Syria

Syria is not a partner country yet but has received funding with exceptional approval by the GPE Board.

The main focus of the "Improving Equity and Learning: Strengthening Educational Pathways for Children in Northeast Syria" program is to ensure the most vulnerable children learn in safe and protective environments. The program has two components and a dual grant approach, where UNICEF and Save the Children both serve as grant agents.

Provision of non-formal education (NFE) pathways: The four pathways include: accelerated NFE; community-based early childhood education; education for children with disabilities; and remedial education.

The program identifies temporary spaces and supports minor rehabilitation work to ensure that NFE centers provide a conducive learning environment. This component aims to reach out-of-school children and students at risk of dropping out and has two sub-components:

Reaching out-of-school children by:

• Providing of accelerated non-formal education to adolescents.
• Strengthening community based early learning interventions to support the school readiness of children and their mothers to have the opportunity to return to school.
• Supporting the inclusion of children with disabilities in the NFE system.

Providing remedial education by:

• Providing learning materials.
• Providing teaching aids for learning centers.
• Training of education personnel in Psychological First-Aid to interpret symptoms of psycho-social distress and unusual behaviors of children affected by crisis.

These interventions target children who are at risk of dropping out and aim to bring them up to the level expected for their age or grade.

Building teacher competency in life skills education: NFE teachers and education personnel are taught skills to enable participatory and student-centered teaching and learning methods.