A report on displaced people criticises governments that fail to ensure the children get a good education — but recognises that the top refugee hosting countries have made progress in including them in national education systems. It also assesses the effect of seasonal migration and the climate crisis on schooling. Bongekile Macupe digs into the report
This year the GEM report looks at how countries handle migration and displaced people and how that affects the education of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The report estimates that as of 2017 there were 87.3-million displaced people in the world — the highest number since the end of World War II. Of these people, 25.4-million are refugees, 3.1-million are asylum seekers, 40-million have been displaced by conflict and 18.8-million were forced to move, albeit for shorter durations, because of natural disasters.
In her work, Maistry’s focus is on refugees, migrants, asylum seekers, migrants who are not documented and South African children who do not have documents. The Centre for Child Law is awaiting a judgment by the high court in Makhanda after it took the departments of basic education and home affairs to court to get undocumented learners to be allowed to attend school.The unfolding climate crisis could be the leading cause of displacement in the coming years and this could place education systems at risk, predicts the Global Education Monitoring report, published by Unesco.
The Solomon Island recommend that “all teachers in affected areas should be trained in psychosocial strategies within two months of the disaster, and psychosocial activities should be introduced in all temporary learning spaces and schools within six weeks”.