Refugees Education and Innovation Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Responses and the Impact on Refugees in Kenya
摘要
COVID-19 has proved to be the most disruptive, devastating pandemic in the recent history interrupting social and economic activities all over the world. Education has not been spared either, with more than 1.6 billion students and pupils in the world, including 7 million refugees and persons in displacement, out of learning institutions due to the closures of schools, universities, and vocational and technical institutions. According to UNHCR, COVID-19 has exacerbated a major education crisis, increasing the inequalities that the already disadvantaged refugees face, making education increasingly inaccessible to refugees who were twice more likely to be out of school than the non-refugees. As most countries ease restrictions and prepare to reopen learning institutions, UNHCR warns that up to half of all refugees of secondary going age in the developing countries are unlikely to return to school, thus undermining the gains that schooling had created for the refugees, especially the girls. During the pandemic, countries put in place education mitigation measures like virtual learning, radio programmes, and mobile teaching, among other interventions. This chapter examines the consequences of the pandemic, the lockdowns, and other restrictive measures taken to contain COVID-19 especially in education and skills development of the refugees and IDPs in Kenya. It puts under the lens the impact of COVID-19 on the ongoing inclusion of refugees in education as outlined in international and regional IGAD frameworks, such as the Djibouti Declaration on Refugee Education. The chapter further interrogates the interventions in terms of the technology employed, accessibility, and how these interventions and policies incorporated inclusivity especially for the marginalized refugees.