Beirut, January 5, 2017 - Nonprofit organization Jusoor is organizing a regional conference on January 10, 2017 to provide an opportunity for teachers and school principals to engage around the topic of improving delivery of education to Syrian refugee children in the Middle East. Targeted at the non-formal education sector, this conference remedies the limited space for communication and sharing experiences about educational standards, the teaching process, teacher training, and educational outcomes when working with Syrian refugee children.
Millions of Syrians have been displaced as the war stretches for yet another year with no end in sight. As of December 2016, the UN has identified over 4.8 million Syrian refugees, with the majority in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. Children under the age of 18 represent about half of the Syrian refugee population, with approximately 40% under the age of 12. Many of these children are out of school.
With participants and speakers coming from Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, and Greece, the conference will engage principals and teachers of schools serving Syrian refugee children, non-profit organizations that work in this area, and non-formal education program administrators and coordinators, and will cover the following themes:
- The role of teacher-training in emergency education
- Minimum educational standards for emergency education
- Supplementary educational components for a holistic educational intervention
The conference will feature an expert intervention on cognitive science-informed teaching, focusing on the areas of Arabic basic literacy and mathematics, and will showcase a number of ‘lightning talks.’ Designed like Ted Talks, these will cover an array of supplementary educational components and critical issues that are crucial for a holistic education. It will also include keynote addresses on the importance of teacher-training and minimum educational standards in emergency education, and a panel of school principals from the region, working at schools serving Syrian children.
The conference will be preceded by a 3-day intensive training for teachers from across the region. Both events are supported by the Varkey Foundation and aim to establish the highest standard of training for educators involved in emergency education regionally. These events are part of a larger program that will improve delivery of emergency education to Syrian refugee children in the Middle East.
“We are honoured to have won the Varkey Foundation’s Challenge Fund Competition to implement a rigorous program that is focused on the key actors in Syria’s refugee children’s lives- the teachers, school principals, and other educators. Many conferences engage people at the administration and planning levels, so we wanted to design a program that is done with and for the educators themselves. The upcoming conference and teacher-training workshop build on Jusoor’s successful educational model for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, and will conclude with publishing a refining educational model that could be replicated and adapted to different contexts across the globe,” says Maya Alkateb-Chami, Director of Jusoor.
“The Challenge Fund looks to support early-stage initiatives which build the capacity of teachers and to strengthen the status of the teaching profession. As with the Global Teacher Prize, it is part of the Varkey Foundation’s vision of providing every child with a good teacher and a quality education,” says Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation.
Jusoor was founded in 2011 as an organization that is focused on bringing together and engaging the global Syrian expatriate community in efforts that will help Syria and its people realize their full potential. Jusoor is working to link the 20 million Syrians outside of Syria with the 20 million Syrians inside Syria. Today, over 120,000 individuals from 40 countries are connected to Jusoor and engaged in its work. The organization has supported over 4,000 young people through its programs in the past five years - including over 3,000 children in primary schools in Lebanon and 400 university scholarship recipients. Other programs focus on entrepreneurship and academic and career mentorship - www.jusoorsyria.com.
Press representatives are welcome to attend the event, which will take place on January 10, 2017, at the Beirut Digital District (BDD), located 1079 Nassif El Yaziji Street, Bashoura District, Beirut, Lebanon.
For more information about the Generation Hope Conference, visit jusoorsyria.com/generation-hope-conference/ or contact Mohammed Haj Ali at mo.hajali@jusoorsyria.com.