Empowering Displaced Children through Innovative Education Interventions: A Study in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, millions of children face barriers to attending school due to internal displacement, resulting in the rise of illiteracy, and extending intergenerational challenges. Moreover, existing schools at their destination are incapable of accommodating displaced children; a return to their original schools, as many hoped, is not feasible due to the protracted nature of conflicts. Consequently, internally displaced children find themselves excluded from the formal educational system. To address this challenge, the researchers propose an implementation of satellite schools within the camps (sites) for internally displaced children. These schools will be overseen by displaced teachers and parents, who will undergo brief training and receive support to deliver quality education. While their goal is to evaluate the impact of the intervention by running an RCT at the displacement site level, the current project focuses on refining the intervention’s content and identifying potential research and implementing partners. The evidence generated by the full RCT will significantly contribute to Ethiopia's progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.6, striving to achieve literacy and numeracy proficiency for all individuals.
To understand the level and requirements of children's education, the project will conduct a needs assessment by gathering data from a randomly selected group of children aged between seven and fourteen residing in displacement centers. Additionally, we will utilize administrative data to identify sites from the accessible pool of 3,300 displacement sites. This process will provide valuable insights for their forthcoming evaluation of the impact of satellite schools on children's education using a Randomized Control Trial (RCT).