Attachments
HIGHLIGHTS:
• UNHCR and the Ministry of Education conducted a joint mission to schools in Damietta, Gamsa (Dakahleyya Governorate), Alexandria and Borg El Arab to assess the progress of Syrian refugee children during the first term of the school year. The mission noted that through the support of the Governor’s office in Dakahleyya, in Northern Egypt, the local education authority has agreed to run remedial classes in Gamsa School for Basic Education on Monday through Thursday for 300 Syrian children as well as a number of Egyptian children. The mission also learned about a pilot scheme, which has introduced tablet computers to over 1,400 Egyptian students in grade 10 in New Damietta, and discussed ways to include Syrian children in the scheme in the next academic year.
• UNICEF provided training for 33 teachers in schools in Damietta with a high density of Syrian refugee children. The training focused on teaching methods in high density classrooms, active learning, and on preserving rights of refugees in the classroom.
• Catholic Relief Services (CRS) began education grant distribution mission in Alexandria on 6 April to distribute education grants to around 6,000 children enrolled in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools.
• Save the Children provided 68 Syrians (teachers and principals) from the Obour Community School (Sorya El Ghad) with training on active learning, how to deal with children suffering from trauma, and on psycho-social support.
• In order to gauge the Syrian refugee students’ readiness for the Final exams for 2013-2014 Academic year a field visit was conducted by the Education unit. During the visit technical and/or material assistance that may be required by school administrators and teachers prior to students taking these exams have been also discussed. The projections in terms of expected students’ achievements for this academic year are so far very encouraging. Students who were present in the schools were found to be very keen to study, active and engaging in the classrooms and exercise books were complete and up to date. Schools were very well maintained and the general environment was found to be very enabling in terms of the physical environment