The state of refugee children education in Pakistan: Insights, barriers, and aspirations

• In Event: VIRTUAL HYBRID PANEL: Challenging dominant narratives on education in South Asia: Imagining collective futures

Proposal

After World War II and more specifically in the last two decades, the catastrophic events of war and terrorism have greatly damaged the ecosystem of the planet and altered the human species. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR, 2019) reports that currently more than 70.8 million people (half of which are children under the age of 18 years) are displaced from their homes and live in a hosting country with limited access to food, social services, and education. To examine the issues stemming from the consequences of traumatic events such as war and terrorism, this session presents findings from a larger study that reveal the inherited structural inequalities within the educational policy enacted in Pakistani public schools. In this paper, I argue that while access to education is a basic human right and Pakistan, as a sovereign state commits to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4), a lack of appropriate policies, resources, and overall political instability limit educational access and students’ achievement in public schools. Pakistan is one of the major refugee-hosting countries in the world and its population includes refugees from countries such as Bangladesh, India, Bosnia, Burma, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Currently, more than 1.4 million Afghan refugees live in Pakistan, and the majority of their children attend Pakistani public schools. Moreover, a large number of terrorism affected students are also enrolled in public schools who are either affected or have witnessed terror attacks on their schools, airstrikes, drone attacks, and/or landmine explosions. To understand the significance of appropriate educational policies for these students who are exposed to highly traumatic experiences, I conducted a systematic review of literature and document analysis of international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and UNHCR. The findings reveal that students who are exposed to a lifetime traumatic experience tend to suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) later in their lives, and their socio-psychological needs differ from their peers in schools (Kilbride, Murphy, & Paul, 2003; Oxman-Martinez, & Choi, Oxman-Martinez et al., 2012). Considering Pakistan’s global commitment to provide inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, I challenge the deficit thinking of the local policymakers. To do so, I use Bourdieu’s Social Capital and Reproduction theory which highlights the implication of social stratification on education. I also argue that a bottom-up approach in education can help policymakers to understand the needs of war and terrorism students, and other stakeholders in education including teachers, and the parents. I also emphasize that in cases of students affected by war and terrorism, parental engagement can greatly help the students to overcome their socio-psychological challenges and become resilient in schools. With an increase in refugees and terrorism affected children across the globe, my paper contributes towards the existing body of literature and pays attention to the complexities of issues surrounding forced migration and structural inequalities within education policy.

Author

• Neelofer Ahmed, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education - University of Toronto