and a teacher-centred format be
avoided.
In a third phase, from around December 1994 on-
wards, the subject hygiene was expanded to include
biology and technical topics. Among these were, for
example, physical anatomy, blood circulation, plants,
forests, energy, firewood, improved cooking stoves,
sources of light and the petroleum lamp. All this took
place against the background of difficult conditions;
there was a lack of didactic materials, and in particular
textbooks. Some classes did not even have a black-
board. Furthermore, there was a lack of materials for
meaningful self-entertainment such as paper, pens,
scissors and chalk.
In December 1994 UNESCO was able to distribute
teaching aids and textbooks for Kinyarwanda and
arithmetic, something which eased and improved
the teaching situation. UNICEF and GTZ endeavoured
to reproduce materials on individual topics in other
subjects.
The entire process was not without its setbacks. The
conditions in the camps, the delays in the development
of schools, and shortcomings in the quality of the
teaching impacted on the interest of the target groups
in attending school. For a while school attendance
even fell.
The reasons stated by children and their parents for
non-attendance of schools were:
– Housework; the majority of children are responsible
for collecting wood and for boiling water;
– Lack of clothing and food;
– Lack of schoolbooks;
– No suitable classrooms (tents in Benaco) which pro-
tected the pupils from rain, strong sunshine and wind;
– Many children living alone have no principal carer
who spends time with them and their problems and
motivates them to attend school.
The further training for teachers was intensified; this
led to an improvement in the quality of teaching and
71
Camp September 1994 March 1995 Drop-outs
Number %
Benaco 15,363 13,257 2,106 13.7
Lumasi 17,362 14,498 2,864 16.5
Musuhura Hill 12,421 9,454 2,967 23.0
Total 45,146 37,209 7,937 17.7
School attendance in figures – September 1994 to March 1995
its organisation. In the months from September 1994
to June 1995 a number of further training courses were
conducted for head teachers and teachers. The topics
were:
– School organisation (job characteristics, schedule,
three-shift system),
– Syllabus for the subjects Kinyarwanda, arithmetic,
French, hygiene, ethics, sport, singing, dancing,
– Working with the didactic materials and the text-
books,
– Active teaching methods under camp conditions,
– Dynamics and motivation of groups,
– Pedagogic psychology and its practical application
in classes,
– Coming to terms with trauma.
The further training measures were jointly organised
and conducted by UNESCO, UNICEF and GTZ, whereby
the essential technical assistance came from the GTZ.
With the commencement of lessons in the refugee
camps with the same teaching materials and pro-
grammes as in Rwanda it was intended to ease repatri-
ation and reintegration. For in the period through to
March 1996 over 150,000 refugees had returned to
Rwanda from Tanzania, among them some 20,000
primary level pupils.
For its transfer under similar conditions Bird recom-
mended the application of a 3-phase model: “(1)
Recreational phase, (2) TEP phase, and (3) formal
curriculum phase.” (Bird 2003, 17). However, the TEP
phase was also to be expanded to include a number
of topics from hygiene, environmental studies and
ethics, as had already been practised in Tanzania.
Evaluation of the education work in the
refugee camps
The argument that the education offerings for children
had contributed to the refugees remaining in Tanzania
is invalidated by the fact that refugees did not leave
camps that did not have such teaching and education
programmes. A point in favour of the education offer-
ings and child care programme is the fact that these
alleviated the social conflicts in the Tanzanian refugee
camps, and also prevented major social conflicts with
the Tanzanian population.
The evaluation of such a project depends to a great ex-
tent on the political and social starting positions. Ulti-
mately it is a question of whether such a project should
be established for a heavily endangered target group
within the population of a specific country and whether
the project has the intention of consolidating the school
structures of a country. One has to consider whether
there can be humanitarian aid and support for people
in emergencies without facilitating abuse through the
reconstruction of state school structures. There is al-
ways a residual risk that indirect negative effects could
be generated with such a project, i.e. life is eased for
the perpetrators as much as it is for their victims.
