According to UNHCR, 89.3 million people were forced to become refugees at the end of 2021. And due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UNHCR estimated that the refugee number in the world would soon reach the threshold of 100 million. Such a figure can be cold for others but in this reality, refugees are struggled to maintain their basic human rights every day. Undoubtedly, they are facing huge pressure in gaining education and work training. As Human Rights Watch reported, among the 660000 school-aged Syrian refugee children, 30 percent of them have never been to school in Lebanon. Imagine a six years old little boy living in a refugee camp in Lebanon. He would have no education, no basic knowledge of this world and himself. It can be seen that this kid will suffer from a lack of knowledge and identity in this childhood and adulthood. Luckily, there is a solution to this issue today: Digital Education. As we all experienced, the covid-19 Pandemic has forced the world to accept and adopt online education, work, and training in 2022. It seems reasonable to assume that online education and training could be a mature solution to fulfill the refugees’ education and training need globally. With this assumption buried in our minds, we are curious about the current progress of digital education: Who can provide digital education? How does it help refugees?
Under the UN Framework: Digital Inclusion Program In 2022, UNHCR, a special U.N entity dealing with refugee issues launched the “Digital Inclusion Program(DIP)”. It is dedicated to providing equal, meaningful, and safe access to and use of digital technologies and opportunities in the digital space for everyone, everywhere, without leaving behind those in vulnerable positions or traditionally marginalized and equity-seeking groups. More specifically, UNHCR begins to focus on the importance of digital access to refugees daily life including in aiding their education and training. DIP makes it possible for people like you and me to initiate digital education projects funded by the DIP and UNHCR. In general, DIP functioned as an incubator to aid grassroots-based digital aid solutions that would promote refugees' ability to utilize digital tools. It demonstrated a trend to include refugees' digital needs in the aid program. In the academic term, DIP conducted several pieces of research on the refugee's digital connectivity reality. These researches can be used as benchmarks for further studies and practical aiding programs. In practical terms, DIP is dedicated to providing program, financial, technical, and capacity support to individual digital inclusion proposals. This support would effectively integrate resources and build a functional framework for grassroots-level digital aid programs on a global scale. The effort of the Non-UN Stakeholders: Digital Training and High Education In a state of displacement, students always faced huge difficulties in pursuing higher education due to the lack of resources in the refugee camps. The lack of education is devastating for any student who is pursuing a university degree or a career-directed training program. With the Syrian civil war creating the largest group of refugees since the Cold War, the demand for education and training has increased dramatically. These needs for education had triggered various actors’ attention and investment resources in digital education that are specifically designed for refugee students that wished to receive professional courses and training. In 2015, Krion, a free online learning platform was established to aid refugees in education and professional training. It has the ambition to provide digital aid to Syrian Refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Thus, Krion offers online studies by applying massive open online courses(MOOCs). In general, the online education of Krion is provided to college-level students and provides them with education and skills for the job market. Later in 2017, the PADILEIA program was established also to aid refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. By cooperating with The American University of Beirut and King’s College London, the PADILEIA program is able to offer students a vast range of courses in language study, professional training, and university-level courses in Business & Economics, and Computer Science. By participating in digital education programs like Krion and PADILEIA, a refugee student that lost his school and classroom can acquire high education and training with simply a laptop and wifi connection in the refugee camp. Him/her would be able to learn a foreign laguna and skills to find a job. Furthermore, he/her can apply university education with these courses they learned and begin a new life. As mentioned above, both Krion and PADILEIA focused on a vision of digital professional training and high education. By providing digitalized certificates and training, refugees can benefit in their future academic and career paths. However, these programs required a high level of internet hardware accessibility. This reality means that students also need to master digital skills in online study and communication before and during the study program. Thus, these two programs have a natural barrier to student selection. The effort of the Non-UN Stakeholders: Digital Basic Education A Syrian second-generation refugee’s life in a camp in Lebanon can be difficult. Despite the physical deficiencies, the shortage in education and communication could be more difficult. It is extremely difficult for a young child in that shoes without proper fundamental education to acquire proper knowledge to build their view of the world. However, digital education provided by various stakeholders can effectively help children that lack educational resources. To tackle refugees’ basic education needs, Learning Equality worked alongside UNHCR, it established the Kolibri platform to provide education to the groups with limited internet access. Kolibri is an adaptable set of open solutions specially developed to support learning for half of the world without Internet access. Once the user downloaded Kolobri on his/her device, it can utilize its course resources without the continuing connection to the internet. Within Kolibri, a young kid and his/her teachers can access numerously digitalized course materials. It provided him with the self-study ability to learn courses in all aspects and in multiple languages. A young kid can build an understanding of his culture and language just with a PC or a smartphone in the refugee camp. In 2020, UAE laughed The Digital School(TDS) to provide online and hybrid education to refugee students. Unlike, what Learning Equality and Kolobri did, TDS engaged in a traditional online-course format to offer online courses. It received its first branch of students from the Syrian refugees' campus in 2021. And with an organized education system, TDS would provide students with a certificate that can be validated for their future university admission or career. With the successful result in 2021, TDS aimed to provide online education to 20000 students in 2022. In long term, it is dedicated to providing education to one million students by the year 2026. Unlike high education, digital aid to basic education needs to overcome the barrier of language and hardware. Learning Equality and TDS had begun to tackle these two issues with efforts in resources and digital innovation. Predictably, more young kids would benefit from these programs.
