In Gambella, Ethiopia, NRC’s accelerated learning programme is giving children a chance to return to formal schooling after missing out on education because of war.
“I think I am lucky because my mother believes our lives change with education, so I am allowed to attend school regularly and I am not promised to anyone for marriage,” Nyajouk says.
Most of the refugee girls in Gambella are not encouraged to attend school or are often forced to drop out because they are needed in the house more to help with chores. Fortunately, fourteen year old Nyajuok never faced these challenge. Her mother wants to send her to school and lets her read books when she gets home. She lives in a family of seven but without a father who stayed behind in upper Nile Sudan to fight.
Nyajuok is one of the students in NRC’s Accelerated Learning programme (ALP) in Kule camp in Gambella region, Ethiopia. The programme is a path to the formal school system for children who have never attended school or dropped out at an early stage. The ALP programme lets students cover essential math, reading and writing within a short space of time to get them ready for school at their age level.
The programme helps students get ready to sit for the exam within two years, and those who pass the exam will be transferred to the formal school system.
“I like to come to school every day so that I learn new things as much as I can from the teachers. I am grateful that NRC gave us this opportunity and I am happy for the teachers are very helpful and always there for us to answer questions.”
Like Nyajouk, Magong Chuol Gatwak is a level one ALP student in Kule camp. He is also 14 and never been to school before he came to Ethiopia as a refugee. He used to live in Jonglei state, South Sudan, with his parents until his father was killed. Together with his mother, his two brothers and two sisters he walked on foot to cross the border of Ethiopia. His two older siblings stayed behind and the family in Kule camp does not have any contact with them.
Magong love to play soccer with his friends, but most of all he likes school “I like coming to school every day and I like reading books after school. I also like the teachers because they help me a lot. I ask many questions and they are never tired to give me answers,” says Magong.
The uncertainty of when they will be able to go back home is the major reason why parents don’t give education a priority. They prefer to live the day to day life instead of dwell in to serious issues like education. What NRC education programme experienced in the other camps of Ethiopia shows that education improves the intellectual and economical state of refugees and that is what NRC Gambella is trying to accomplish in the camps of Gambella.
Both Nyajouk and Magong said they will try their best to stay in school and continue their education after they are transferred to formal school when they are done with the ALP programme.
"Education should be a priority to us, refugee children as much as it is for children everywhere in the world because we will not be refugees forever and we need education no matter where we are” added Myajouk.
Most families in refugee camps of Gambella rely on food ration and other aid providers to feed the family and cloth the kids.NRC gave students T-shirts as a uniform to encourage children to stay in school. Community mobilisers also go from house to house promoting the importance of education. The goal is to convince parents to send their kids to school and keep the dreams of students like Nyajouk and Magong alive.
ALP programme is funded by UNHCR and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA) and private donors from Norway through NRC. Currently there are 3,831 (1,498 female) students attending level one. The age range of students is 11-14 and encourages both boys and girls to register. The programme commenced in November, 2014 and the first batch of level one is getting ready to take exam to be transferred to the next level in the next academic year 2015/16 that starts in September 2015. September is also the time that NRC begins new enrollment.