The education projects in the Tanzanian refugee
camps were restricted to the primary level although
there was often a desire to expand the project to in-
clude the secondary school level. As the assumption
that the majority of refugees would return after just
a few months proved to be incorrect, it would indeed
have been necessary to give consideration to offerings
for secondary school pupils and to introduce elements
of vocational education.
The Memorandum of Understanding and the imple-
mentation agreement between the Tanzanian govern-
ment, UNHCR, UNESCO, UNICEF, GTZ and the NGOs
were indispensable as a political, legal, technical and
financial framework. In Bird’s estimation the effective
coordination by UNHCR and the coordinated approach
taken by the participating organisations had a positive
effect. There has to be a clear mandate, however,
with sufficient leeway for the provision of professional
services.
72
The equipping of schools with teaching and learning
materials under emergency conditions is a matter of
discretion. Under camp conditions a minimum equipment
level should be elaborated in all events (see INEE 2004).
UNHCR initially acted outside the camps on behalf of
the camps. Only gradually did an organisational structure
develop in the refugee camps with the participation of
the target group; this structure never attained full inde-
pendence, however (cf. Bird 2003, 21). The degree of
identification of the refugee organisational structure
with the education measures increased as the refugee
organisational structure became established and from
September 1995 onwards as UNHCR changed its stance
towards the refugee communities. The refugee commu-
nities themselves now assumed responsibility for the
refugee schools. A school in the camp now developed
into the camp school. Bearing this in mind, technical
assistance should from the very outset be aimed at in-
volving the target groups and realising a participative
approach. Following a detailed analysis of the Ngara
model Bird arrives at a corresponding recommendation:
“Refugee expertise should be capitalized upon and
management and coordination should reflect refugee
participation at all levels” (Bird 2003, 22). The high
reputation of GTZ among Rwandan teachers and par-
ents is primarily due to the active inclusion of the tar-
get group and the brokers in the elaboration and im-
plementation of the project concept.
It proved to be cost-favourable that two projects (“fire-
wood” and “education”) were able to use the same
materials. In particular under such difficult conditions
reliable communication – in this case between Ngara,
Kigali, Bujumbura and Dar es Salaam – is indispensa-
ble. Also indispensable is regular cooperation with the
local authorities in the host country and the creation of
jobs for workers and craftsmen in the host country so
that these can improve their incomes.
The education project in Ngara was extraordinarily ef-
fective. In an emergency situation 40 functioning units
were established for nearly 80,000 children and young
people without there being any material or structural
infrastructure already available. The costs were less
than one euro per pupil per month. The most impor-
tant result, however, was the fact that children and
young people were able to be helped to peacefully co-
exist in a school community.
3.5 The work in Rwanda continues
Following the genocide the institutions in the state of
Rwanda had generally collapsed. In comparison to the
pre-war period only about 20 to 30 per cent of the ad-
ministration personnel were available. The Ministry of
Education was no exception. Many of the top positions
were not filled and some were filled by former refugees.
The Secretary-General was from the pre-war period,
the director of primary schools came from Uganda, the
director for the secondary school sector from Burundi.
Many public buildings had been destroyed. The Ministry
of Education had no windows or doors, rain poured
in through the roof. Of 1,836 schools only 648 were
usable to some extent in October 1994; 1,188 schools
were in urgent need of repair (cf. Obura 2003, 47).
In the prefectures of Byumba and Ruhengerim alone,
which had been most badly-hit by the war, a total of
65,000 school benches had been destroyed.
Teachers and pupils had fled or been murdered. Around
three fifths of the teachers available for the primary
school level were not sufficiently qualified. In the sec-
ondary school sector there was a shortage of 900 teachers,
thereof 350 for arithmetic and sciences. (MINEPRISEC,
37 and 39). More than 941,000 primary school pupils
were waiting for lessons to begin (MINEDUC, 47).
According to the Ministry for Rehabilitation there were
608,000 refugees in Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire
(now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and else-
where, of whom the majority gradually returned
73
(Asche, 26). This presented a complex situation for the
school system. The children and young people came
from differing school systems and had spoken English
in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. There were pupils
who still had to relearn Kinyarwanda as a written lan-
guage. Attainable levels for examinations had to be
sought for all pupils alike.
