Connected education in refugee hosting contexts: a sustainability approach based on school appropriation

• In Event: Bridging the Digital Divide: Advancing Refugee Connected Education through Global Collaboration

Proposal

Refugee children face specific challenges and barriers when it comes to accessing quality education on equal terms with other children. Since 2017, the ProFuturo Foundation has aimed to generate meaningful educational opportunities, where technology and digital transformation drive change. ProFuturo is active in refugee-hosting contexts with partners such as UNHCR, IRC, Save the Children, or the American University of Beirut, to work on activities supporting access to connected learning: building ICT labs or safe learning spaces, providing teacher training, supporting school feeding programmes, and awareness community campaigns. The Foundation also works with national education authorities to improve access, by providing devices and content. In Rwanda, for instance, ProFuturo worked with the Basic Education Board (REB) under the Ministry of Education, to select schools to be linked to the programme, secure the necessary equipment, and provide internet access.

The presentation will focus on ProFuturo’s approach to sustainability, and how the programme is supporting an autonomy plan for each school community, using utilisation and survey data informing a prescriptive plan for each school community. This is supplemented by qualitative data on project implementation, collected in collaboration with UNHCR, to appraise outcomes and challenges in the community of practice at school level.

Author

• Leticia de Rato, ProFuturo Foundation