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UN / REFUGEES EDUCATION
STORY: UN / REFUGEES EDUCATION
TRT: 2:06
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 NOVEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
20 NOVEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room
3. Wide shot, dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ninette Kelley, Director of New York office, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“There are so many barriers for refugee children getting an education. It can be the fees associated with education, in some countries they’re not included in national systems. Other times schools are far from where they’re located; they don’t have the means of transport. Other times it’s just poverty. They need to work in order to support their families. And yet the impact of this loss of education, we call it a lost generation really, is extremely profound.”
5. Wide shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ninette Kelley, Director of New York office, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“Children who are playing in refugee camps with makeshift toys, pebbles, stones, you say to them ‘is there anything we could do for you, what would you like most?’ ‘I want to be in school.’ And then when you ask them what is it that you would like to be when you grow older, they always say ‘ I want to be a teacher, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a builder.’ So, their aspirations for themselves always far exceed the means that are available to them. And these are really powerful reminders to us of what needs to be done.”
7. Wide shot, journalist asking question
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ninette Kelley, Director of New York office, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“We are seeing a growing recognition that the best way to have refugee children educated is to channel them through national systems, provided those national services, those national schools, are also firmly supported in doing so. And that means channelling important investments, development opportunities to schools so that they can, as you say, improve teacher training, improve class rooms, do the necessary reconstruction needed in schools so that we can lift the outcomes, not just for refugee children, but also the communities in which these refugees children live.”
9. Wide shot, press room
A UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official said refugee children face many barriers in their quest for an education adding that the impact of this loss of education is “extremely profound.”
Speaking at UN headquarters today (20 Nov), the Director of UNHCR’s New York office, Ninette Kelley, said some of the barriers faced by refugee children include fees, location, means of transportation, and poverty whereby children “need to work in order to support their families.”
Kelley said of the 20 million refugees worldwide, half of them are children under the age of 18 and many have experienced severe trauma. She said many of them are located in low to middle income countries that struggle to provide basic services, including education, to their own people. She noted that while 91 percent of primary school aged children were in school, only 63 percent of refugees in that category were attending school. The gap is far larger for secondary school aged children where 84 percent of children attend globally compared to 23 percent of refugee children.
The UNHCR official was speaking at a press conference on the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report which focused on migration, displacement and education. The report showed that there was insufficient progress on including migrants and refugees in national education systems. Kelley noted however that there is a tenacity among refugee children and their families to ensure that they receive an education for a better future.
SOUNDBITE (English) Ninette Kelley, Director of New York office, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“Children who are playing in refugee camps with makeshift toys, pebbles, stones, you say to them ‘is there anything we could do for you, what would you like most?’ ‘I want to be in school.’ And then when you ask them what is it that you would like to be when you grow older, they always say ‘ I want to be a teacher, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a builder.’ So, their aspirations for themselves always far exceed the means that are available to them. And these are really powerful reminders to us of what needs to be done.”
Kelley said there has been a “growing recognition that the best way to have refugee children educated is to channel them through national systems, provided those national services, those national schools, are also firmly supported in doing so.” She said this means channelling important investments and development opportunities to schools so that they can “improve teacher training, improve class rooms, do the necessary reconstruction needed in schools so that we can lift the outcomes, not just for refugee children, but also the communities in which these refugees children live.”
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