The new school year was due to begin throughout the
entire country in January 1995. By way of political ori-
entation MINEPRISEC prescribed that as many Rwandan
children as possible be enrolled in all grades, that the
principle of equality be implemented, and that the
pupils be fostered exclusively in accordance with their
abilities (MINEPRISEC, 16).
These political targets raised hopes that it would be
possible to normalise the situation in schools in the
near future. In the 1995/96 school year it was possible
to teach more than one million primary school children,
nearly as many as before the genocide (MINEDUC, 47).
Despite being under-staffed and the fact that the
school sector had not been analysed to a sufficient de-
gree, MINEPRISEC – aided by UNESCO, UNDP and
German development assistance – presented a docu-
ment on emergency aid and the reconstruction of the
school system in Rwanda to the international donor
community in November 1994. In this document the
objective formulated for the primary school sector was
“giving pupils elementary knowledge and abilities that
allow them to understand their environment, to inte-
grate easily into the immediate environment, and to
play a positive role therein for themselves and society”
(MINEPRISEC, 18).
The education policy framework conditions convey
clear objectives. The Memorandum of Understanding
provided German development assistance with room
for manoeuvre and the possibility to provide support.
In this phase it was primarily a case of helping the
Ministry of Education and the schools to perform their
administrative tasks and resume lessons.
When the Memorandum of Understanding was signed
in July 1994 for a project in the refugee camps in
Tanzania, the new government in Rwanda had com-
menced its work. In August the GTZ office was
opened in Kigali, the coordinator for the education
sector met for initial talks with the Ministry of Educa-
tion and international organisations in the Rwandan
capital in September 1994. The German Embassy was
the first foreign consulate to resume its official functions.
This commitment was praised by Rwanda’s Prime
Minister Pierre Célestin Rwigema during a state visit to
the Federal Republic of Germany in November 1995.
From emergency aid to the resumption
of project work
The Germans reacted very quickly and offered the new
government of Rwanda their assistance parallel to the
education projects for Rwandan refugees in Tanzania.
An emergency relief measure, which also included a
component for education assistance, had begun as
early as September 1994. Within the Rehabilitation
Programme Rwanda GTZ was commissioned with the
implementation of a component, “Promotion of basic
education”. In addition, funds were available for mate-
rial goods.
All this required stable structures in the education sector,
for which the development-oriented emergency relief
also helped lay the foundations. The first emergency
aid measures in 1994 following the human catastrophe
in Rwanda were aimed at alleviating hardship and sat-
isfying basic needs. The German emergency aid in the
education sector supported the establishment of or-
phanages, Children’s Villages and schools with a high
proportion of orphans. Asche and Pieck summarised
the emergency aid measures as follows: “About a
dozen houses or orphaned children and children who
had become separated from their parents were swiftly
and unbureaucratically provided with various measures
to meet their urgent needs. These were local subsidies
74
and material goods. At the beginning of November 345
bunk beds had been delivered to six orphanages, in
part with blankets and bedclothes. A large amount of
children’s clothes and shoes were distributed by Action
Nord-Sud. Other measures ranged from building re-
pairs, allowances for orphans in families, building
sheds for smaller livestock, fencing for buildings, the
repair of classrooms, and food relief, through to a
larger construction measure to establish a centre for
traumatised children in Remera-Ruhondo” (1994, 10).
A further objective of the assistance was that of restor-
ing the Ministry of Education and its specialist institu-
tions to a working state. Thus buildings were repaired,
the electricity supply repaired and generators were in-
stalled. The provision of a functioning photocopier al-
lowed for the reproduction of the first school policy
guidelines.
