Move to boost education for refugee children

PETALING JAYA: Local education technology company BeED recently partnered with Fugee Org, an education non-profit organisation that provides formal learning to refugees.

Together, they will launch a competition called “Write for Refugees”, which aims to craft lessons for the benefit of refugee children.

FugeeOrg founder and executive director Deborah Henry said refugee children come from diverse backgrounds and face many difficulties in securing good education in Malaysia.

“They go through war and conflict while moving from country to country. They lose out on many years of formal education because of the hardships they faced.”

In Malaysia, close to one-third of refugees and asylum seekers are children who have very limited access to education due to their legal status, said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

It added that there were some 181,560 refugees here as of last month, of which 49,220 were children below 18 years.

Henry said as a transition country for refugee children, none of them stay in Malaysia permanently.

“They pass through and that can mean anything from a year to 10 years. It is a huge chunk of a child’s life.

“For us, teaching children culminates in when or if they get resettled and can assimilate into their new environment.

“Adaptability does not only mean academics but includes the social and emotional welfare of our students. We had a family that resettled in Canada and contacted us after their children did so well and skipped a grade,” she said.

Since its establishment in 2009, Fugee School, the education institute under FugeeOrg, has helped over 700 students. It now provides education for over 200 students each year.

“However, our teachers are unable to focus on the children’s psychological and socio-emotional aspects, that are desperately needed, especially after facing countless traumas to get to Malaysia,” said Henry.

“So, the competition is aimed at crafting a more substantial, comprehensive and holistic education syllabus for refugee children here.”

The competition, which starts in September, will be mainly held online and is open to participants from around the world.

Educators taking part in the competition are expected to compile and create lessons and materials to be used by teachers, thus reducing their burden.

“Teachers are so burdened by reporting and writing that they have less time to focus on the psychosocial aspects of the children.”

The BeED chairman Michael Chian said education technology can be utilised further to develop teaching programmes for children.

“The content we gather will be built into smaller modules which will be the foundation for other schools to use. Every school has their individual needs and can take our content to build their programmes.

“Education can be much more fun when students and teachers engage with one another. Rather than traditional teaching and reading off a PowerPoint presentation, these lessons will offer a better environment for students.”

Chian added that during the competition, additional pedagogy training will be provided to participating teachers.

“BeED will be teaching everything from the basics of education to what EdTech writing is and how to get resources quickly, among others.

“Throughout the competition, training will be provided online and the channels to access them will not be closed.”

He also said the plan is not to stop after the competition but efforts will be made to use any feedback and improve the programme.

“Essentially, we are evolving teachers. This is what technology does ... it evolves.”

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