UNRWA education programme, teachers team up to ensure continuity of learning for refugee children

AMMAN — In response to the implications of coronavirus and based on the premise that education is the foundation for societal urbanisation and building a promising future, UNRWA Jordan’s education programme has worked to develop a rapid and proactive response plan to ensure that UNRWA students continue to receive a “quality, inclusive and fair” education despite the crisis. 

After all schools in Jordan were closed in mid-March as a precautionary measure, including UNRWA’s 169 schools, which accommodate more than 118,000 Palestine refugee students, the agency implemented distance learning techniques for all students at UNRWA schools in order to ensure that education carries on as smoothly as possible amid the epidemic, according to an UNRWA statement made available to The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

Committees have also been formed at different levels to provide support to students and ensure their access to various e-learning platforms, including those launched by the Ministry of Education, through the Internet. 

UNRWA students have been using various types of smart devices to follow their lessons online, such as smartphones and laptops. The agency has held various meetings to discuss the educational response plan for the coronavirus and to do everything possible to bridge the gaps related to communication and information technology services, firmly supporting students to have access to the Internet, providing hygiene materials to ensure the health and safety of students and offering psychological and social support to them during this pandemic via the school mentors, the statement said.

A survey conducted by the agency to follow up on students' interaction with electronic learning platforms found that around 60 per cent of students were able to follow their lessons through these platforms.

“I’m very blessed to be able to keep up with my lessons at home,” said Kinan Ahmed, a student at UNRWA Jabal Al Hussein school said in the statement.

“It’s a new and exciting experience,” Kinan added.

Amid the current circumstances, the education programme has created an electronic registration application in order to complete the process of registering first grade students in UNRWA schools and to ensure the continuity of registering Palestine refugee students during the closure of schools, which may extend indefinitely.

Despite the difficulties that faced UNRWA teachers at the beginning of the pandemic, the scarcity of resources and the suddenness of the coronavirus crisis, which changed the education system in general, teachers have “spared no effort” in uploading students’ data to the Ministry of Education system so that all students have the access to the ministry’s NoorSpace platform, where teachers can interact with their students and upload their grades. 

They have also worked on producing their own electronic lessons, under the supervision of education experts, to provide students with more interactive lessons through different platforms and applications. 

The agency's education programme will also launch the "Education Cannot Wait" project, which is mainly supported by the Education Department at the UNRWA headquarters in Jordan.

“In light of global emergency, the agency is dedicating heavy efforts to provide the best for our students and to ensure the continuity of the education. We believe that education cannot stop, cannot wait, and the future of our Palestine refugees is our priority," said Mohammed Adar, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Jordan, in the statement.

Once the Kingdom’s lockdown took effect, UNRWA’s two vocational and technical training centres, Amman Training Centre and Wadi Seer Training Centre, besides the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Arts, also shifted immediately to online education. 

"In a great collaboration with the telecommunications companies in Jordan, our students in TVET [Technical and Vocational Education and Training] and FESA [Faculty of Educational Sciences and Arts] are now able to access the online materials free-of-charge by getting much-needed Internet packages from the companies. This excellent partnership enables our students to continue following their lessons without additional financial burden," Adar added.