The most important of these was the resumption of
lessons. Special assistance was provided to those
schools which had been selected by the Ministry of
Education as project or consultation schools. Likewise
to the schools in the prefectures which had either
been badly-hit by the war (this applied to Byumba)
or which ranked among the most under-developed
regions (for example Kibuye), and to those which
expected the rapid return of refugees from Tanzania
(Kigali and Kibungo). Thus St. André, the largest
school in Kigali, and the nursing school in Rutongo
within the area covered by the DRIM project were able
to resume teaching quickly thanks to the delivery of
school furniture and the repair of rooms. Muhima tech-
nical school was provided with a toilet complex. In
three other technical secondary schools the electrical
installations and the sanitary facilities were replaced,
and classrooms, dormitories, kitchens and refectories
repaired. These technical secondary schools were able
to resume teaching at an early stage. Assistance for vo-
cational education in technical secondary schools in
the prefectures Kibungo and Nyanza were a clear indi-
cation of an upward trend in the school system.
The sudden collapse of school operations in April 1994
also involved the risk of a complete school year being
lost. Those primarily affected were those due to gradu-
ate from secondary school and the examination candi-
dates in the sixth grade of primary school. For this rea-
son, German technical assistance helped conduct a
crash course for the examination classes in secondary
schools. Five schools in Kigali, Butare, Nyanza and
Rwamagena received allowances in the form of teach-
ing materials, food for the pupils, and salary al-
lowances for the teachers. An année blanche – the
missing year threatening secondary schools due to the
military events – could thus be avoided.
The German development assistance supported the
conducting of examinations in primary schools after
the war, with the printing of the exam books in
Germany being financed. The examination documents
were printed in the languages Kinyarwanda, French,
English and Swahili in order to take into account the
shift in the composition of the schools. The exams
were to offer all the participants the same opportuni-
ties free from ethnic, religious and regional prejudices,
and only take into account the actual achievement.
Thus it was possible to guarantee a high degree of se-
curity in the implementation of the examinations.
Anonymity was preserved during the marking stage.
Furthermore, seminars were conducted for the inspec-
tors, and also a seminar at which representatives of
various institutions and school facilities from every re-
gion developed new subjects and a new teaching
schedule for primary schools.
In mid-1995 the concept began to take on shape, facili-
tating a seamless transition from emergency aid to
structure-forming technical assistance. In June 1995 two
planning workshops were held with the Ministry of
Education, in which principles were developed for co-
operation in the primary school system and in the tech-
nical secondary school sector. In this respect, the question
arose as to whether the SMEP project, which had been
75
in place in Rwanda before the war, should be resumed.
The priority of the project was called into doubt as the
composition of the teachers and pupils had changed
and the school administration had been replaced with
new staff to a large extent. Nevertheless the planning
workshops arrived at the following conclusions:
1. The continuation of STE-SMEP is in compliance with
the orientation of the conference on education policy
and planning in Rwanda from April 1995.
2. The project has to amend its objectives and activities
in line with the current situation in schools. The cur-
ricula for all subjects should be amended in line with
the new situation; the further training of teachers and
the school administration was seen as being a matter
of urgency.
Yet it was not only the fundamental education policy
changes in Rwanda which permitted the resumption of
the project. The overall education objective for Rwanda’s
primary and secondary school sectors also complied
with the principles of German development assistance:
“Schools have to bring forth people free of ethnic, re-
gional, national and religious prejudices, who are
aware of the rights of man and the obligations towards
themselves and others and society, and are also aware
of their being part of an international community”
(MINEPRISEC, 16).
The curriculum for STE was also to be revised, tested
and amended, as were the corresponding didactic
materials (teacher guides and textbooks). Taking into
account the totally new composition of the staff at all
administrative levels and in the teaching staff it was
primarily a question of their qualification and peda-
gogic empowerment.
Link between technical and financial assistance
In the phase from November 1995 to December 1998
STE-SMEP was able to avail of funds from the technical
and financial assistance provided by GTZ and KfW
within the framework of a cooperation project. Thus
favourable conditions had been created for the devel-
opment of teaching materials and the further training
of teachers.
In July 1996 it was possible to submit teaching program-
mes for the subject STE in the grades one to six in the
languages Kinyarwanda and French. In October 1996
these were approved by the National Commission and
put into effect. They were then translated into English.
