The Middle East and North African region has faced one of the most critical refugee crises, with global consequences, especially for EU. Egypt has received more than 400,000 refugees from Syria alone with 30,000 of them being of school age and only 50% enrolled in public schools. While Syrian refugee children are allowed to enroll in public schools, the majority go to refugee schools organized by the Syrian community, since Egyptian teachers lack skills to tackle the needs of refugee learners. Refugee children are a unique learner group due to their prior traumatic experiences. There is need of a pedagogy focusing on refugees that most teachers, even refugee ones, do not possess. Refugee teachers in Egypt, estimated to 4,000, face considerable constraints in accessing certified in-service training. NGOs and other organizations have gone some way to addressing refugee children’s schooling, but their interventions are very limited and not tied to educational pathways that lead to certified lasting programs. Both Egyptian and refugee teachers should undergo training to gain awareness of the refugee experience as well as the cultural backgrounds of refugee learners so that they can be responsive to refugee needs and sensitive to trauma reactions. These problems and challenges could be tackled through the development of an innovative in-service teacher certification program enabled by blended learning, established in the faculties of education. ReTeCp responds to a cross-cutting priority by giving access to refugee teachers to the Egyptian HEIs through a post-graduate diploma focusing on these issues. By the end of ReTeCp project, about 700 teachers, including refugee teachers will be trained and in the next 4-6 years years all refugee teachers and an increasing number of Egyptian teachers will be undergoing life-long certified training that will highly contribute to the right of refugee children for quality education (SDG4) in the host countries.
Develop a blended in-service teacher training program leading to a Diploma of 60 ECTS focusing on refugee children education accessible for both Egyptian and refugee teachers. Build capacity of academic staff at the faculties of education to align curriculum, teaching, learning in refugee children education..Develop innovative teaching, learning and curriculum materials as well as Euro-Arab Network of Refugee Teachers to link up teachers teaching with refugee children's needs.
Given the current situation in Egypt, there is lack of effective, job-embedded professional development for teachers to address refugee children's needs. Thus, attention should given to engaging both Egyptian and refugee teachers in different capacities to provide learning support for refugee children. Both Egyptian and refugee teachers should undergo training to gain awareness of the refugee experience and respond to the cognitive, social, cultural and and trauma issues of refugee children.
<< Background >> Given the current situation in Egypt, there is lack of effective, job-embedded professional development for teachers to address refugee children's needs. Thus, attention should given to engaging both Egyptian and refugee teachers in different capacities to provide learning support for refugee children. Both Egyptian and refugee teachers should undergo training to gain awareness of the refugee experience and respond to the cognitive, social, cultural and and trauma issues of refugee children. << Objectives >> Develop a blended in-service teacher training program leading to a Diploma of 60 ECTS focusing on refugee children education accessible for both Egyptian and refugee teachers. Build capacity of academic staff at the faculties of education to align curriculum, teaching, learning in refugee children education..Develop innovative teaching, learning and curriculum materials as well as Euro-Arab Network of Refugee Teachers to link up teachers teaching with refugee children's needs. << Implementation >> The RefTeCp project involved: 1) a SWOT Analysis and surveys to identify needs, barriers and drivers. 2) developed a competency framework; 3)carried out five training sessions to equip teacher educators woth the knowledge and skills for revising course curricula to infuse refugee teaching/learning and develop in-service on RefTeCp. Measures were taken for monitoring (internally/externally) as well as for dissemination, continuation and sustainability of the project in the long term. << Results >> 136 teacher educators were trained involved in revising 47 undergraduate to address refugee education, attended by 7077 students up to the end of the project; developed 14 new courses for a post-graduate Diploma of RefTeCp to Egyptian and refugee teachers accredited by the Supreme Council of Universities. 494 teachers were trained (108 at the Diploma level and 386 non-qualified for the Diploma refugee teachers). 5 ICT Labs & training resources. The Euro-Arab Teachers' Network was established.