The Impact of Wellbeing Support and Parental Engagement on Children’s Learning Outcomes in Syria

• In Event: Foundational Learning Outcomes & Wellbeing in Crisis-affected Contexts: A true catalyst for positive change.

Proposal

People in Need (PIN) has been mainstreaming the implementation of PSS activities throughout its education programmes in Syria since 2016 as part of PIN’s Child Centered Approach to Education in Emergencies, understanding that children require holistic support from multiple levels of influence in order to be able to fully develop and succeed in their education. This approach not only supports childrens’ academic learning, but also ensures they are protected and that their wellbeing is supported by enabling them to develop social and emotional skills in a supportive environment. From May 2021 to June 2023, PIN implemented a multi-sectoral project consisting of Education, Child Protection and WASH activities with the aim to “create safe pathways to education and improved well-being for conflict-affected boys and girls in Northern Syria”. Across four governorates, 20 IDP sites and 13 formal schools, PIN supported approximately 13,000 school-aged children with quality formal and non-formal education, PSS activities to foster social emotional learning (SEL) and improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. Simultaneously, teachers were supported through training including positive discipline and pedagogical skills and parents/caregivers were involved in their children’s learning and wellbeing through parenting skill sessions.
Baseline, midline and endline assessments were conducted over the period of 26 months, tracking caregiver’s engagement during parenting skill sessions and/or monthly meetings, the ASER methodology to measure literacy and numeracy outcomes, the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to measure wellbeing outcomes. Midline results as well as early endline results will show the effects of the intervention in children’s learning outcomes and wellbeing, and the engagement of caregivers in the parenting skill sessions. PIN’s research will attempt to find evidence on how learning outcomes, wellbeing and parental engagement are interconnected and what the - positive or negative - correlations among the three variables are and if these vary when taking a vulnerability criteria (gender, age, displacement status, etc.) of children into consideration.
In March 2024, PIN will be able to present the different learning and wellbeing outcomes as a result of PIN’s activities in Syria and more importantly, will be able to discuss the following research question:
What are the positive or negative correlations between parental engagement, children’s wellbeing and children’s learning outcomes in the Syrian context?
Furthermore, PIN will be able to discuss if and how gender, age, displacement status or other vulnerability criteria influenced the correlations that were found through data disaggregation. Challenges, lessons learned and best practices from the Syrian context will be explained in order to enable the comparison the Syrian context with other contexts and evaluate possible scalability of the action.

Author

• Laurel Jansury, People In Need