The textbook authors were prepared for their work in
a number of seminars, the first teacher assistance man-
uals went into print in 1998, and the first textbooks
were published in the following year.
In September 1997 the Ministry of Education laid down
a structure for the training and further training of
teachers. In each prefecture an Ecole Normale Primaire
(Teacher Training Center) was selected, which was to
be responsible for the training of the primary school
teachers, as well as for the further training of the
teachers in the primary schools in the prefecture. STE-
SMEP aided this new structure. Among other things
this aided the integration of the former refugees in the
new prefecture of Umutara. Extensive technical and
pedagogic support had to be provided at the Ecole
Normale Primaire in this prefecture.
After the preliminary work had been concluded it was
possible to offer further training to all the 23,000
Rwandan primary school teachers in the subject STE
with the requisite didactic materials in 154 school cen-
tres. In each case a primary school was selected as a
further training centre so as to facilitate access for all
teachers; this was important for the rural areas above
all. These 154 centres were provided with special
equipment within the framework of financial assis-
tance. With this decentralised network it was possible
to reach all the teachers in the schools easily; the Ecole
Normale Primaire was increasingly acknowledged as a
pedagogic knowledge unit in Rwanda. And the educa-
76
tion sector had a decentralised further training structure
for teachers.
STE-SMEP provided various services for the profession-
alisation of the staff in the Ministry of Education:
– Seminars,
– Coordination of all activities,
– Inspection of schools,
– Technical equipment for the departments,
– Radio programmes, reflection days,
– Workshops for the elaboration of school policy docu-
ments etc.
STE-SMEP advised and assisted the Ministry of Edu-
cation in the selection of material goods which had
been made available within the framework of financial
assistance. In June 1995 the GTZ agreed on the follow-
ing basic principles for the use of the material goods
with the four responsible directors in the Ministry of
Education:
1. Improvement of scientific and technical education in
the primary and secondary school sector and support
for the training and further training of teachers in the
primary school sector. It was possible to secure sup-
port from other organisations for the equipping of
schools with furniture; it was also possible to avail of
local parents’ initiatives.
2. The support in the primary school sector from
Germany was greater than that in the secondary
school sector; 60 per cent of the budget was ac-
counted for by primary schools, 40 per cent by sec-
ondary schools. The aid was primarily accounted for
by the supply of laboratories for secondary schools.
The aid was used to enhance the efficacy of ongoing
projects.
3. A further principle concerned the selection of re-
gions and schools. It was agreed that the materials
would be distributed equally to all prefectures in the
secondary school sector and that the same equip-
ment would be delivered to all primary schools in
the country regardless of their size. Thus smaller
schools were at an advantage.
With the second shipment of goods it was possible to
correct this, taking into consideration the number of
pupils. Now it was possible to take greater account of
prefectures such as Gisenyi, Ruhengeri, Byumba which
had been badly hit by the war, and likewise the pre-
fecture of Umutara, which was still being established;
larger schools were able to be given more materials.
The effective distribution of goods to the value of
around four million euros demanded a thorough sector
analysis, the formulation of priorities and the laying
down of areas in the education sector to be given pref-
erential treatment, the establishment of principles and
criteria for the selection of favoured institutions and
schools. The costs for the coordinating activity – also
in agreement with international organisations and other
donors – are very high in this phase. Flexibility, pa-
tience, a willingness to make compromises, suitable ar-
guments, convincing specialist knowledge of the con-
crete school situation, understanding for perceptions
formed from political necessities and pressure from the
population, and much more besides are indispensable.
Thanks to the emergency aid measures it was possible
to create an almost seamless transition to technical as-
sistance in the education sector. STE-SMEP was able to
commence its activities in October 1995 in repaired of-
fices and with new furniture and technical equipment.
When the project “Support for technical secondary
schools” (ETO) commenced its work there were four
functioning schools.
