Children's education and parental support in Jewi Refugee Camp, Ethiopia: Unraveling the challenges

Abstract

Objective In this study, we examined the situation of parents and caregivers of the refugee children in Jewi refugee camp with the aim of understanding the roles they play in the education of the children. Background Effective educational interventions benefit from parental engagement. This may be particularly the case for refugee children, who typically have had several traumatic experiences during the departure from their home country, while traveling to safer places, and then on arrival to a refugee camp. Methods A qualitative single case study approach was used to investigate this issue. Refugee primary school students, teachers, school principals, parents, and camp administrators were used as data sources. Individual and group interviews, observation, and document analysis were used to collect the data. Interpretive and narrative approaches were used for data analysis. Result The results of the study indicate that parental support for the learning of refugee children was low. The effort schools make to help parents, who themselves have experienced traumatic situations, engage in their children's education was found to be equally low. Conclusion There was a low level of awareness regarding the value of education, mainly because individuals had endured long periods of war in South Sudan, during which education was devalued and the educational infrastructure was devastated. Lack of awareness on children's right to education is expressed in failure to treat adopted children as equal to biological children. As a result, in this study, parents' engagement in the education of children was low. Implication There is a need to maximize local and international support to refugees to fulfill the basic needs of refugee children and their caregivers. Schools in refugee camps are responsible not only for providing education to students; their work should extend to providing supportive services to parents/guardians in their parenting practices at home. In addition, there should be continued effort to reunite children who are separated from their parents; implement comprehensive parenting strategies; and develop parent education programs.