Using accelerated education programs to reach the most marginalized students in conflict or crisis-affected settings

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Theory-driven learning agendas for education in emergencies: how best to test and design for impact

Proposal

One in four of the world’s school-age children live in areas affected by on-going emergencies. In 2017 alone, crisis caused 75 million children and youth to have their learning disrupted or stopped altogether. Without access to education during emergencies, it is highly likely that some children, perhaps a whole generation, will miss years of schooling and never be able to re-enter the formal school system as a result (PRIO & NRC, 2018). Various models exist for addressing disrupted learning. A common response is Accelerated Education Programs (AEPs) (Dupuy & Peters, 2010). An AEP is a flexible, age-appropriate program that promotes access to education in an accelerated time-frame for disadvantaged groups, over-age, out-of-school children and youth who missed out or had their education interrupted due to poverty, marginalization, conflict and crisis. The goal of AEP is to provide learners with equivalent certified competencies for basic education and learning approaches that match their level of maturity (The Accelerated Education Working Group, 2016). However, there is a lack of rigorous, systematic evidence regarding AEPs ability to affect transition from the AEP program back into formal education and/or on to livelihoods. More research is also needed to study the degree to which AEPs are able address inequities in access to education by ensuring that the most vulnerable have access to and are retained within a program.

In order to build the evidence base around AEPs effect on access to and quality of education in emergencies, we propose the following theory of change: we hypothesize that, in order for children in crisis and conflict settings to be able to re-enter, and remain in, formal school systems and livelihoods, they need access to quality AEPs. Access to quality AEPs helps improve children’s academic outcomes and cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Children also need home environments that enable their learning, where their caregivers value education and engage with their schoolwork. These combine to help children reach target grade level school performance, allowing them to be able to transition into and remain within formal school systems and livelihoods.

In this round table presentation, we will present the above theory of change and pose questions regarding how best to test and revise it. Specifically, we will be asking: What practices and approaches within AEPs work best for the most marginalized groups; how can we understand and measure mediating factors that affect AEP graduates’ transition to formal education and livelihoods; how best can we measure children’s improvement in non-cognitive skills (e.g. attitudes towards learning, self-regulation) within emergency contexts.

Author

• Anna Bertmar Khan, Dubai Cares