To summarise the following conclusions may be drawn:
1. It is fundamentally possible to resume an education
project following far-reaching political and social
changes if it covers the needs of a large population
group, is guided more by socioeconomic necessities
rather than feeling obliged to the political interests of
individual elites, and if it is oriented towards a group
of persons which can make an important contribu-
tion to the development of the sector; in this con-
crete case the further training of teachers.
77
2. It is recommended that interim stages be integrated.
Such a transitional phase has the task of fulfilling the
basic prerequisites for the resumption of the project.
3. The desired results have to be put into perspective
vis-à-vis the pre-war phase, amended in line with the
new situation, and planned in the longer term. In
Rwanda it was not possible to begin with the further
training of all 20,000 teachers before functioning de-
centralised further training had been established. The
situation initially required more value being attached
to the sensibilisation of the population for the new
subject STE before it could be introduced in schools.
The development-oriented emergency aid and the re-
sumption of assistance in Rwanda clearly illustrate that
in an initial phase it was possible to alleviate the hard-
ships faced by endangered target groups. The mea-
sures promoted peace and alleviated crises as they en-
couraged hope. As teaching returned to normality in
many schools and the quality of the teaching improved
as a consequence of improved equipment and teacher
further training, Rwanda motivated its refugees to re-
turn to their home country. The project work created a
tangible base for a fresh start.
3.6 The STE-SMEP project – 1997-2001
In September/October 1997 the progress of the project
was monitored; this was followed by a planning semi-
nar. It was recommended that the project be continued
for a further three years. This time was required to
integrate all the components of the project into the
Rwandan school system. In this respect the project
was to focus on two areas which had not yet been
developed to a satisfactory degree:
– The management capacities of the Ministry of Ed-
ucation were to be improved so as to guarantee the
sustainability of the measures after the conclusion
of the assistance.
– The further training of primary school teachers in
the use of the didactic materials and active teaching
methods in the subject TOS still had to be intensified.
In February 1998 the Secretary-General of the Ministry
of Education approved the establishment of a Coordi-
nation Committee. Thus the project implementation
was improved. The directors for Studies and Planning,
Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Personnel Devel-
opment and Teaching Planning Centre were members
of this committee. The section “Science” within the
Division for Primary Schools in the Teaching Planning
Centre (CNDP) and the Division for Teacher Further
Training in the department for personnel development
were provided with intensive support by the project.
The majority of activities were conducted together with
these two facilities. There were temporary joint activi-
ties on special issues such as examination preparation
in the subject TOS, monitoring in the schools and ped-
agogic training in the ENPs, and there were agreements
with the CNE (National Centre for Examinations), in-
spectorate, Division de l’Enseignement Pédagogique
and the Division for Primary Schools. The project was
also integrated in diverse ways into the structures of
the education sector, with the effect that it was able to
provide advice in many areas.
In September 1997 the Ministry of Education submitted
a new concept for decentralised further training, in
November the requisite administrative regulations were
approved and discussed with the institutions involved.
This concept foresaw the appointment of an educa-
tional facility in each prefecture – later the prefectures
were renamed provinces – which conducted both the
basic training as well as further training of the primary
school teachers. STE-SMEP supported this new struc-
ture and conducted the further training of the primary
school teachers within this decentralised structure.
TOS was initially the only subject for which there were
regular further training events. Later it was possible to
provide further training measures together with other
subjects in the primary school sector.
78
At each of the teacher training facilities, i.e. one ENP
per province, three teachers functioned as “brokers” in
the further training for the primary school teachers.
These three brokers at the ENPs, assisted by other
teachers at their school and by the responsible inspec-
tor for the province, conducted the further training
events for the 154 Animateurs Pédagogiques (train-
ers), who in turn conducted the further training for all
teachers in their school sector in the 154 selected
school centres.
Thus the old structure of the Service Mobile d’Encadre-
ment Pédagogique (SMEP) had finally been broken up;
this body had to a certain extent developed itself
within the existing organisational structure and led
considerable costs in terms of personnel and finances.
The advantages of the old structure were certainly its
mobility and the administrative proximity to the
Inspecteur d’Arrondissement. At the same time the
school administration enjoyed rapid access to this con-
sulting service and was able to use the service for
other purposes than that originally intended.
