Introduction to Education for African Refugees
Africa and Refugees
As per the Global Trends UNHCR reported in June 2018, there are 6.3 million refugees and asylum seekers and 14.5 million internally displaced persons in Africa. Thus, the African Union (AU) made 2019 the year of “Refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons” in recognition that over a third of the world's displaced people are in Africa (African Union [AU], 2019). Natural disasters, climate breakdown, political turmoil, and economic uncertainty lead people to leave their homes and migrate across borders where, as refugees, they hope to find safety and security, and sometimes permanent settlement.
Refugee Barrier to Education
However, in the displacement and refugee camps, the refugee access to education was far from implemented. At times legislation and commitments were not considered, and refugee children are excluded from national educational policies due to a variety of factors. A lack of physical and human resources, system capacity and structural organization, segregation and racism, immigration legislation, poverty, language, and culture (Wedekind et al., 2019).For families access to education is vital for the integration of refugees through the provision of opportunities for social interaction, employment, and language learning. (Crock et al., 2017).
Language barriers are seen to make it difficult to assess students’ abilities accurately, with assessment tools not being available in the languages used by refugees (Ryan et al., 2010; Hurley et al., 2014). Because of their language difficulties, refugee students may be disproportionately referred for assessments of cognitive ability and may perform poorly on these assessments (Kaplan et al., 2016).
