Online Education: a new hope for Refugees

Saila Ahmed

Refugee Education: reality or a dream?

Where life is at strife, living condition is poor, food is insufficient, resources are close to nil and health care is upon the mercy of the local NGOs, higher education let alone an online one can quite possibly be a low priority for most.

Refugee Education needs

Refugee issues in resettled countries are in general identified as linguistic isolation, mental trauma, cultural backwardness and nontransferable employment skills.

These needs of refugees may be addressed uniformly across the board through an online learning portal.

Why Online?

The conveniences of a virtual school can benefit refugees by giving them convenience, flexibility in scheduling, credit recovery, accelerated learning opportunities, conflict avoidance, and the ability to take courses not offered at the refugee learning centers.

A virtual primary/ secondary school can open up the refugee’s lives to a better way of living if it can incorporate academic learning, language learning for the whole family, community and health awareness and tolerance.

How Online Education can benefit…

Recently though, however, there has been a growing recognition of the benefits that higher distance education can bring, not just to individual refugees, but to the vast reconstruction needs of countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – all of which will require a new generation of teachers and other professionals when peace finally comes.

History is brief. Growth? Slow.

Online Education for refugees came into light only in 2004 when the Australian Catholic University (ACU) started offering courses of diploma and certificates to Myanmar refugees living in the refugee camps in the Thai-Myanmar border.

In 2008 UNHCR started an online educational program for the refugees in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin at Madison as a part of disaster management and emergency preparedness awareness program. Although the needs are finally being recognized changes are coming slowly.

What’s available now…

In September 2010 the Jesuit Common: Higher Education at the Margins (JC: HEM)- sponsored by four Jesuit universities in the USA started to offer tertiary degrees to refugees dwelling in camps since September 2010.

At the moment the JC: HEM program is being offered at two refugee camps in Kenya and Malawi and in one urban center in Syria offering the refugees living in them the opportunity to study towards a diploma in liberal studies from Regis University in Denver, Colorado at no cost.

For refugees who do not meet the academic requirements, but are keen to further their education, the RJS has developed several vocational courses in areas such as community health and entrepreneurship, which would be taught through online courses.

Now there are 250 refugees enrolled in higher education and taking courses online through the program. These refugees, once they graduate can earn a diploma in liberal studies and pursue community services that will benefit daily lives at the camps for other refugees living in camps.

What the UNHCR is doing…

An education strategy released by UNHCR in February 2012 recognized the “huge unmet demand for higher education among refugees” and made improving access as one of its goals over the next five years.

Currently there are 2,000 scholarships a year available to refugees through the German-government-funded DAFI program, a key element of the strategy is to make use of Internet technologies and partnerships with academic institutions to reach much larger numbers of refugees through distance learning. This number is aimed to double by 2017.

Texas ICT vs. Refugee Online Learning Initiatives

Given the fact that Texas is much advanced in online and distance education with well thought-out plans for growth and development, comparing it to the online learning initiatives taken for the refugees would be a foolish thing to do. The use of ICTs in Texas in both school system and in tertiary education is well established and far more concrete.

Conclusion

All in all, online learning for refugees is a rather new and emerging concept and is readily being recognized. Online learning opportunities for refugees is a huge unmet demand, which is only recently being recognized. One good news is that since the recognition has taken place initiatives are being taken to meet those demands.