The new structure enhanced the teacher training cen-
ters, making them scientific-pedagogic centres in the
prefecture. The Animateurs Pédagogiques in the school
sectors and the teachers enjoyed technical and pedagogic
help rather than administrative assistance. However,
new conflicts were also created with this new structure:
The teacher training centers and the 154 school centres
required more equipment and greater promotion of the
teaching personnel. The appointment of a graduate
teacher with sufficient pedagogic experience as an
Animateur Pédagogique fuelled competition among the
teachers as such a position was also associated with
a slightly higher income. In addition, many decisions
were delayed, something which led to greater insecu-
rity and uncertainty.
The BMZ re-evaluated the German Development Co-
operation with Rwanda in 1998. The education assis-
tance was also the subject of an audit, in particular
with respect to its development policy efficacy and the
issue of whether it alleviated or exacerbated a crisis.
With respect to STE-SMEP the experts arrived at the
following conclusion:
“Following the Sector Analysis Education Study there
can be no doubt that this project is a reaction to an
overriding development policy need. In the event that
the project is a success there will no longer be the lack
of practical relevance that has often been attested to
the primary school sector, something which will and
can lead to a direct improvement in living standards in
the hills if the children who have received such an ed-
ucation develop even just a minimum of initiative (...)
The woefully low training status of the primary school
teachers can be improved through the intended training
and further training measures. Naturally, on the other
hand it is also clear that the project is a form of (nec-
essary) repair mechanism, namely the belated improve-
ment in the training of teachers, who should never have
been employed at all if strict quality standards had been
applied. The alternative, however, would have been a
delay in the reconstruction of the primary school sector
for a number of years, something which would have led
to considerable frustration and which would have been
impossible to continue in political terms (…) As with
other projects that have been analysed here it is difficult
to attribute an impact (to a decrease or increase in ten-
sion) in one direction or another to the isolated project
(STE-SMEP). The technical-vocational education is, in
principle, politically indifferent; with an improvement
in the living standards through the use of the acquired
abilities and skills, however, the whole problem of re-
source conflicts comes into play on a sustained basis.
In contrast to the popular thesis an ‘improvement in
living standards and rapid economic growth do not by
any means lead to a general reduction in social and
distribution conflicts (...) In this respect the project has
to be regarded ambivalently with a view to its reduc-
tion in tension (...) The considerations regarding the
neutrality of the tension reduction or increase of the
SMEP project are, however, subject to the reservation
79
that the final examinations at primary school, as has al-
ready occurred a number of times, will still be very
performance-based even after the withdrawal of the
foreign assistance” (Wolff and Mehler 1998, 51/52).
STE-SMEP had the intention of improving the quality of
human resources at the leadership and broker level,
and above all for the target group. It was the intention
of the project to create such ‘positive’ conflicts. A proj-
ect cannot promote peace if it avoids conflicts; it can,
however, have a crisis-prevention impact if it provides
solutions for conflicts. STE-SMEP can enhance under-
standing for processes in the social and natural envi-
ronment. This large group was also able to increase
tension and pressure in a positive sense, it was able to
make justified and well-advised use of its democratic
rights, and thus influence the decision taken by the elite.
In 2001 some 75,000 pupils left primary school, around
one third were able to attend a secondary school. For
many of these children the practice-oriented education
facilitated integration into the diverse activities required
to master the actual life circumstances and the en-
hanced scientific knowledge and skills that had been
acquired permitted successful education in the second-
ary school sector.
Thanks to its technical basis and design the subject
TOS provides an orientation aid in socioeconomic and
socio-cultural areas. In this respect the content of the
subject TOS is binding for boys and girls alike.
It is desirable not to simply convey factual knowledge,
not to simply provide general environmental and
health education, but to link these to the existing qual-
ities and problems of life, and to tie these in with the
main problems to be solved in a country or region.
In July 2001 the project was transferred in full to the
Rwandan partner as the most important objectives had
been attained. The textbooks had been developed,
printed and distributed, the financing of further print
runs secured.