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根据联合国高级难民署的数据,在2021年底将有8930万人被迫成为难民。再加上俄罗斯入侵乌克兰的影响,全球范围内的难民人数将很快达到1亿人的门槛。对大多数局外人来说,这些冷冰冰的数据对他们没有什么实际影响。但对难民来说,他们每天都在为维护的基本人权而努力。毋庸置疑的税,难民们在获得教育和工作培训方面面临着巨大压力。正如人权观察所报告的那样,在66万名位于黎巴嫩的学龄叙利亚难民儿童中,有30%的人从未在上过学。请您想象一个生活在黎巴嫩的难民营中的六岁小男孩将面临的困境吧。他将不会有机会接受教育,也没法正确的形成世界观和文化观。可以看出,这个孩子将在他的童年和成年之后持续的面临缺乏知识和身份危机。 幸运的是,当今的世界有一个解决这个问题的办法:那就是线上教育。正如我们都经历过的,新冠大流行迫使整个世界在2022年都开始接受线上教育、工作和培训。我们可以假设,在线教育和培训可以成为一个成熟的满足全球难民的教育和培训需求的解决方案。随着这一假设埋,我们对目前线上教育的发展现状不禁感到好奇。那些人能提供线上教育?线上教育是如何帮助难民的?
联合国框架下的线上教育:数字化包容计划 2022年,联合国高级难民署(一个专门处理难民问题的联合国下属组织)发起了 “数字化包容计划"(DIP)。它致力于为世界各地的每个人提供平等、有意义和安全地获取和使用线上技术和线上空间的机会,而不遗漏那些处于弱势地位或传统上被边缘化和追求公平的群体。更具体地说,难民署开始关注网络获取仔难民日常生活中的重要性,这其中就包括推广线上教育和线上培训。DIP努力使像你我这样的普通人也有可能也参与到线上教育项目中去 总的来说,DIP是一个线上教育项目的孵化器。他致力于加强难民利用线上工具的能力。它代表了将难民们的线上需求纳入难民援助计划的趋势。在学术方面,DIP进行了几项关于难民的互联网连接程度的研究。这些研究将会作为进一步研究和实际援助计划的基准。在实际工作中,DIP致力于为个人的线上包容提案提供计划、资金、技术的支持。这种支持将有效地整合资源,为全球范围内的基层线上援助项目建立一个组织框架。 非联合国框架下的努力:线上培训和高等教育 由于难民营中缺乏资源,在流离失所的学生在接受高等教育方面总是面临巨大的困难。对于任何寻求大学学位或职业定向培训项目的学生来说,他们难以在难民营中接受教育。伴随着叙利亚内战创造了自字冷战以来最大的难民群体,对教育和培训的需求也急剧增加。这些需求引起了多方对线上教育的关注和投资。而这些项目多是针对专业课程和培训方面的需求。 2015年,Krion,一个以帮助难民接受教育和专业培训为目标的免费线上培训平台成立了。它致力于为身在黎巴嫩和约旦的叙利亚难民提供线上援助。因此,Krion通过应用大规模开放式在线课程(MOOCs)来提供在线学习。一般来说,Krion的在线教育将提供给大学水平的学生,并为他们提供就业市场所需要的教育和技能。在2017年,有关各方又创立了,PADILEIA项目来帮助黎巴嫩和约旦的难民获得线上高等教育。通过与贝鲁特美国大学和伦敦国王学院的合作,PADILEIA项目能够为学生提供大量的语言学习、专业培训、商业、经济学、计算机科学等大学水平的课程。通过使用像Krion和PADILEIA这样的线上教育项目,失去学校的难民学生只需一台笔记本电脑和难民营中的WIFI,就能获得高等教育和职业培训。他/她将能够学习外国语言和技能以便在将来面对就业市场。此外,他/她还可以用学到的这些课程去申请大学教育,以开始新的生活。 非联合国框架下的努力:线上基础教育 一个叙利亚第二代难民在黎巴嫩难民营的生活可能很会困难。但相比起物资的匮乏,教育和通信方面的短缺可能对他来说更难接受。对于一个没有接受过教育的幼童来说,他将无法建立世界观和价值观。所以,线上教育将可以帮助这些孩童建立一个成熟的人生观和世界观。 为了解决难民的基础教育需求,Learning Equality与联合国难民署合作一同建立了Kolibri平台来向互联网使用程度不高的难民提供教育。Kolibri是一套可适应的开放式解决方案,专门为支持世界上一半没有互联网接入的人群的教育而开发。一旦用户在他/她的设备上下载了Kolibri,就可以在不持续连接互联网的情况下使用其课程资源。在Kolibri中,一个年轻的孩子和他/她的老师可以获得大量的数字化课程材料。Kolibri为学生们提供了自学能力。一个学生可以学习各方面的课程和多种语言。这样,一个小朋友只需在难民营里用一台电脑或智能手机就可以建立对自己文化和语言的理解。 2020年,阿联酋也建立了“数字学校”(TDS)来为难民提供线上和混合教育。与Learning Equality和Kolobri的做法不同,TDS采用了传统的在线授课形式来提供线上课程。在2021年,TDS接受了了来自叙利亚难民校园的第一批学生。通过有组织的提供一整个课程系统,TDS将为学生提供一个可以用作之后接受高等教育的基础教育毕业证。随着在2021年取得的成功,TDS现在致力于在2022年为超过20000名学生提供在线教育。并且长远的看,TDS致力于在2026年为100万学生提供线上教育。 与高中教育不同,基础教育的数字援助需要克服语言和硬件的壁垒Learning Equality和TDS已经开始通过资源和数字创新方面的努力来解决这两个问题。可以预见的是,更多的年轻孩子将从这些项目中受益。 |
AuthorXuankai is a Masters in International Security at Sciences Po, Paris. He researched and wrote this article as part of the BizGees & Sciences Po Internship programme.
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