In line with the existing strategies, UNHCR Rwanda pursues the objective to ensure access to 12 years of basic education to refugee children by the end of 2017, as well as the integration of refugee students into the national system while supporting existing camp-based schools in Kiziba and working with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and the Ministry of Education (MoE/REB). As of March 2016, 30,468 primary school students were enrolled. 15,695 (52 per cent) are integrated into the national education system. UNHCR supports 4,902 primary school students in Kigeme and 2,703 in Mugombwa. The two camps achieved full integration of primary school children. The number and percentage of students integrated into the national education system in the rest of the camps are 0 per centin Gihembe, 3,718 (83 per cent) in Nyabiheke and 5,024 (42 per cent) in Mahama. In Gihembe, all the 3,416 refugee students in grade 1 to 6 remain in a camp-based school as well as 650 grade 1 students in Nyabiheke and 6,838 grade 1 and 2 students in Mahama.
As regards to secondary education, 10,479 secondary school students are enrolled (7,478 in lower secondary and 2,938 in upper secondary) and 7,973 (77 per cent) are integrated into the national education system. UNHCR supports 4,748 secondary school students in Mahama, 1,008 in Gihembe, 1,232 in Nyabiheke, 1,085 in Kigeme, 621 in Mugombwa and 1,715 in Kiziba. The full integration of lower and upper secondary students are achieved in Mugombwa and Mahama. While full integration of 782 lower secondary students in Kigeme and 920 in Nyabiheke is completed, the limited access to upper secondary education remains a challenge. In Gihembe, the integration of 590 students in Grade 8 and 9 was started in March 2016, which consists 59 per cent of lower secondary students. The number of students remain to be integrated is 418 in Gihembe for lower secondary. gross enrolment ration (GER) and net enrolment ration (NER) in each camps are as follows:
Primary: GER is 141 per cent in Kiziba, 143 per cent Gihembe, 106 per cent Nyabiheke, 131 per cent Kigeme, 168 per cent Mugombwa while NER is 89.8 per cent in Kiziba, 95.3 per cent Gihembe, 74.5 per cent Nyabiheke, 84.7 per cent Kigeme and 87.8 per cent Mugombwa.
Secondary: GER is 51 per cent in Kiziba, 41.8 per cent Gihembe, 53 per cent Nyabiheke, 26.5 per cent Kigeme, and 48.5 per cent Mugombwa while NER is 37.1 per cent in Kiziba, 35 per cent Gihembe, 34 per cent Nyabiheke, 15.8 per cent Kigeme and 21.6 per cent Mugombwa.
The key problems in 2017 areas are expected to include: limited interaction with national and international actors; critical gaps in upper secondary education in Kiziba and Gihembe; limited absorption capacities for full integration in terms of classrooms and teachers in all the camps except Mugombwa; lack of quality early childhood education in all camps except Nyabiheke, Kigeme and Mugombwa; lack of school feeding components mainly in early childhood development (ECD) but also in Kageyo School for integrated upper secondary students; lack of funding for teachers’ salaries to ensure full integration; lack of funding for construction/rehabilitation of classrooms and school infrastructure in Kiziba, Gihembe and Nyabiheke; and limited support to out of school children; limited integration and livelihood prospects for refugee students.
The following activities will be implemented in 2017: establish a joint strategy to ensure access to 12 years of basic education to all refugee learners in all camp locations in accordance with the memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education to be agreed in 2016; increase the absorption capacity of host community schools, increasing number of qualified teachers; start ECD in Kigeme and Mugombwa and school feeding components in ECD with ADRA and WFP; increase local integration and livelihood prospects of refugee learners through facilitated access to tertiary education and the School of Excellence Initiative. As cross-cutting issues, UNHCR will work on improving the tracking of school attendance by introducing mobile-based roll book to enable real time tracking and follow up students’ drop outs while supporting out of school children (OOSC) under Educate a Child (EAC) funding.
2017