80
81
3.6 List of abbreviations
BMZ Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung /
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
CERAI Centre d’Enseignement Rural et Artisanal Integré
CNDP Centre National du Développement des Programmes
CNE Centre National de l’Examen
DPEPERAI Direction des Programmes de l’Enseignement Primaire et d’Enseignement Rural et Artisanal Integré
DRIM Développement Rural Integré Murambi
ENP Ecole Normale Primaire
ETO Ecole Technique Oficielle
EZ Entwicklungszusammenarbeit
FPR Front Patriotique du Rwanda
FZ Finanzielle Zusammenarbeit (Financial Cooperation)
GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
IIEP International Institute for Educational Planning
INEE Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies
MINEDUC Ministère de l’Education
MINEPRISEC Ministère de l’Enseignement Primaire et Secondaire
MRND Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
PDO Programme Development Officer
SMEP Service Mobile d’Encadrement Pédagogique
STE Sciences et Technologie Elémentaire
TEP Teacher Emergency Package
TZ Technische Zusammenarbeit (Technical Cooperation)
UN United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
82
3.7 List of resource materials
Asche, H.: Rwanda. Die Produktion eines ethnischen Dramas, Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Hamburg, 1995
Asche, H. u. P. Pieck: Hilfsmaßnahmen für die Rwandan refugees, Eschborn, 1994
Bird, L.: Surviving school. Education for refugee children from Rwanda 1994-1996, UNESCO/IIEP, Paris, 2003
Bolz, R. u. H. Drechsler: Auf vielen Wegen aus dem Elend: Deutsche Hilfe für Rwanda, GTZ, Eschborn, 1995
Bundesstelle für Außenhandelsinformation: Rwanda. Kurzmerkblatt, 1992
Drechsler, H.: Von der Flüchtlings- und Nothilfe zur Wiederaufnahme planmäßiger Projektarbeit
im Bereich Erziehung/Unterricht in Rwanda, Kigali, 1997
GTZ (ed.): Entwicklungsorientierte Nothilfe (EON). Flüchtlingsprogramme, GTZ, Eschborn, 2001
GTZ (ed.): Friedensentwicklung, Krisenprävention und Konfliktbearbeitung, GTZ, Eschborn, 2002a
GTZ (ed.): Lernen für Frieden und Zukunft, GTZ, Eschborn, 2002b
GTZ (ed.): Kinder, Krisen und Kanonen, GTZ, Eschborn, 2003
Hanf, Th. u. J. H. Wolff: Das postprimare Bildungswesen in Rwanda, Studie, 1992
INEE: Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction, Paris, 2004
MINEDUC: Etude du Secteur de l’Education au Rwanda, Kigali, 1997
MINEPRISEC/SMEP/DPEPERAI: Les techniques d’élaboration des curricula, Mars 1992a
MINEPRISEC/SMEP/DPEPERAI: La nouvelle méthodologie appropriée à l’école primaire au Rwanda, 1992b
MINEPRISEC: Document de travail du Séminaire sur l’Assistance d’Urgence, et la Reconstruction du
Système Educatif au Rwanda, Kigali, 1994
Mujawayo, E. u. S. Belhaddad: Ein Leben mehr, Wuppertal, 2005
Obura, A.: Never again: educational reconstruction in Rwanda, UNESCO/IIEP, Paris, 2003
Sinclaire, M.: Planning education in and after emergencies, UNESCO/IIEP, Paris, 2002
Weber, H.-D.: “Die Deutschen halten ihr Versprechen”. In: Generalanzeiger vom 2.12.1995, p. 8, 1995
Wolff, J. H. u. A. Mehler: Evaluierungsbericht Deutsche EZ mit Rwanda, Bonn, 1998
83
Deutsche Gesellschaft fürTechnische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ ) GmbH
Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg 1-5Postfach 518065726 EschbornTelefon: ++49 (0)61 96 79-0Telefax: ++49 (0)61 96 79-11 15Internet: http://www.gtz.de