By Nor Aini Abdul Rahman, PhD, Samsul Ariffin Abdul Karim, PhD, and Omar Hammad, PhD

Recent war and deadly ethnic-cleansing events have made it difficult for children to obtain education. The wars in Ukraine, Lebanon, Syria and Iran and genocide in Palestine affect children in many ways. The children are traumatised by not only the loud noise caused by bombardment but also the fact that they lost their home, parents, family and their school. Teachers face several issues when they need to teach in a challenging environment in terms of creating a conducive learning environment for traumatised learners, managing learners’ behaviour and making classrooms safe for them.

Measures taken to resume education after a genocide

The effects of genocide include low social support, high levels of poverty, and high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and distress symptoms. They will have a lasting effect on victims (Ng et al, 2015).

The United Nations (UN) has established the Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE), which is an open network of United Nations agencies, NGOs, donors, practitioners, researchers and individuals from affected populations working together to ensure the right to education in emergencies and post-crisis reconstruction. INEE is guided by CARE International, the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the International Save the Children Alliance, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Bank to provide the education system of the affected population.

Meanwhile, leaning from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, Obura (2024) contends that a strong state leadership, supported by parental and pupil determination were essential to restore the education system. The author contends that secondary enrolments have also increased significantly, mainly owing to the rapid expansion of private schools. Central budgetary allocations for education have increased, reducing the burden on communities and parents. Apart from that, education planners have recognised the need to reduce drop-out and repetition rates. However, the author cautions that attention is needed to provide accessible, relevant education for the poorest and particularly for households with no adults as one in four children of primary school age remains out of school.

Healing for school leaders and staff

Sibomana (2024) proposes that training and workshops be given to school leaders and teachers after a genocide ends. Referring to the Rwandan genocide, the author states that before resuming any education programme, educational leaders, teachers and parents themselves must be helped to heal because they had been wounded themselves. Then only can they help others in ensuring educational aims are fulfilled. Healing can be provided through personal development workshops and training sessions for school leaders and staff. This will alleviate the impact of negative behaviour management strategies such as corporal punishment which does more harm to children. Some school leaders were able to understand their teachers better and help them accordingly. Others indicated that their relationship with teachers had been transactional and the training made them and care for their teachers.

Rebuilding the education system

When a population is faced with difficult situations such as conflicts, genocide, economic downturn or natural disasters, many aspects of life will be affected. As such, managing the loss of education is crucial as learners are unable to complete their education or having no access to education at all. This will affect their future such as finding jobs and decent income, healthcare, equality and psychological well-being that education provides. Steps must be taken to prevent such negative effects on a population.

The following measures proposed by Obura (2024) could be adapted to re-build the education system in countries affected by a genocide or ethnic cleansing:

• clear definition of the roles and tasks of different ministries and agencies
• restarting familiar school programmes rather than innovative inputs
• lightening curricula so as to concentrate on fundamentals first before embarking on subsequent curriculum innovation
• mobilising local resources through coordination with organisations and local authorities
• one-off kick-start payments and food rations to teachers
• creating new smaller schools to reach out to isolated homesteads
• recognising that physical rehabilitation of schools takes time. In the case of Rwanda, by 2002, eight years after recovery began, only half of Rwanda’s classrooms were constructed of permanent materials
• follow-up mechanisms at community level to ensure children most in need do not drop out
• training teachers to deal with traumatised adolescents

-- BERNAMA

References

Lauren C. Ng, C.L., Ahishakiye, N., Miller,D.E. & Meyerowitza, B.E. (2015) Life after Genocide: Mental Health, Education, and Social Support of Orphaned Survivors. International Perspective Psychology. 4(2): 83–97.

McCormick, C. (2019) Genocide Education: Preventing Future Atrocities. Paper presented at George Mason University. DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.13734.47683

Obura, A. (2024) Educational reconstruction in Rwanda. Forced Migration Review. https://www.fmreview.org/education-emergencies/obura Retrieved 31st March 2024.